Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2008
Latest action · Mar 13, 2008 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 618.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJan 22, 2007
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2008 - Authorizes the presiding judge of a U.S. appellate court or U.S. district court to permit the photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising to the public of court proceedings over which that judge presides except when such action would constitute a violation of the due process rights of any party.
Directs: (1) a district court, upon the request of any witness in a trial proceeding other than a party, to order the face and voice of the witness to be disguised or otherwise obscured to render the witness unrecognizable to the broadcast audience of the trial proceeding; and (2) the presiding judge in a trial proceeding to inform each witness who is not a party of the right to make such request.
Prohibits the presiding judge from permitting the photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising of any juror in a trial proceeding, or of the jury selection process.
Gives the presiding judge the discretion to obscure the face and voice of an individual under certain conditions if good cause can be shown that the photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising of the individual would threaten the individual's safety.
Prohibits any interlocutory appeal of the decision of the presiding judge of whether or not to permit, deny, or terminate the photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising of a court proceeding.
Directs the Judicial Conference of the United States to promulgate advisory guidelines to which a presiding judge is required to refer in making decisions regarding the management and administration of photographing, recording, broadcasting, or televising described in this Act.
Prohibits any audio pickup or broadcast of conferences in a court proceeding between attorneys and their clients, between co-counsel of a client, between adverse counsel, or between counsel and the presiding judge, if the conferences are not part of the official record of the proceedings.
Cosponsors 9
Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Jan 22, 2007.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-PA | Arlen Specter | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| D-NY | Charles E. Schumer | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| R-TX | John Cornyn | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| R-ID | Larry E. Craig | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| R-SC | Lindsey Graham | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| D-VT | Patrick J. Leahy | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| D-IL | Richard J. Durbin | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| D-WI | Russell D. Feingold | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
| R-CO | Wayne Allard | Original | Jan 22, 2007 |
Actions 7
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Mar 13, 2008Committee on the Judiciary. Reported by Senator Leahy with amendments. Without written report.
- Mar 13, 2008Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 618.
- Mar 6, 2008Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported with amendments favorably.
- Feb 14, 2007Committee on the Judiciary. Hearings held.
- Jan 22, 2007Introduced in Senate
Related bills 1
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 2128 | Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2007 | Identical bill | Oct 24, 2007 |
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Law.
- Administration of justice
- Appellate courts
- Arts, Culture, Religion
- Civil procedure
- Court reporting
- Crime and Law Enforcement
- Criminal procedure
- District courts
- Due process of law
- Government Operations and Politics
- Judges
- Juries
- Law
- Photography
- Radio broadcasting
- Science, Technology, Communications
- Sound recording and reproducing
- Supreme Court
- Television broadcasting
- Video tape recording
- Witnesses
Text 2
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Mar 13, 2008Reported to Senate
- Jan 22, 2007Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.