Editor’s note: This term of the U.S. Supreme Court is shaping up as a blockbuster, with issues of health care reform, affirmative action, high-tech surveillance, and church/state separation already on the docket or soon to be considered. With attention focusing on the Court, the drumbeat in favor of allowing cameras in the Court is likely to increase in intensity — and the Court is just as likely to say no. NLJ Supreme Court correspondent Tony Mauro wrote about the Court’s objections to camera access in a recent article in the Reynolds Courts & Media Law Journal. A condensed version of the article appears below.
The Supreme Court has never allowed the broadcast news media to bring the tools of their trade — cameras and microphones — into its courtroom for coverage of its proceedings. Unlike almost every other public institution in the United States, it has been able to maintain such a ban to this day, ignoring the successive winds of change brought by radio, television, and the internet.
