Let me say at the outset: I am a big fan of online court proceedings. It allows greater participation. It reduces costs. It reduces disruption for everyone. It moves the wheels of justice. But online proceedings also offer the opportunity for greater public access to and transparency of our court system than ever before.
Remember that we have the idea in this country that court proceedings are by and large open to the public. Open online proceedings allow everyone and anyone to observe and comment on judicial proceedings. What could that mean? What could that do? And while this is good, just as we have seen with social media which has brought more openness and wide audiences for all sorts of commentary, there are dangers lurking.
In the old pre-Covid days, if a member of the public wanted to know what was happening in a court proceeding, they by and large had to rely on reports from lawyers/journalists. Or they could physically go to the courthouse and observe. That meant travel time. And once you got to the courthouse, you might sit around all day eating to see what you came to see (and hear).
With online proceedings, the disruption is gone. Tune in when you want. If there is a delay, do something else while you wait. No travel. No sitting around a courthouse. More access. More transparency. Anyone could see and hear what happens in any proceeding anywhere, anytime.
Alison Frankel wrote about the results of this open access we are already seeing in a perceptive and well-written piece in Reuters. She notes tens of thousands of people listened to audio streams of federal election proceedings in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Countless people listen to Supreme Court arguments that never could before. Class members now