That Camera-Shy Branch Of Government
Those people would be Supreme Court justices. And the circumstance would be cameras in their courtroom.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, in an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, told members that "televising our proceedings would change our collegial dynamic." He asked that the Senate (where Committee Chair Arlen Specter introduced a bill that would allow the cameras in the courtroom for most cases) not introduce "the insidious temptation to think that one of my colleagues would be trying to get a sound bite for TV."
Writes the Politico: "Kennedy argued that televising the proceedings would alter the dynamic of the court, where judges have only one hour to hear a case and question the attorneys to flesh out their positions on cases."
Several senators (who surely enjoy their own regular appearances on C-SPAN) disagreed with that contention. "I believe we have a right to see when the court decides all these (important) questions, including who would be the president, as was the case in 2000," said Specter.
This is by no means the first time that Justice Kennedy has made his feelings known to Congress regarding cameras in the courtroom. He and Justice Clarence Thomas testified last year during a meeting with a Senate panel, with Kennedy telling members: "It's not for the court to tell Congress how to conduct its proceedings." (The reverse, he added, was also true.) Thomas said of the camera idea's popularity among justices: "The general consensus is not one of glee."
Currently, however, "[o]pposition to cameras in the courts is not unanimous among the justices," writes the Politico. "Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito both have said they could be open to the idea."
It was the Roberts' court, after all, that recently decided that the Supreme Court would release transcripts of oral arguments on its Web site on the same day that the arguments take place. That may not sound like a revolution, but one Georgetown Law professor described it as "a tremendous opening to the outside world."
Of course, Justice David Souter (who is of course, still on the court) told a congressional panel in 1996 that "the day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it's going to roll over my dead body." So there's that to consider.