March 9, 2010
By Curry Andrews
A federal court in San Francisco announced on Friday that it is not planning to broadcast closing arguments in the trial over California’s gay marriage ban, despite media reports to the contrary.
As of now, Judge Vaughn Walker has not asked that Perry v. Schwarzenegger be included in a pilot program that allows the broadcast of certain non-jury civil trials.
“Broadcasting closing arguments would require Chief Judge Walker to request that these arguments be included in the Ninth Circuit’s pilot program and approval of that request by Chief Judge Kozinski,” the press release said. “No such request has been made.”
Walker said in January that he would ask to broadcast the proceedings, citing the Judicial Council of the 9th Circuit’s decision that trial courts could begin experimenting with recording civil trials. He withdrew that request after the Supreme Court blocked the trial’s broadcast, finding the court had not properly followed policies that govern changes to court rules.
Copyright 2010 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press