By Morgan Tiergarten
October 3, 2029
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court will video stream its oral arguments for the first time this month, after voting this summer to install cameras in its courtroom.
“For the longest time, there was strong opposition to transparency from the court. But the nine of us have somewhat different views about the importance of public access to our proceedings,” Chief Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in an interview last month on the PBS NewsHour.
U.S. President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appointed eight of the Supreme Court’s members and elevated Jackson to the chief’s role following the resignations of the former Republican-appointed members and the retirements of Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Currently, Kagan serves as the chair of the Commission on Reparations and Sotomayor is a judge on the International Criminal Court following the United States’s decision to become a member party earlier this year.
Jackson, in speaking about the cameras, said the court had a “heightened sense of urgency” about allowing the public to see its work.
“All of us are new to our roles. We’re trying to rebuild the legitimacy of this institution. And we need the public to trust us, which is why we feel it’s imperative that they see us,” she said.
The New Confederate ambassador to the United States, John Fetterman, reposted the social media announcement and added the comment, “9 Fuggos in robes? Pass.”
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