By 5-4 Vote, Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Gay Marriage Trial Broadcast
A divided U.S. Supreme Court this afternoon upheld an earlier ban on a planned broadcast of an ongoing federal trial in California concerning a challenge to the state’s prohibition of same-sex marriage.
Although OK’d by court officials, the court found in a 5-4 decision (PDF provided by SCOTUSblog) that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California didn’t follow proper procedure when it changed its local rules to allow the broadcast of the trial in real time to other courthouses around the country. The majority also ruled that a risk of irreparable harm was created by the possibility of witness intimidation if the broadcast was permitted, the Blog of Legal Times reports.
A dissent written by Justice Stephen Breyer in which Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor joined, states that “the public interest weighs in favor of providing access to the courts.”
In an e-mail to the ABA Journal, a spokesman for the 9th Circuit notes that there has been some confusion in the media about an initial proposal to post video of the trial on YouTube as well at the end of each day. While this was suggested by the trial judge, the YouTube plan was never approved by 9th Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinsky and hence was not addressed by the supreme court.
Its order today bars live-streaming of court-controlled audio and video of the trial from being broadcast in four remote 9th Circuit courthouses in California, Oregon and Washington state and federal courthouse for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.
Updated at 6:44 p.m. to include and accord with information from 9th Circuit spokesman.
Additional coverage:
Bench Memos (National Review): “Supreme Court Blocks Broadcasting of Anti-Prop 8 Trial”
