Legal News

Specter Chides High Court, Renews ?Cameras? Debate

By Ashby Jones

We’ve long been advocates of cameras in the Supreme Court for a couple reasons. First, as members of the media, it would help inform our reporting. Second, frankly, it would just be cool to be able to see the justices, about whom we’ve read so much over the years, in action.

But some members of Congress who support cameras in the Supreme Court, including Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), seem to do so for a different reason — possibly to let the public see just how ideologically driven the court is, and just how little deference it gives to Congress.

Specter on Monday addressed the topic from the floor of the Senate, urging Congress to force cameras in the Supreme Court. Click here for the story from the BLT blog.

“I believe Congress has the authority, should it choose to do so, to direct the Supreme Court to permit its proceedings to be televised,” Specter said. “The Supreme Court, in a series of cases, has said the public has a right to know what is going on inside the courtroom . . . . Well, in an electronic era, where the public gets so much of its information via television or via radio, there ought to be that access.”

He continued:

“If the public had access to what was going on in the Supreme Court, it seems to me there would be a clamor to have more openness, more transparency, and greater public appreciation of the fact that the Supreme Court is a battleground.”

During his confirmation hearings in 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said that overturning precedent is a “jolt to the system” that should be avoided. Specter alluded to those remarks on Monday: “Well, there have been quite a number of jolts in the system with his key vote. We had a very extensive questioning and commentary about Chief Justice Roberts’ deference to congressional fact-finding. Only Congress has hearings, hears witnesses, and makes determinations of fact-finding. When the voting rights [case] came up, all of that seemed to have been forgotten.”

LBers, we’ve hit this issue before several times, but let’s throw out a few questions: First, is Specter right in asserting that the public should be allowed more of a peek into the court to see how little deference it gives Congress? Second, were the court to add cameras, would you tune in?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 13, 2010 (boomark / email).