Twice, I’ve reviewed PocketJustice by our friends at Oyez: a great app for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices for researching US Supreme Court Cases. Despite the strengths of PocketJustice, it lacked an easy way to follow current Supreme Court developments. It seems our friends at Oyez were aware of that, and have decided to release another app called OyezToday. This app for the iPhone and iPod touch is completely free through a sponsorship from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Much of the app works just like PocketJustice in that it shares the same features: bios of Supreme Court Judges, an archive of cases, and oral arguments with transcripts that follow along with playback. Unlike PocketJustice, however, this app is limited to much more current cases.
At first this seemed odd to me. Why not just add a “Recent” mode to PocketJustice and use the same app? But then, it occurred to me that researching historical Supreme Court cases and keeping track of what’s happening in the Supreme Court right now are completely different activities, and having one app that does both could easily become a distraction when trying to do one or the other.
By focusing on the current (only the current sitting Supreme Court justices show up in the Justices section and only recent SCOTUS actions appear in the list of cases), you find yourself kept up-to-date on the latest news from the court in a short time, while still availing yourself to the same functionality that makes PocketJustice great. Finally you can’t beat the price point of “free”, so if you are an iPhone user and want to follow the latest supreme court oral arguments, be sure to download OyezToday on iTunes… today!
