United States Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. doesn’t know the difference between email and a pager. I find this troubling. A man in an extremely powerful position being unfamiliar with basic technology that millions of Americans use every day?!? Come on!!! According to Lawyers USA:
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?”
Wow. Initially I was going to dismiss it as some old guy being out of touch, but I vaguely recalled that Roberts isn’t all that old. I looked up his age and discovered that he’s only 55. Surely a 55-year old man should know what email is, right? Does anyone else find this tidbit as disturbing as I do? Or am I just overreacting?
I don't think that is real or serious. Just my .02
He has to be joking. Well if he isn't i don't think it's a necessity for a Justice to know what e-mail is unless a trial is using them as evidence. He'll be fine.
I bet he hasn't personally sent message in years. The person he pays to do that for him is probably shaking his/her head right now.
Do people that aren't drug dealers still use pagers?
@Ray
I don't think drug dealers still use them. They can just buy a go phone with text now.
Nobody uses pagers anymore. Not even drug dealers.
Well… Maybe Chief Justice John Roberts still has a pager.
Him and people waiting for transplants… that's it.
@All
Yep they call 'em burners, get a pre paid phone burn all the minutes and get another, haven't you watched the Wire?
@tokz
He and a few of the other justices are trying to distinguish between email/tweets/texts when you read the source. Hence the query of "what's the difference?"
They are trying to parcel out if they are one and the same since they are electronic text communications.
@smartguy
Ah, well then it makes sense in that way.
It worries me that these people don't keep up on technological advances enough to know the differences between these things. They keep up on domestic and international laws, wars, drugs, any other pressing domestic issue that you can think of, one of the justices is nationally renowned due to her work with the MLB a few years back…technology is becoming ever important in the courts, and they should know the difference. It does worry me that they didn't ask questions about these things until during the oral arguments. Even if they were only trying to determine the differences between all of those things, it's called preliminary research.
@Bsukenyan
Did you read the source?
@Smartguy
Yeah, I understand what you were saying about comparisons, but I still feel like it is something that people with the amount of power that they hold with concern to making decisions on those objects should know before they begin a conversation on those objects. I completely understand the post that you made towards Tokz, but that in my opinion is like not doing your preliminary research. You wouldn't enter in to a debate without knowing what you were talking about would you? I just feel like this is similar.
@Smartguy
Not to be confusing, because I just saw that my first sentence could be confusing, I was clarifying that I had read the source and your comment earlier as well. Just wanted to make sure that was clear.