Gabriel Arana on the filming of Perry v. Schwarzenegger:
Judge Vaughn Walker‘s decision to allow video cameras in his courtroom for the federal challenge to California’s Proposition 8 has been temporarily suspended pending a decision by the Supreme Court midweek. Proceedings from the trial, which began Monday, were to be broadcast on YouTube as part of an experimental program in the Ninth Circuit to allow cameras in non-jury civil trials. Prop. 8 proponents have claimed broadcasting the proceedings will lead to harassment of “Yes on 8” campaign staffers.
The debate is hardly new — courts have wrestled with the question of media’s visual access to courts since photography first emerged in the 1930s. But in the push to make government proceedings readily available to the public, federal courts have emerged as a conspicuous outlier. Most state-level courts allow cameras to be present in both civil and criminal courts at the judge’s discretion. But federal courts are far more restrictive: Cameras are prohibited in criminal trials and while the rules for civil trials vary by circuit, most jurisdictions do not allow broadcasting of civil cases.
