US Judiciary to Consider Limited Public Broadcasting After Covid

Federal courts could continue their Covid-19 era practice of broadcasting civil and bankruptcy proceedings with new restrictions under a recommendation to the judiciary’s policymaking body.

Judge Nancy Brasel, of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota, said a judicial committee on court administration will recommend the Judicial Conference vote on language that “authorizes remote public audio access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings in which a witness is not testifying.”

The announcement came Friday during a panel discussion on remote court proceedings at the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference in Bloomington, Minn.

Brasel served as a liaison on the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Court Administration and Case Management that was tasked with studying whether to change the broadcast policy.

The pandemic-era policy, which was authorized by the CARES Act relief legislation, allowed unprecedented public access to the judicial process by allowing video and audio broadcasting of court proceedings. That policy is set to expire on Sept. 21.

Before the pandemic, courts were allowed to conduct some civil and bankruptcy proceedings remotely. But the judiciary’s broadcasting policy prevented them from providing remote public access, according to a spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the US Courts.

The Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference is expected to vote on the committee’s recommendation when it meets in September.

Under the committee’s recommendation, judges would still have discretion on whether to allow the broadcasting of audio or not, Brasel said.

“It makes clear this does not create a right of the party or public to listen in to hearings and it also cautions courts to safeguard confidential, sensitive, otherwise protected information,” she told a few dozen people who attended the last panel of the conference.

Brasel noted the recommendation is more restrictive than the pandemic policy by distinguishing between hearings with witness testimony and those without, and by limiting public access to audio only.