Another gain for Transparency! http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2012/02/senate-panel-votes-to-open-supreme-court-to-cameras-114004.html
Senate panel votes, 11-7, to open Supreme Court to cameras By JOSH GERSTEIN | 2/9/12 11:20 AM EST The Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 11-7, Thursday morning for legislation that would open Supreme Court arguments to television coverage. The vote was largely along party lines. The only Democrat to oppose the measure was Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who said she feared showboating by lawyers and a slippery slope leading to a reprise of the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Other senators noted that televising trial court proceedings, while common in many states, is a more complicated matter than televising Supreme Court arguments, where there are no witnesses or juries. Two Republicans with a history of supporting transparency measures voted for cameras, Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John Cornyn of Texas. The bill has a provision which would allow a majority of justices to close arguments in a specific case if due process required it. Many justices have resisted opening the court to cameras, though they now release audio recordings of arguments. Video of the Judiciary Committee session is available via C-SPAN - http://www.c-span.org/Events/Bill-Would-Allow-Cameras-in-the-Supreme-Court/10737428169-1/. One side note: after Simpson's acquittal in 1995, the Clinton White House considered endorsing legislation to ban or limit camera coverage in trial courts. It never formally endorsed such a measure, which could raise constitutional questions by regulating state court proceedings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:346594 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
