My Twitter Digest for 12/02/2013

9th Circuit To Begin Live Video Streaming of En Banc Proceedings

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will provide live video streaming of its en banc proceedings, beginning with five cases scheduled for oral arguments December 9-11, 2013, in the James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco.  Effective December 9, Internet users will find links to the video streams here or by visiting www.ca9.uscourts.gov and clicking on the link labeled “En Banc Video Streaming.”

via Internet Viewing of En Banc Proceedings.

In a move that is sure to get my portion of the Internet buzzing the 9th Circuit today announced that it will being streaming live video of en banc proceedings starting with next weeks hearings. The court notes that it will be using its own technology to do this and is not relying on an outside vendor for the service.

This represents a major step forward for the US Federal courts and it may set an example for other courts to follow. Now if they would just start releasing the text of opinions in a format other than PDF…