S. 657 (111th): Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2009

Introduced:
Mar 19, 2009 (111th Congress, 2009–2010)
Sponsor:
Sen. Charles “Chuck” Grassley [R-IA]
Status:
Died (Reported by Committee)
See Instead:
This bill was re-introduced as S. 410 (112th) on Feb 17, 2011.

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. S. stands for Senate bill.

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Status

This bill was introduced on April 29, 2010, in a previous session of Congress, but was not enacted.

Progress
Introduced Mar 19, 2009
Referred to Committee Mar 19, 2009
Reported by Committee Apr 29, 2010
Cosponsors
9 cosponsors (7D, 2R) (show)
Committees

Senate Judiciary

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

A bill to provide for media coverage of Federal court proceedings.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

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Last updated Mar 19, 2009.
10 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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Citation

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

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Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

4/29/2010--Reported to Senate without amendment.
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced.
The summary of that version is repeated here.) Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2009 - 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.
Authorizes the Judicial Conference of the United States to promulgate advisory guidelines to which a presiding judge may refer in making decisions regarding the management and administration of photographing, recording, broadcasting, or televising described in this Act. Requires the Judicial Conference of the United States to promulgate mandatory guidelines which a presiding judge must follow for obscuring certain vulnerable witnesses.
Prohibits broadcast of conferences between attorneys and clients.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

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The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

United States Code

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