Are the Supreme Court Justices Tech-Savvy?

The Supreme Court opens for a new session today, and with a number of cases on its docket involving technology—including, of course, Schwarzenegger vs. EMA—how up-to-date on the latest gadgets and means of communication are the SCOTUS Justices?

It’s a logical question and one posed by an American Public Media host to a recent guest, Professor Jeffrey Rosen from the George Washington University Law School, who also writes for the New Republic

“Some are pretty plugged-in,” was Rosen’s initial answer.

“Justice Thomas telecommutes; he does a lot of his work at home over the Internet and emails drafts in,” said Rosen, adding, “Justice Breyer certainly uses a cell phone. He is quite tech savy and uses email extensively.”

Rosen continued:

These Justices are much more savvy than the Court was a couple years ago, when in the first Internet privacy porn case, they literally had to have law clerks come in and show them how to turn on the Internet and surf the Web because they’d never really heard of it before. But I think we can these  Justices are going to be savvy enough so that it’s not going to be a completely alien force when they are confronted with technology issues.

Rosen was then asked his opinion on whether it matters, in terms of the decisions they are making, if the Justices are up-to-speed on technology.

He answered, “I think it shapes the way they approach these issues.”

Rosen then relayed a story involving a recent thermal imaging case, used to track potential pot growers, and referenced Justice Scalia’s decision to illustrate that the Justices aren’t always in touch. “Justice Scalia actually wrote a majority opinion protecting the man (who was caught via thermal imaging), saying that the Constitution had to be translated to take account of these new technologies.”

As Rosen recounted, “He (Scalia) was worried that the heat seeking technology might reveal the hour of the day where the lady of the house was taking her daily sauna or bath.”