Transparency and accountability – two essential outcomes that are attainable if every courtroom across the country had cameras.  Filming court proceedings, including the judges presiding and the lawyers arguing, and posting the videos online would reveal each judge’s and many lawyers’ behavior and competence. Legal consumers could go online and view potential lawyers in action, see how their judge treats litigants, observe any biases, and so much more.

U.S. Supreme Court building. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On April 11, 2013, the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Maureen O’Connor, wrote a commentary in The Columbus Dispatch titled U.S. Supreme Court Should Allow Cameras.  Citing her “unique perspective” as serving on a “televised Supreme Court,” Justice O’Connor bemoans the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to allow cameras for the recent same sex marriage arguments:

For most of us, after two days of arguments, we only have access to almost comical courtroom sketches of the proceedings rather than video or even still photographs. We are left with talking heads speculating on what they did not personally observe.

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Related articles

• Editorial: Let all witness our courts in action (newsday.com)