Kavanaugh Treads Cautiously on Cameras in the Courtroom

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was hit Thursday with a question nearly every recent nominee has addressed — whether the tradition-bound high court should allow TV cameras into its august courtroom.

Like many of the justices who have come before him, Kavanaugh (pictured above) was noncommittal. He told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that he was open to the idea.

“The best approach for me is to listen to the views of people like yourself, Mr. Chairman, and others who I know are interested in that, to learn — if I were to be confirmed — from the experience there and to see what the experience there is like, to listen to the justices currently on the Supreme Court,” he said.

“As I’ve said, [to] be part of a team of nine, I’d want to learn from the other justices what they think about this, because several of them, as you know well, Mr. Chairman, when they were in my seat, expressed support for the idea of cameras for oral arguments, and then, when they were there a few years, switched their position after experiencing it.”

Grassley long has advocated televising oral arguments and, for a number of years, has sponsored the Sunshine in the Courtroom Act, which would give federal judges the discretion to allow television coverage of their proceedings.

Polls show the public also overwhelmingly supports the idea.

Former Justice David Souter famously once said cameras would be installed in the court “over my dead body.” Other justices have been more cautious. Most have expressed support for the idea or at least an openness to it during their confirmation hearings.

But the court has not yet changed its policy.

Kavanaugh noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he currently serves as a judge, has moved from releasing audio of oral arguments days after the fact to releasing it the same week and then the same day. Currently, he said, people can listen to oral arguments in real time.

And the high court?

Related: Is It Time for TV Cameras at the Supreme Court?

“I will have an open mind on it,” he said.

Kavanaugh said the “majesty” of the Supreme Court building strikes anyone who attends court in person.

“The building itself conveys the stability and majesty of the law, and to go into the courtroom and to see the justices working together as they do to try to resolve cases is extraordinarily impressive,” he said. “It makes you confident, I believe, in the impartial rule of law and in each member of the Supreme Court to see them in action.”