Chief Justice: Difference between Email and Pager?
By Sumir Singh

While the US is the unchallenged technological leader incubating companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Facebook, Intel and others,  it seems that the American judiciary can be as clueless as its tech challenged counterparts in India. A number of US Supreme Court Judges have asked basic questions about technology.

President Bush personally handpicked Harvard graduate John Glover Roberts in 2005 to become the Chief Justice of USA.  John was only 50 when he was appointed the senior most judicial officer of the most powerful country in the world.

In an only in America story,  a police officer in California, Jeff Quon,  was caught using his official pager to exchange sexy text messages with his wife as well as his girlfriend.  Jeff had sent so many steamy messages that it triggered off excessive charges for the entire police department and triggered an official enquiry.  When accosted, Officer Jeff Quon became defensive and said he had an ‘expectation of privacy’ even where using work equipment.  Jeff took his court case all the way to the Supreme Court.

When the case came up in the Supreme Court this week, the highest Judges were left scratching their heads about the rapid progress of technology.  Law journal DC Dicta reported the court case

“ 
During oral arguments today in the case City of Ontario v. Quon, which considers whether police officers had an expectation of privacy in personal (and sexually explicit) text messages sent on pagers issued to them by the city, the justices of the Supreme Court at times seemed to struggle with the technology involved.

The first sign was about midway through the argument, when Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. - who is known to write out his opinions in long hand with pen and paper instead of a computer - asked what the difference was “between email and a pager?”

At one point, Justice Anthony Kennedy asked what would happen if a text message was sent to an officer at the same time he was sending one to someone else.

“Does it say: ‘Your call is important to us, and we will get back to you?’” Kennedy asked.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrangled a bit with the idea of a service provider.

“You mean (the text) doesn’t go right to me?” he asked.

Then he asked whether they can be printed out in hard copy.

“Could Quon print these spicy little conversations and send them to his buddies?” Scalia asked.
“

Amazing, is it not?  I suspect that some of our Judges would be similarly tech challenged.