Ninth Circuit Court Will Livestream Washington v. Trump

The U.S. Court of Appeals will live stream this afternoon's oral argument in the state of Washington’s challenge to President Donald Trump's travel ban executive order.

The move drew praise from Fix the Court executive director Gabe Roth, who has long pushed for greater transparency, including video and audio, in federal courts.

"There is no better way to experience the work of our federal judiciary than first-hand via modern technology. The finer points of immigration law—and which branch ultimately gets to decide who enters the country—are complicated, and as the debate over the travel ban continues, there is value to being able to pull up a video clip of Friday's hearing in Seattle and an audio clip of today's hearing in San Francisco to tell the story - and in a much more engaging way than a transcript could," said Roth.

Related: CBS Poll Finds Trump at Historic Low Approval

"As the judicial branch's role in holding the republic together grows, other federal courts should consider expanding broadcast access as the Ninth Circuit has."

The oral argument can be viewed here at 3 p.m. PT.

Washington's attorney general signaled to CNN that he would take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary, where video of oral argument is still not allowed.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEK8FCBMkMQ[/embed]

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.