When Chief Justice John Roberts did something similar seven years ago, no one uttered a peep. But after Sotomayor's comment, Justice Anthony Kennedy piped up.

"Well, in this case I didn't go beyond the record to look on the internet because I don't think we should do that," Kennedy said.

Going beyond the record, in legal terms, refers to material that is not part of the court record and so untested by the adversarial process.