Chances slim for cameras in Supreme Court

Justice David H. Souter once famously vowed that the only way a television camera would gain access to the marble halls of the Supreme Court would be to “roll over my dead body,” but even with his impending retirement, it’s hard to tell whether high-court arguments will be broadcast anytime soon.

Justice Souter drew his anti-television line in the sand before a congressional panel in 1996, putting a stake through efforts by C-SPAN and others to televise hearings.

With his retirement, the spotlight moves to Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated by President Obama to fill Justice Souter’s seat. Her likely confirmation opens a slim chance for advocates at least to rehash the arguments against cameras in the high court.

“At least you don’t have someone willing to give his life to keep cameras out of the courtroom,” said C-SPAN President Brian Lamb only half-jokingly.

Mr. Lamb said it’s hard to tell how a Justice Sotomayor would stand on the issue, though she has been televised during court hearings as a member of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Public declarations by the nine justices on the nation’s highest court have ranged from tepid support for the idea to Souteresque over-my-dead-body declarations. No justice appears to be passionately in favor of entering the modern media age gracefully.

Lawmakers, including some who have tried forcing the nation’s high court to allow cameras inside, frequently turn to confirmation hearings to poll court nominees on their stance.

“Why shouldn’t the Supreme Court be open to the public with television?” Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican at the time, asked Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. during Justice Alito’s 2006 confirmation hearings.

Justice Alito, the most recent addition to the nine-judge court, was circumspect in his answer, saying that he had joined colleagues on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to allow the televising of oral arguments. He declined to say whether the Supreme Court should follow suit.

Judge Sotomayor, to judge from the public record, has not weighed in on the question of televising Supreme Court hearings. New members, such as Justice Alito, tend to defer to the more experienced justices.

Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of the few justices who has left open the possibility of televised Supreme Court proceedings, but she said in a 2000 interview it would have to be a unanimous 9-0 decision.

“I do not think a decision like that should ever be forced on judges who take a different view,” she said.

Plain-spoken Justice Antonin Scalia is nearly as vehement as Justice Souter on the question, though the two are frequent sparring partners on other points of law.

“I think there’s something sick about making entertainment out of other people’s legal problems,” he said in an October 2005 interview. “I don’t like it in the lower courts, and I don’t particularly like it in the Supreme Court.”

The issue largely has been left to the Supreme Court justices themselves to decide — and ultimately to the chief justice to determine whether to push the matter.

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