SCOTUS to hear challenge to secret reports by Tax Court STJs

The Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments tomorrow in Ballard and Kanter. These are the cases in which the Tax Court (and two courts of appeal) have rejected requests for the reports of Special Trial Judges. Essentially this comes down to a due process argument on behalf of the petitions v. a “deliberative process” on behalf of the government. However, I think the government’s argument fails, because unlike most deliberative process arguments, this one involves actually shielding the decisions of the actual finder of fact (you know, the one who hears testimony and observers the demeanor of the witnesses) from scrutiny

I won’t be able to make the arguments tomorrow, but if someone can provide me with an account of how oral arguments went, I would appreciate it.

 Here are the: Opposition to Kater Cert. Pet. , Opposition to Ballard Cert. Pet., Petitioner’s brief, government’s brief, G&H’s post, and Chicago-Kent Law School’s Take, SCOTUS's description (or in pdf),  and Duke's take.

The cases below (with links to the opinions):   Ballard v. Commissioner, 321 F.3d 1037 (11th Cir. 2003) and Kater v. Commissioner, 337 F.3d 833 (7th Cir. 2003).

Update: AP finally picks up on the story here -- but gets most of the details and facts wrong.