II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1133
To provide for media coverage of Federal court proceedings.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH26, 2025
Mr. G
RASSLEY(for himself, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. DURBIN, Mr.
B
LUMENTHAL, Mr. MARKEY, and Mr. CORNYN) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To provide for media coverage of Federal court proceedings.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sunshine in the Court-4
room Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FEDERAL APPELLATE AND DISTRICT COURTS. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
(1) P
RESIDING JUDGE.—The term ‘‘presiding 8
judge’’ means the judge presiding over the court 9
proceeding concerned. In proceedings in which more 10
than one judge participates, the presiding judge 11
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•S 1133 IS
shall be the chief judge or justice so participating. 1
If the chief judge or justice is not participating, the 2
presiding judge shall be the most senior active judge 3
or justice so participating. 4
(2) A
PPELLATE COURT OF THE UNITED 5
STATES.—The term ‘‘appellate court of the United 6
States’’ means any United States circuit court of ap-7
peals and the Supreme Court of the United States. 8
(b) A
UTHORITY OFPRESIDINGJUDGETOALLOW 9
M
EDIACOVERAGE OFCOURTPROCEEDINGS.— 10
(1) A
UTHORITY OF APPELLATE COURTS .— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 12
under subparagraph (B), the presiding judge of 13
an appellate court of the United States may, at 14
the discretion of that judge, permit the 15
photographing, electronic recording, broad-16
casting, or televising to the public of any court 17
proceeding over which that judge presides. 18
(B) E
XCEPTION.—The presiding judge 19
shall not permit any action under subparagraph 20
(A), if— 21
(i) in the case of a proceeding involv-22
ing only the presiding judge, that judge de-23
termines the action would constitute a vio-24
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•S 1133 IS
lation of the due process rights of any 1
party; or 2
(ii) in the case of a proceeding involv-3
ing the participation of more than one 4
judge, a majority of the judges partici-5
pating determine that the action would 6
constitute a violation of the due process 7
rights of any party. 8
(2) A
UTHORITY OF DISTRICT COURTS .— 9
(A) I
N GENERAL.— 10
(i) A
UTHORITY.—Notwithstanding 11
any other provision of law, except as pro-12
vided under clause (iii), the presiding judge 13
of a district court of the United States 14
may, at the discretion of that judge, per-15
mit the photographing, electronic record-16
ing, broadcasting, or televising to the pub-17
lic of any court proceeding over which that 18
judge presides. 19
(ii) O
BSCURING OF WITNESSES .—Ex-20
cept as provided under clause (iii)— 21
(I) upon the request of any wit-22
ness (other than a party) in a trial 23
proceeding, the court shall order the 24
face and voice of the witness to be 25
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disguised or otherwise obscured in 1
such manner as to render the witness 2
unrecognizable to the broadcast audi-3
ence of the trial proceeding; and 4
(II) the presiding judge in a trial 5
proceeding shall inform each witness 6
who is not a party that the witness 7
has the right to request the image and 8
voice of that witness to be obscured 9
during the testimony of the witness. 10
(iii) E
XCEPTION.—The presiding 11
judge shall not permit any action under 12
this subparagraph— 13
(I) if that judge determines the 14
action would constitute a violation of 15
the due process rights of any party; 16
and 17
(II) until the Judicial Conference 18
of the United States promulgates 19
mandatory guidelines under para-20
graph (5). 21
(B) N
O MEDIA COVERAGE OF JURORS .— 22
The presiding judge shall not permit the 23
photographing, electronic recording, broad-24
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casting, or televising of any juror in a trial pro-1
ceeding, or of the jury selection process. 2
(C) D
ISCRETION OF THE JUDGE .—The 3
presiding judge shall have the discretion to ob-4
scure the face and voice of an individual, if 5
good cause is shown that the photographing, 6
electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising 7
of the individual would threaten— 8
(i) the safety of the individual; 9
(ii) the security of the court; 10
(iii) the integrity of future or ongoing 11
law enforcement operations; or 12
(iv) the interest of justice. 13
(D) S
UNSET OF DISTRICT COURT AUTHOR -14
ITY.—The authority under this paragraph shall 15
terminate 3 years after the date of the enact-16
ment of this Act. 17
(3) I
NTERLOCUTORY APPEALS BARRED .—The 18
decision of the presiding judge under this subsection 19
of whether or not to permit, deny, or terminate the 20
photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or 21
televising of a court proceeding may not be chal-22
lenged through an interlocutory appeal. 23
(4) A
DVISORY GUIDELINES.—The Judicial Con-24
ference of the United States may promulgate advi-25
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sory guidelines to which a presiding judge, at the 1
discretion of that judge, may refer in making deci-2
sions with respect to the management and adminis-3
tration of photographing, recording, broadcasting, or 4
televising described under paragraphs (1) and (2). 5
(5) M
ANDATORY GUIDELINES .—Not later than 6
6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, 7
the Judicial Conference of the United States shall 8
promulgate mandatory guidelines that a presiding 9
judge is required to follow for obscuring of certain 10
vulnerable witnesses, including crime victims, minor 11
victims, families of victims, cooperating witnesses, 12
undercover law enforcement officers or agents, wit-13
nesses subject to section 3521 of title 18, United 14
States Code, relating to witness relocation and pro-15
tection, or minors under the age of 18 years. The 16
guidelines shall include procedures for determining, 17
at the earliest practicable time in any investigation 18
or case, which witnesses should be considered vulner-19
able under this section. 20
(6) P
ROCEDURES.—In the interests of justice 21
and fairness, the presiding judge of the court in 22
which media use is desired has discretion to promul-23
gate rules and disciplinary measures for the court-24
room use of any form of media or media equipment 25
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and the acquisition or distribution of any of the im-1
ages or sounds obtained in the courtroom. The pre-2
siding judge shall also have discretion to require 3
written acknowledgment of the rules by anyone indi-4
vidually or on behalf of any entity before being al-5
lowed to acquire any images or sounds from the 6
courtroom. 7
(7) N
O BROADCAST OF CONFERENCES BE -8
TWEEN ATTORNEYS AND CLIENTS .—There shall be 9
no audio pickup or broadcast of conferences which 10
occur in a court proceeding between attorneys and 11
their clients, between co-counsel of a client, between 12
adverse counsel, or between counsel and the pre-13
siding judge, if the conferences are not part of the 14
official record of the proceedings. 15
(8) E
XPENSES.—A court may require that any 16
accommodations to effectuate this Act be made with-17
out public expense. 18
(9) I
NHERENT AUTHORITY .—Nothing in this 19
Act shall limit the inherent authority of a court to 20
protect witnesses or clear the courtroom to preserve 21
the decorum and integrity of the legal process or 22
protect the safety of an individual. 23
Æ
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