New Hope for Courtroom TV

The federal appeals courts appear to be, wisely, rethinking a hasty decision made by the Judicial Conference of the United States to end a promising experiment with cameras in the courtroom.

In September the conference, the policy-making body of the federal courts, voted not to renew a three-year pilot project in which civil trials and proceedings were televised. This despite favorable results from the experiment and the wide use of cameras in state court proceedings in California and elsewhere.

Last week, the chief judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Cincinnati, reportedly said that his counterparts in the 13 federal circuits generally agree that televising appeals court proceedings does not raise the same concerns as having TV cameras at trials. (Some judges worried that cameras in the courtroom could influence jurors or witnesses, who of course are not part of appeals proceedings.)

It has reportedly been proposed to the Judicial Conference’s executive committee that appellate proceedings be televised. The executive committee, which is already on record as being in favor of expanded television coverage, is likely to make a favorable recommendation to the full Judicial Conference. If approved, cameras could be invited into every federal circuit court of appeals on a permanent basis.

Though appeals proceedings differ from trials, the televising of appeals could open the door to addressing some of the concerns about the effect of cameras in the courtroom. Thus the appeals court experiment with cameras, as well as the trial court experiment, should be pursued.