Oyez The Court's Secret Music

Speaking Lessons from the Supreme Court

By Marsha Hunter

Although it isn’t something I freely admit to my friends outside the legal world, I can share with you how much fun I routinely have on Oyez.org, the Supreme Court media site. (Oyez.org is part of the Oyez Project at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law.) If you haven’t checked out this site yet, do so immediately! There, you can have a virtual tour of Justice Stevens’ chambers, search Google maps for the gravesites of justices, and find all sorts of historical data, including the names of all of the justices who have sat on the court since 1789. You can even read transcripts by the bushel.

But it’s not what you can see on this website that really interests me — it’s what you can hear. Oyez offers a fascinating, ever-growing collection of podcasts. Listening to arguments, the back-and-forth between the justices and the lawyers, is illuminating.

While there is passion on both sides, the lawyers, not surprisingly, often sound agitated. You can clearly hear the excitement in their voices, as well as their nervousness. Remember, these are experienced, eloquent lawyers at the top of their game. But listening to one of them plunge headlong into a sentence that doesn’t come out quite right is a real lesson in the necessity of taking the time to breathe and think before talking.

With the clock ticking away right in front of them, they feel the powerful effect of adrenaline on their perception of time. They feel that time is passing more quickly than it is. We can hear lawyers racing against time, struggling against the effects of adrenaline. Listen for these instances and learn from their mistakes.

The justices, on the other hand, speak carefully and with deliberate purpose. As they speak clearly in fluent phrases, we can hear how self-assured they are. The music of their voices conveys the exact meaning of their words. By and large, the justices are measured and relaxed and seem to be enjoying the whole thing thoroughly.

So, before you head out for your next vacation or a long weekend, load up your phone with podcasts from Oyez. Alternate between your favorite songs and arguments of your favorite Constitutional issue. Both are musical, just in different ways.

Image ©istockphoto

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Marsha Hunter 2020 Marsha Hunter

For more than 30 years, Marsha Hunter was the CEO and a founder of Johnson and Hunter, Inc., with legal clients in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Her clients were top 10 and top 20 law firms, legal departments at the world’s largest corporations, the U.S. Department of Justice, and organizations and bar associations from Belfast to Tasmania. Marsha is co-author of “The Articulate Advocate” and “The Articulate Attorney,” her specialty is human factors — the science of human performance in high-stakes environments. Born in Montana and raised in the American West, she lives in New Mexico.

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