Senators ask Supreme Court to allow cameras for health care decision

This artist rendering shows Attorney Paul Clement speaking before the Supreme Court on March 28, 2012, during arguments on the constitutionality of the health care law.

/ AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren

(CBS News) A pair of top senators asked the Supreme Court to break precedent and allow television cameras to broadcast the announcement of the upcoming decision surrounding the constitutionality of President Obama's signature health care law.

The nation's highest court is expected to make its decision public later this month in a written opinion.

"We believe that the issues in the case are as important and consequential as any in recent Court history," Sen. Pat Leahy and Sen. Charles Grassley, respectively the Democratic chairman and top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote in a June 18 letter to John Roberts, chief justice of the United States.

"Given the fundamental constitutional questions raised and the effects the decision will have, the Court should be aware of the great interest Americans have in the outcome of this case," the Vermont Democrat and Iowa Republican wrote.

The two senators argued that modern technology makes it logistically feasible to place cameras in the courtroom without disrupting the proceedings.

"A minimal number of cameras in the courtroom, which could be placed to be barely noticeable to all participants, would provide live coverage of what may be one of the most historic rulings of our time," they wrote.

"Broadcasting the Court's ruling would permit millions of citizens the opportunity to view what so few can from the court's small and limited public gallery," they said.

Without directly mentioning it, the senators appealed to the self-interest of the justices who want the court to be held in high regard.

"We believe permitting the nation to watch the proceedings would bolster public confidence in our judicial system and in the decisions of the Court," they wrote.

A CBS News/New York Times poll released earlier this month found that most Americans think the Supreme Court's health care decision will be based on justices' personal and political views.

According to the poll, 55 percent of Americans believe political positions will play a role in the health care decision, compared to 32 percent who believe justices will decide the case based on legal analysis.

Still, the proposal is likely to fall on deaf ears. Nearly 50 news organizations have also asked for permission to bring cameras in the courtroom to broadcast the proceedings live.

The Supreme Court has never allowed cameras into the courtroom for any proceedings and has only sometimes allowed audio recordings to be released the same day.

Typically, audio recordings are released at the end of the week.

[ehjay35]

The Right wing of the Court lack the courage to bring 21st century progress to the proceedings. Like their Right wing political counterparts they prefer to remain mired in the past. SCOTUS put a Republican President in power by overriding the common sense of the Constitution, they ruled to allow the wealthiest donors to unduly influence elections, and now they propose to give a death sentence ruling to the poorest Americans. How can any thinking American respect such rulings? When such rulings continue from the court it usually leads to anarchistic push back from the poor and middle class. Is America becoming Egypt?

[TimeToEvolve]

When you have an illegitimate right wing bunch of half wits like this that are making up laws to benefit themselves it is time to watch these suckers take a dump.

[mahoopes]

Come on, the Supreme Court owes it to the country to let a camera record its announcement of the decision. The reason they typically give for not allowing proceedings to be televised is that it might change the tone of the give & take during oral argument. But that's not a danger here. All they are doing is announcing the outcome. In addition, while in most cases the court just gives a brief synopsis of a decision, in very important cases the justices may choose to read aloud the whole opinion (or portions of it), and also any dissenting opinions. If they decide it is important enough to read from the bench, then Americans deserve to see the justices' faces and hear their voices in order to understand what they are communicating. Maybe the limited seats in the courtroom USED to be an adequate reason to seeing and hearing the court, but it doesn't cut it anymore.

[TimeToEvolve]

These right wing wackos on the court are making their own laws of the land. Impeach the conservative 5!

[pohd1]

Leahy and Grassley stop the showboating and go back to the Senate chamber and get Reid to create a budget.

[fitstshu]

To me any written decision they make, is nothing more than a perverted legal excuse for the decision.That is why it takes so long to write it.

[Ulgnud]

The Supreme court does not need a media circus. The procedure they use is just fine.

[tmn]

signed, Clarence Thomas da judge

[vpcharan]

Were these senators asleep when Dick Cheney summoned a private meeting of oil companies to formulat energy policy of GWB administration back in 2001, a policy that is having impact on all Americans even today?

[ugacrew]

The last thing we need is to turn the Supreme Court into another Grand Stage where political foes can reach millions with a message targeting their political opponent.

Do I trust our Supreme Court? I lost that trust when they voted with great error, in my opinion, to take Democracy out of the hands of our American Citizens and sell it to the highest donors without regard to who they are or where they come from.

We no longer have a true democracy, rather a "Richocracy."

[Larnan5]

If the GOP has it's way we will remain the only western democracy without universal health coverage. Now that is something for Romney,as well as his supporters Koch, Adelson and other billionaires to really celebrate.

[1notrub11]

Ah, cameras for the court process, but no cameras during the process which created the subject of the court's evaluation. Funny that.