Recently I learned:

• According to a friend, Clarence Thomas sleeps through oral arguments, or at best has his eyes closed. This is apparently widely known to all who appear at the Supreme Court.

• According to a professor, a law researcher studied the reliability of visual vs. transcript evidence. Generally, courts give deference to whatever fact-finder in the chain had the chance to actually see & hear a witness, since this is considered to provide extra clues to their credibility.

A group of graduate students were asked to watch episodes of To Tell The Truth and judge who were the liars. Another group was allowed to read the written transcripts of the same shows. The transcript readers routinely outperformed the video watchers in finding the liars, contradicting the idea that watching someone give testimony produces extra reliability.

A follow-up study was done where another group was allowed to listen to the episodes, but not watch. They apparently outperformed both the watchers and the readers.

So maybe Clarence is just putting himself into that perfect zone of perception where he can, eyes closed and ears open, determine exactly who is lying to him.

Or maybe he's asleep.

20 Mar 06