[Pittsburgh, PA] \u2014 A local journalist and newsmagazine have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a set of Pennsylvania court rules that prohibit people from audio-recording bail hearings in Pittsburgh Municipal Court. \u00a0The suit alleges that the rules violate the First Amendment and undermine public discourse about the city\u2019s bail system\u2014a hotly debated issue in recent years\u2014by shielding bail hearings from public scrutiny.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs in the suit, Matt Stroud and Postindustrial<\/em><\/a>, provide in-depth coverage of issues affecting people in and around Pittsburgh.\u00a0 They want to use audio-recordings of local bail hearings\u2014which are not otherwise transcribed or recorded\u2014to help people to understand, as objectively as possible, how the proceedings typically work.<\/p>\n \u201cUnderstanding more about the amounts set in bail proceedings\u2014and the reasons those amounts are set in individual cases\u2014is one of the most important criminal justice issues in the United States today,\u201d said Mr. Stroud. \u201cIt\u2019s therefore imperative that journalists are allowed to sit in, take notes, and record these public proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n Bail hearings determine whether or not an arrestee must remain in jail while awaiting trial. \u00a0Those denied bail (or unable to afford it) can be imprisoned for weeks or months without first being found guilty.\u00a0 Currently, bail hearings in Allegheny County occur off the record: there is no court reporter present and the court itself makes no recording or transcript of the proceedings.\u00a0 While members of the public can attend the proceedings, court rules prohibit them from recording any of the proceedings themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happens inside the courtroom is supposed to be a matter of public record,\u201d said Nic Riley, one of the plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys.\u00a0 \u201cPeople have a right to document how their elected prosecutors and judges are behaving in court\u2014especially when the court itself is not keeping any record of what is said during a particular proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.\u00a0 The plaintiffs are represented by the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection<\/a> at Georgetown Law, which has brought a range of legal challenges to restrictions on court transparency<\/a>, and by the law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP<\/a>.\u00a0 A copy of the complaint is available here<\/a>. \u00a0Another, similar federal lawsuit was filed in July, challenging the ban on recording bail proceedings in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n About the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP)<\/strong><\/p>\n ICAP uses the power of the courts to defend American constitutional rights and values.\u00a0 Based at Georgetown Law Center, ICAP draws on expert litigators, savvy litigation strategy, and the constitutional scholarship of Georgetown to vindicate individuals\u2019 rights and to protect America\u2019s constitutional way of life.\u00a0 More information about ICAP can be found at law.georgetown.edu\/icap.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [Pittsburgh, PA] \u2014 A local journalist and newsmagazine have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a set of Pennsylvania court rules that prohibit people from audio-recording bail hearings in Pittsburgh Municipal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"parent":26,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-656","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/656\/revisions\/657"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}