Making Recordings of Philadelphia Bail Hearings Still Off Limits

Philadelphia’s refusal to allow a nonprofit bail-reform organization to make verbatim recordings of bail hearings doesn’t violate the First Amendment, the Third Circuit said Tuesday.

Philadelphia Bail Fund sends members to bail hearings to take notes about the arguments presented, but Philadelphia Bail Fund’s request to make its own recordings of the hearings so it could better educate the public was denied.

A district court ruled that the decision violated Bail Fund’s right to access the proceedings, but Third Circuit reversed in an opinion by Judge Morton I. Greenberg.

The city’s policy of not recording bail hearings doesn’t violate Bail ...