Court TV Sues for N.Y. Trial Access

Attempting to widen the window into America’s legal trenches, cable network Court TV on Wednesday sued top New York officials, claiming a 49-year-old state law prohibiting cameras in courtrooms is unconstitutional.

Although all 50 states allow coverage of some appellate proceedings, New York is one of 10 states that bar cameras in trial courtrooms.

Court TV, a New York-based service jointly owned by AOL Time Warner Inc. and Liberty Media Corp., along with other news outlets, have successfully petitioned judges to gain access to specific trials. But this is the first time a media organization has sued New York Gov. George Pataki, state Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer and Manhattan District Atty. Robert Morgenthau in a high-profile attempt to erase the contentious 1952 law.

“The third branch of government is one of the most important. It affects the most people, and yet this is the one branch of government that individuals can’t see for themselves what’s going on,” David Boies, Court TV’s new attorney, said at a news conference in New York.

Boies became something of a television celebrity when he represented Al Gore last year in the protracted Florida elections battle. He also represented the U.S. government in the case against Microsoft Corp.

A spokesman for New York’s governor said Pataki is not opposed to cameras in courtrooms.

Court TV sued Pataki and other ranking officials, Boies said, because they are charged with carrying out state laws. The suit was filed in New York Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Boies and Henry Schleiff, Court TV’s chairman and chief executive, would not rule out a more expansive campaign if they are successful in their bid to open New York’s courtrooms. While stressing that their focus is on New York, Schleiff said, “We think that other states will be looking at what happens here and will be interested in the constitutional arguments.”

Schleiff denied that Court TV, which was ranked 23rd among cable channels during the second quarter of 2001, was pushing to overturn the law in an attempt to boost ratings. “This is not a commercial decision; it is one of principle.”

The federal judiciary, like the state of New York, does not allow cameras and other recording devices in district courtrooms. However, Schleiff said that a bill to lift the ban has been introduced in Congress with bipartisan support.

“We’re kind of optimistic that legislation will be successful this year,” Schleiff said.

Similar measures stalled repeatedly in the New York Legislature, despite nearly 10 years of experimental camera coverage, from 1987 to 1991 and 1992 to 1997. Since then, a smattering of New York judges have ignored the ban, ruling it unconstitutional. But those rulings were on a case-by-case basis and could not be applied statewide.

Court TV’s lawsuit does not address access for newspaper and other still photographers. However, Boies said that if Court TV is successful in overturning the law, photographers also would gain access to courtrooms. He said judges would have latitude to set rules.

Cameras are allowed in California trial courts with a judge’s approval and subject to restrictions, such as not photographing jurors.

The other states that prohibit cameras in trial courts are: Utah, South Dakota, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi and Nebraska.

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Courting Viewers

Court TV sued ranking New York state officials Wednesday, launching a campaign to strike down a 49-year-old state law that prohibits cameras in trial courtrooms.

Some facts of the channel:

* Court TV, owned by AOL Time Warner Inc. and Liberty Media Corp., went on the air in July 1991. Since then, it has broadcast more than 730 trials and covered more than 28,000 hours of courtroom proceedings.

* According to Nielsen Media Research, Court TV ranked 23rd among cable channels for the second quarter of 2001. Court TV had an average daily viewership of 152,000 homes, trailing Nickelodeon (1.1 million), Lifetime (969,000), Cartoon Network (836,000) and TBS (803,000).

* Court TV completed its most- watched prime-time week last week. The channel played in 564,000 homes, beating the previous record of 497,000 homes during the first week of July. Boosting the ratings has been its original series “Forensic Files,” part of Court TV’s $140-million effort to produce more original programming.

* Court TV has broadcast the trials of Rodney King, the Menendez brothers, O.J. Simpson, Lorena Bobbitt, Jeffrey Dahmer, British nanny Louise Woodward, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Woody Allen, Ray Lewis, Jean-Claude Van Damme and William Kennedy Smith.

* Besides New York, nine other states restrict cameras

in trial courtrooms. Those states are: Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Utah.

Sources: Court TV, Nielsen Media Research