All The World's A Stage

Proponents of the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act and similar bills argue that video broadcasts of court proceedings will serve to educate the public. According to their reasoning, the inner workings of a government that represents the people should be able to seen by the people. The meetings of Congress and the actions of the executive branch are televised; why should the judicial branch alone be exempt from public scrutiny? After all, everybody likes government transparency. This reasoning is especially compelling when we consider that the Sixth Amendment specifically describes our right to a public trial.

But such thinking ignores the unique nature of the judiciary. The elected officials in the executive and legislative branches are familiar with how to comport themselves in front of a camera: throughout their campaigns they must constantly deal with media coverage. In a trial, on the other hand, everyday private citizens are involved, and this makes all the difference. There is something about knowing there is a camera pointed at us that evokes a visceral response in all of us; when we see ourselves on the Jumbotron, so to speak, we start to dance to the music. This is exactly the sort of biased behavior that does not belong in America's courtrooms.

In a court case, people's private woes are involved. My gut feeling is that broadcasting these woes to the world would create a very different atmosphere in a courtroom than a local audience only. As Richmond Newspapers v Virgina shows, it is already hard enough for a judge to reach a verdict even without any outside influence. Hence Souter's outspoken objection that "the day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it’s going to roll over my dead body."

Even if trials do end up being televised, I doubt many more people will watch them than watch C-SPAN now. Nevertheless, I worry that any televisation trials will remove the austerity of our current judiciary. Maybe it's because I'm a Classics major, but I find courtroom sketches along with the absence of cameras from courtrooms to be neat and worthwhile traditions. It adds to the gravity of the court, and this, by itself, has value.