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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1668 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 23, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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In the United States, are there any general guiding principles for when/whether criminal trials get to be secret vs televised vs open-to-the-public-but-no-recording-allowed, or is it generally just up to the whims of the judge and happenstance of the tradition of the local court?

@Lazuli is right. But generally speaking criminal trials are open to the public outside of specific cause like a minor victim, a proceeding that involves classified state secrets as part of the testimony, or a situation where there is an exceedingly high chance of attempted witness or jury tampering (like a cartel trial). Televised is less common, and many judges are wary of it after the OJ trial circus.

is it generally just up to the whims of the judge and happenstance of the tradition of the local court?

It depends on the judge, jurisdiction, state laws, or some combination of the three.

I'm an idiot and you should assume I'm wrong.
All federal courts prevent photography in any sense, and while someone might get away with something in a district court, the supreme court will rain down fire down on anyone who tries, so some courtroom sketch artists will continue to exist as long as judges. There are actually very very few trials that aren't open to the interested public, I think that those only happen when evidence is classified material.

The states themselves have individual rules, usually against film, but California allows enough for the rest of us to enjoy real court entertainment.

I wonder if anyone's tried doing court "sketches" with AI yet. There's a huge corpus for it.

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