Court Opinion

ID: 9810299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:46:01.827223+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:39:34.195672
License: Public Domain

CHIEF JUSTICE McGRATH,
concurring.
¶27 “It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use it.”
¶28 The world of telecommunications has come a long way since President Rutherford B. Hayes allegedlyuttered these words about the telephone. Moreover, in the years since the adoption of the 1972 Montana Constitution, or even our 1994 decision in Bonamarte, advances in communications technology that have far outstripped the average person’s ability to foresee or even imagine have occurred at an astonishing pace — technology that the Framers of our Constitution could not have anticipated.
¶29 Skype and similar services now allow real-time, face-to-face communication with another person virtually anywhere in the world. Usage of these communication tools has become commonplace in our society. Certainly modem juries will be comfortable with their use in the courtroom. As the Court notes, all of the hallmarks of confrontation clause concerns were satisfied with the use of Skype in this case.
¶30 I would hold that the “face to face” requirement of Article II, Section 24 of the Montana Constitution, and the “only in the presence” requirement of M. R. Evid. 611(e) are folly satisfied by the use of these real-time, face-to-face communication devices and services.
¶31 I concur.