FTC’s Gabe Roth released this statement following news that the Supreme Court would keep its audio live feed or oral arguments in the new term that begins Oct. 3:

I had hoped that live argument audio would have been made the permanent policy of the Supreme Court, but there’s reason to rejoice that the feed will at least be maintained throughout what’s expected to be another contentious term.

The justices have a constituency of 330 million, and all of us, not just those who have the time and money to get to Washington on argument day and wait for hours in line, deserve to be able to follow the Court’s work in real time, as modern technology permits.

Since, in my view, it’s going to take a generational turnover at the Court — that is, whenever Gen Xers and Millennials have replaced all the Boomers — to get cameras in the courtroom, the public for now should keep up the pressure to ensure that live audio doesn’t go away a year from now and that opinion announcements, should they return, are also livestreamed.