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Law360 (June 25, 2020, 9:24 PM EDT) -- Lawmakers and witnesses at a House hearing Thursday urged courts to stream their proceedings permanently, drawing a slightly positive reaction from a key judge who focused on getting new jurists to handle a case backlog.
Rep. Hank Johnson, the Georgia Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on courts, and other legislators gently pressed the federal courts to continue and even expand streaming, which was put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"What message to the public would the Supreme Court send if it decided to stop broadcasting its proceedings?" he said. "What message would the court send if it expanded public access by allowing live video, not just audio, of its proceedings?"
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., also called for the U.S. Supreme Court to permanently provide live audio streaming. Currently, the audio files from oral arguments are not published until Friday of each week.
Another call for streaming came from a hearing witness, Chief Justice Bridget M. McCormack of the Michigan Supreme Court.
"People who live far away [have] the right to see what their court is doing and how they're doing it," she said of her own state. "It feels to me like it builds trust and confidence in our branch, which, as I said, is the only currency we have."
U.S. District Judge David G. Campbell of Arizona, who chairs the judiciary's procedural committee, sounded more receptive than some key leaders in the judiciary previously have been. Earlier in the hearing, he discussed the role that teleconferences and other remote proceedings played in civil matters well before the pandemic.
"A lot of pretrial work on the civil side was already done by technology," the judge said. "Obviously we're doing a lot more of it now, and I agree with the points made by the speakers already that there is much we can learn from the experience we are having in the pandemic."
While that was far from an endorsement of permanent audio or video streaming, transparency advocate Gabe Roth of Fix the Court said it marked an openness.
"Sounds like glasnost to me!" Roth said in an email, referencing the gradual easing of restrictions in the last years of the Soviet Union.
The top Republican on the panel, Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, focused on the lack of high-quality internet access in many rural areas that could impede observation. Melissa Wasser of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press suggested that could be helped by providing a call-in phone line along with online streaming options.
Judge Campbell said that internet connectivity is a particular issue for many prisons and detention centers in rural areas, but he said the justice system has worked to find ways for continued consultation between inmates and their lawyers.
The judge said the federal judiciary is returning to in-person trials very slowly, pointing to recent jury trials in two Texas districts.
Judge Campbell's main request to lawmakers was to add judgeships, including by converting temporary bankruptcy judgeships to permanent judgeships that allow for more funding and support staff. He said the courts are anticipating huge case backlogs, especially as the pandemic forces many businesses into bankruptcy.
Congress in March gave the court system an extra $7.5 million to adapt to the pandemic. Last month, the judiciary requested another $36.6 million to cover new judgeships, assist with courtroom safety and boost teleworking capacity.
--Editing by Orlando Lorenzo.
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