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I. INTRODUCTION
The ongoing revolution in the communication technology of the twenty-first century has had little effect on the U.S. federal courts in general and on the Supreme Court of the United States in particular. The Supreme Court has never allowed cameras into its courtroom or live broadcasts of its oral arguments. 1 Rather, oral arguments are audiotaped by the Court for release on Fridays during the weeks the Court hears the arguments.2
A recent example of the Supreme Court's "exceptional" aversion to cameras3 is related to the Court's rejection of the news media's request to televise oral arguments in the healthcare law case of 2012, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius.4 On March 16, 2012, the Supreme Court evaded the media's broadcasting request altogether, announcing the availability of only audio recordings: "Because of the extraordinary public interest in those cases, the Court will provide the audio recordings and transcripts of the oral arguments on an expedited basis through the Court's Website."5
The U.S. Supreme Court's widely discussed hostility to television cameras6 contrasts sharply with the Canadian Supreme Court's extensive experience with its hearings being broadcast. In a speech made in September of 2011, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of the Canadian Supreme Court noted the "very expansive" television broadcasting of her court hearings since the mid-1990s.7 She added that the Canadian Supreme Court started webcasting the video streams of the court hearings live on the court's website in 2009. 8
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is also more camerafriendly than its U.S. counterpart. The U.K. Supreme Court has allowed its hearings to be broadcast since its opening in October 20099 to replace the House of Lords.10 Televised hearings were made possible through Section 47 of the Constitutional Reform Act of 2005, u which provides for an exemption to the Criminal Justice Act of 1925 12 that bans the photographing, filming, and sketching of court proceedings in England.13
Brazil, "a vibrant democracy" with an "extremely active" judicial branch,14 is one of the most open judicial systems when it comes to the broadcast media's access to its highest court: all judicial and administrative meetings of the Supreme Court have been broadcast live on television since 2002. 15 TV Justiça (Justice TV) and Radio Justiça...