2011: Modern Media and the Courts
Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media Looks at Social Media and the Courts
The Reynolds National Center for Courts and Media examined the role of social media in the courts at a one-day conference titled “Modern Media and the Courts,” Aug. 10 in Washington, D.C. The conference was attended by federal and state judges, national journalists, court bloggers, court personnel and constitutional and litigation lawyers.C-SPAN filmed the event for later broadcast; the videos are available here.
Offered in conjunction with the annual conference of the Conference of Court Public Information Officers, the program explored the use of electronic devices in the courtroom, the request to monitor jurors’ private social media accounts and the resulting disclosure obligations, the court’s role to protect jurors from overly intrusive inquiries about jurors’ private lives and other thorny issues. Participants will discussed the "Open Court" pilot project, in which a Massachusetts court streams all its proceedings online.
The centerpiece was a "role reversal,” at which judges, court public information officers, journalists and lawyers switched roles to respond to a hypothetical scenario that addresses many of the issues that were discussed during the day.
Presenters included Hon. Royce Lamberth, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; Angelita Plemmer, public information officer, Maryland Judiciary Office of Communication and Public Affairs; and media attorney Charles Tobin.
Brian Lamb, C-SPAN founder, delivered the luncheon presentation (coverage here), and Floyd Abrams, renowned First Amendment attorney, concluded the conference.
The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for the Courts and Media, a program of the Reynolds School also affiliated with the National Judicial College, promotes research and scholarship on the interaction between the courts and the media, particularly the conflicts between free speech rights under the First Amendment and the fair trial rights of the Sixth Amendment.
