The current and former heads of the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling for the Supreme Court to release same-day audio recordings of oral arguments before the court.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the current chairman, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the former chairman and a member of the committee, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts urging him to consider releasing same-day audio for cases before the court next term, which begins in October.
“By releasing same-day audio recordings of all oral arguments, the court has a unique opportunity to open up its proceedings beyond the select few who will ever have the chance to be physically present during arguments,” the senators wrote. “Most importantly, the American public will grow in its appreciation of — and confidence in — the rule of law that safeguards our constitutional system.”
Grassley and Leahy told Roberts that “transparency should be the rule, not the exception.”
While other federal courts have started to live stream audio or video of oral arguments, the Supreme Court has been steadfast in rejecting such changes.
Currently, audio recordings are posted to the Supreme Court’s website at the end of each argument week, though same-day audio has been made available for major cases. Most recently, the court released an audio recording of the oral arguments in the challenge to President Trump’s travel ban on the day the justices heard the case.
During an appearance at the 2018 Federal Judicial Conference of the 4th Circuit last week, Roberts spurned the notion that it may be time for the Supreme Court to start televising its proceedings, asking “which public institution has been improved by being televised?”
“You worry about counsel kind of playing to the audience, and I have to be honest, I worry about the justices doing that,” he said of his colleagues on the high court.
Roberts said he considers the Supreme Court to be the “most transparent branch of government,” but said he believes allowing arguments to be televised creates the potential to “alter the argument process.”
