House members push new bill to open courts to livestreams

Four bipartisan House members plan to introduce a new bill to require the Supreme Court and all other appeals courts to allow video recording and live streams of their proceedings. 

The legislation would also task the Judicial Conference with developing guidelines to manage the “photographing, recording, broadcasting, televising, or streaming” in the courts. 

{mosads}The legislation, titled the Eyes on the Courts Act, is sponsored by Reps. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Ted Poe (R-Texas). 

Those sponsors and other lawmakers have been unsuccessfully pushing legislation for years that would permit “television coverage” of the Supreme Court. A host of news organizations and transparency advocates have also called for the Supreme Court to open itself up to cameras, to no avail. 

The new, four-page bill, however, would apply to the Supreme Court and all 13 appeals courts. It would also explicitly authorize a host of recordings, including live streams and broadcasts.  

Like previous bills, the legislation would provide exemptions if the recording “would violate the due process rights” of a party or if it is “otherwise not in the interest of justice.”

The lawmakers are slated to unveil their legislation during a rally outside the Supreme Court just as its new session begins.

The Supreme Court has been resistant to introducing cameras into its oral arguments, predicting it could change the way lawyers and judges interact. But Justice Stephen Breyer said it will eventually happen. 

The appeals courts, on the other hand, have been able to make their own individual rules on the use of cameras in the court since 1996. For example, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals provides live audio streams of all of its proceedings and makes video recordings available. The Second Circuit has also developed rules to allow camera coverage with prior notification, but it is rarely used.