Nesson to Supreme Court: 'hello justice roberts - internet calling justice roberts'; professor seeks webcast or stay of Tenenbaum trial

According to a post on his blog, Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson is once again asking the Supreme Court to overrule the First Circuit and allow the webcast of the trial of his client, accused peer-to-peer infringer Joel Tenenbaum. Nesson posted a letter he wrote to Justice Stephen Breyer in Breyer's capacity as the First Circuit's circuit justice, asking for a ruling in advance of the July 27 trial, or a stay of the trial so that the Supreme Court may fully consider the issue:

I respectfully request that either you or Chief Justice Roberts suspend Local Rule 83.3 and the First Circuit’s order of prohibition in order to permit digital recording and dissemination of the trial; or, in the alternative, grant a stay of all further proceedings in the case to permit consideration by the full Supreme Court of our petition for certiorari.

Nesson writes that he expects his request to be referred to the Chief Justice, because Breyer's son Michael is president, chairman and co-founder of Courtroom Connect, the parent of Courtroom View Network, the firm that had planned to offer the Tenenbaum webcast, which was approved by District Judge Nancy Gertner before being nixed by the Court of Appeals. (For understandable reasons, Breyer fils is a big fan of cameras in the courtroom; Breyer père, not so much.)

Nesson has already filed a cert. petition on the webcast issue, and he wrote a similar letter to Justice David Souter on June 26; according to Nesson, his earlier letter "was not successfully filed and entered on the Supreme Court docket."

(Disclosure: I signed on to an amicus brief in the First Circuit in support of the webcast.)