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Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell's Tidewater Virginia drawl could make the word "court" sound as if it had two syllables. And Justice Clarence Thomas, though he doesn't talk much, speaks in a deep baritone.

The voices of those justices and 30 others, as well as thousands of lawyers who have argued before the court, are now part of a massive Internet archive assembled by the Chicago-based Oyez Project. The group has spent more than a decade putting together recordings going back to 1955, when an audio recorder was first installed at the court.

Now, the group is finishing work that makes the archive even more accessible, linking the audio to simultaneously scrolling transcripts that also identify the justices and arguing lawyers as they speak. In all, almost 14,000 hours of audio are available for free. It would take more than a year and a half of continuous listening to hear everything.

"The only way to be authoritative is to say we have it all," said Jerry Goldman, the director of the project, which is based at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Goldman said the audio contains gems ranging from the sound of one justice forming a spit wad during the days when chewing tobacco in court was still acceptable to the time an arguing lawyer used the F-bomb, a word key to a 1971 case involving freedom of speech.

By this fall visitors to the project's website will be able to search all the argument transcripts, so someone could, Goldman says, search for and then listen to every time the phrase "strict scrutiny" has been used or every time someone said "broccoli" during last year's health care law debate.

The court's aural history has never been so accessible. Until fairly recently, the Supreme Court waited months before releasing the audio of proceedings. Now, oral argument recordings are released at the end of every week, but the court's own website only provides audio from 2010 forward.

The Oyez Project's website and an accompanying app are vastly more comprehensive. When Goldman began his work in the mid-1990s, he offered free streaming audio of about 100 hours of the court's most important cases.

In 2003, with funding from the National Science Foundation, Goldman was able to expand his offerings by digitizing reel-to-reel tape of the court's proceedings that had been archived in a warehouse in College Park, Md. Additional contributions from law firms and grants, including one from Google, helped him complete the project.

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Supreme Court archive has about 14K hours of audio

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Mario Williams is back-tracking on attributing "kill" as a word Buffalo Bills co-ordinator Mike Pettine has used in describing defensive philosophy with his players.

In a series of messages the defensive end posted on his Twitter account Friday afternoon, Williams clarified that he wasn't quoting Pettine directly.

"Just to clarify a choice of words I used: The phrase 'kill them' has never been said by Coach Pet or any of my coaches/teammates," Williams wrote. "I said it as a figure of speech from my 'perspective' not literally or any actual intention."

Williams' posts came a day after he raised eyebrows in describing Pettine's aggressive approach to defence.

"He usually says 'Kill them or hurt them," Williams said, Thursday, following the final practice of the team's three-day mandatory minicamp.

Williams then smiled and added: "That's what I always hear, kill them or hurt them. So either way it's not a good thing for the other person."

The Bills took exception to Williams' comments.

At about the same time Williams posted his clarification, the Bills issued a statement from coach Doug Marrone denying that Pettine every used the word "kill."

"Mike has assured me that he has never used the word 'kill' in his terminology regarding our defensive strategy," Marrone said in the statement released to The Associated Press.

Marrone added that Pettine has used the word "hurt," but not in a physical context.

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Bills DE Williams clarifies attributing 'kill' to defensive co-ordinator Pettine

UpdatedJun 14, 2013 3:11 PM ET

Mario Williams is back-tracking on attributing "kill" as a word Buffalo Bills coordinator Mike Pettine has used in describing defensive philosophy with his players.

In a series of messages the defensive end posted on his Twitter account Friday afternoon, Williams clarified that he wasn't quoting Pettine directly.

"Just to clarify a choice of words I used: The phrase `kill them' has never been said by Coach Pet or any of my coaches/teammates," Williams wrote. "I said it as a figure of speech from my `perspective' not literally or any actual intention."

Williams' posts came a day after he raised eyebrows in describing Pettine's aggressive approach to defense.

"He usually says `Kill them or hurt them," Williams said, Thursday, following the final practice of the team's three-day mandatory minicamp.

Williams then smiled and added: "That's what I always hear, kill them or hurt them. So either way it's not a good thing for the other person."

The Bills took exception to Williams' comments.

At about the same time Williams posted his clarification, the Bills issued a statement from coach Doug Marrone denying that Pettine every used the word "kill."

See more here:
Bills deny DC Pettine used term 'kill'

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Mario Williams is back-tracking on attributing ''kill'' as a word Buffalo Bills coordinator Mike Pettine has used in describing defensive philosophy with his players.

In a series of messages the defensive end posted on his Twitter account Friday afternoon, Williams clarified that he wasn't quoting Pettine directly.

''Just to clarify a choice of words I used: The phrase 'kill them' has never been said by Coach Pet or any of my coaches/teammates,'' Williams wrote. ''I said it as a figure of speech from my 'perspective' not literally or any actual intention.''

Williams' posts came a day after he raised eyebrows in describing Pettine's aggressive approach to defense.

''He usually says 'Kill them or hurt them,'' Williams said, Thursday, following the final practice of the team's three-day mandatory minicamp.

Williams then smiled and added: ''That's what I always hear, kill them or hurt them. So either way it's not a good thing for the other person.''

The Bills took exception to Williams' comments.

At about the same time Williams posted his clarification, the Bills issued a statement from coach Doug Marrone denying that Pettine every used the word ''kill.''

''Mike has assured me that he has never used the word 'kill' in his terminology regarding our defensive strategy,'' Marrone said in the statement released to The Associated Press.

Marrone added that Pettine has used the word ''hurt,'' but not in a physical context.

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Bills DE Williams clarifies 'kill' comment

Santa Clara, Calif. -- Coach Jim Harbaugh has "definitely noticed" the string of performance-enhancing-drug suspensions that have hit the San Francisco 49ers' chief division rival, the Seattle Seahawks, over the past 18 months.

"It has no place in an athlete's body," Harbaugh said of performance-enhancing drugs in general. "Play by the rules.

Added Harbaugh, the former Michigan quarterback: "You always want to be above reproach, especially when you're good, because you don't want people to come back and say, 'They're winning because they're cheating.' That's always going to be a knee-jerk reaction from people I've found in my experience, ever since I was a little kid."

The Seahawks, who finished a half-game behind the 49ers in last season's NFC West standings, have had six players test positive for performance-enhancing substances since December 2011. Only cornerback Richard Sherman escaped a four-game suspension upon appeal.

Harbaugh, speaking at the start of the 49ers' three-day minicamp Tuesday, did not chastise the Seahawks directly for the officially undisclosed violations.

"You don't know what it is," Harbaugh said of the drugs in question. "Even when people say what it is, you don't know that's what it is. The NFL doesn't release what it actually is. So, you have no idea.

Harbaugh said the 49ers have a "constant theme" warning their players about banned substances.

"We want to be above reproach in everything, and do everything by the rules," Harbaugh said. "Because if you cheat, then you've already lost, according to Bo Schembechler. And Bo Schembechler is about next to the word of God as you can get in my mind. It's not the word of God, but it's close."

Harbaugh played quarterback for Schembechler from 1983-86 and his father, Jack Harbaugh, was an assitant coach under Schembechler.

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Jim Harbaugh on Bo's coaching: 'It's not the word of God, but it's close'