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(CNN)On February 3, US District Court Judge James Robart entered a temporary restraining order amounting to a nationwide injunction that blocked the executive order limiting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Shortly thereafter, I received a link to a video of the oral argument, a rarity because few federal courts allow cameras.
Though many articles have been written about the order itself, most of them have focused on its impact rather than the legal issues it raised. And because there was no substantive written opinion when the injunction was entered, watching the oral argument was critical to understanding the case, as it was argued by both lawyers and decided by the judge.
Supreme Court justices have repeatedly expressed objections to cameras because they theorize that lawyers will perform for the cameras. However, as a practical matter, it is simple to install small, stationary cameras that are barely visible, and which focus only on the lawyer arguing and/or the judge.
As a lawyer who has been involved in a trial that was televised and has argued in front of an appellate court with cameras present, my own experience is that the lawyers focus on the judge, not the cameras. In other words, they care about winning their case, not making a name for themselves on television. Watching any one of the many arguments available online from the 9th Circuit and elsewhere confirms that experience further.
The justices also dislike cameras because they value their own anonymity. They fear cameras will lead to more people recognizing them when they go out in public and force them to change the way they have to live. But even a single camera focused on the lawyer, with the justices only being heard as they already are on the audio recordings, streamed in real time instead of released later, would still offer a great public benefit.
Over 15 years ago, the New York State Bar Association Special Committee on Cameras in the Courtroom concluded that televised court proceedings helped increase the public’s understanding of the legal system and ultimately served to foster public confidence in the court system and judicial decisions. Their conclusions still stand today — and perhaps take on more significance now that we live in a world where alternative facts color the public discourse, and the President of the United States publicly calls into question the actions of judges presiding over cases of national significance.
In this environment, it is critical for the public to be able to see and hear the workings of the third branch of government for themselves, and in real time. It is long past the day when Congress should mandate cameras in all federal courts, including the US Supreme Court.
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