The Prop 8 Trial Will Not Be Televised
BY Nancy Scola | Wednesday, January 13 2010
Or live streamed. Or posted to YouTube, it seems. The Supreme Court has ruled to keep the cameras turned off during the Perry vs. Schwarzenegger trial that began Monday the federal courthouse in San Francisco. SCOTUSBlog's Lyle Denniston has a great look at the 17-page ruling. The justices broke along the conservative-liberal divide, with Justice Anthony Kennedy joining Justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas in the majority opinion. Those justices seemed to take particular issue with the fact Judge Vaughn Walker of the California Northern District Court had moved to gear up the federal courts' video "pilot program" in a case this controversial. Here's Denniston's take:
As a practical matter, the ruling almost certainly dooms any broadcast coverage of the trial as it goes on. The trial’s length has been estimated variously at two weeks to several weeks. There is no indication that final Supreme Court action on the dispute would be speeded up to the point that the question could be resolved during that brief span of time.
The Court gave the supporters of the Prop 8 ban two options to seek a final order against the television coverage: they could (as they have indicated they would) file a petition for review from the lower courts’ orders, or they could file a petition seeking what is called a “writ of mandamus” -- that is, an order from a higher to a lower court to take, or not take, some action. The Court did not indicate whether it would grant review of either approach, although Wednesday’s order was a strong hint that it would.
And, in fact, the main opinion seemed to indicate that the Court, in the last analysis, would not permit the coverage in any event...
(Photo credit: Sonomabuzz)