NYT On Prop 8 Camera Ban

The New York Times editorial board came out swinging this morning in reaction to the SCOTUS ban on live cameras in the courtroom at Perry vs. Schwarzenegger.

The antipathy of some justices to televising Supreme Court arguments is as well known as it is wrongheaded. But the court’s stance against allowing unobtrusive C-Spanlike coverage of its own proceedings should not foreclose public viewing of this case. There have been claims that televising the courtroom proceeding would somehow be unfair to defenders of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage. They are hazy and unsubstantiated and vastly outweighed by the strong public interest in the airing of a major civil-rights issue. But the Supreme Court’s majority bought the false argument.