Mediaboss Marketing

In the past month, this column has twice addressed the unbridled propensity of federal intelligence agencies to spy on Americans without search warrants as required by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

These agencies believe that the Fourth Amendment which protects the individual right to privacy only regulates law enforcement and does not apply to domestic spying.

There is no basis in the constitutional text, history or judicial interpretations for such a limiting and toothless view of this constitutional guarantee. The courts have held that the Fourth Amendment restrains government. Period. Last week, Congress got burned when the CIA released a heavily redacted summary of its current spying in the United States.

When the CIA was created in 1947, members of Congress who feared the establishment here of the type of domestic surveillance apparatus that the Allies had just defeated in Germany insisted that the new CIA have no role in American law enforcement and no legal ability to spy within the United States. The legislation creating the CIA contains those limitations.

Nevertheless, we know from statements of former governors of several states that CIA agents claim to be physically present in all 50 statehouses in the United States.

The agents who have infiltrated state governments didnt arrive until after Dec. 4, 1981. Thats the date that President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333, which purports to give the CIA authority to spy in America supposedly looking for narcotics from foreign countries and keep from law enforcement whatever it finds.

Stated differently, while Reagan purported to authorize the CIA to defy the limitations imposed upon it by the Constitution and by federal law, he insisted on a wall of separation between domestic spying and law enforcement.

So, if the CIA using unconstitutional spying discovered that a janitor in the Russian Embassy in Washington was really a KGB colonel who abused his wife in their suburban Maryland home, under E.O. 12333, it could continue to spy upon him in defiance of the Fourth Amendment and the CIA charter, but it could not reveal to Maryland prosecutors who can only use evidence lawfully obtained any evidence of his domestic violence.

All this changed 20 years later when President George W. Bush demolished Reagans wall between law enforcement and domestic spying and directed the CIA and other domestic spying agencies to share the fruits of their spying with the FBI.

Thus, thanks to Reagan and Bush authorizing it, and their successors looking the other way, CIA agents have been engaging in fishing expeditions on a grand scale inside the country for the past 20 years. Congress knows about this because all intelligence agencies are required by statute to report the extent of their spying secretly to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.

This, of course, does not absolve the CIA of its presidentially authorized computer hacking crimes; rather, it gives Congress a false sense of security that it has a handle on whats going on.

Whats going on is not CIA lawyers appearing before judges asking for surveillance warrants based upon probable cause of crime, as the Constitution requires. Whats going on is CIA agents going to Big Tech and paying for access to communications used by ordinary Americans. Some Big Tech firms told the CIA to take a hike. Others took the CIAs cash and opened the spigots of their fiber optic data to the voracious federal appetite.

If the CIA went to a judge and demonstrated probable cause of crime for example, that a janitor in the Russian Embassy was passing defense secrets to Moscow surely the judge would have signed a surveillance warrant. But to the CIA, following the Constitution is too limiting.

Thus, by acquiring bulk data fiber optic data on hundreds of millions of Americans acquired without search warrants the CIA could avoid the time and trouble of demonstrating probable cause to a judge. But that time and trouble were intentionally required by the authors of the Fourth Amendment so as to keep the government off our backs.

Not to be outdone by its principal rival, the FBI soon began doing the same thing gathering bulk data without search warrants.

When Congress learned of this, it enacted legislation that banned the warrantless acquisition of bulk data. Apparently, Congress is naive enough to believe that the CIA, the FBI and the National Security Agency, their cousin with 60,000 domestic spies, actually comply with federal law.

Last week, that naivete was manifested front and center when the CIA sent a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee documenting the extent of its domestic acquisition of bulk data on Americans.

Two senators who should have known better claimed they were shocked at what they read. They read an admission of continued CIA warrantless bulk acquisition of personal data on unsuspecting and unsuspected Americans, and they saw large portions of the letter redacted so that the senators do not know the nature of the data received.

So, notwithstanding the persistent efforts of members of Congress from both parties to limit and in some cases to prohibit the warrantless acquisition of bulk data by the CIA from Americans, the practice continues, the CIA defends it and presidents look the other way.

In 1947, Congress created a monster which today is so big and so powerful and so indifferent to the Constitution and the federal laws its agents have sworn to uphold that it can boast about its lawlessness, have no fear of defying Congress and always escape the consequences of all this largely unscathed.

I suspect the CIA and its cousins get away with this because they spy on Congress and possess damning personal data on members who regularly vote to increase their secret budgets. When will we have a government whose officials are courageous enough to uphold the Constitution?

Read more:
CIA spies and their collaborators | Opinion | journal-spectator.com - Wharton Journal Spectator

After nearly six years, a 21-year-old Black man who was wrongfully imprisoned for three weeks as a 15-year-old has agreed to settle his lawsuit against the city of Kansas City, Missouri, for almost $1 million.

Tyree Bell has settled with the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners for $900,000 after officers violated his civil rights by wrongfully arresting him in June 2016.

Tyree Bell (Fox4 Screengrab)

The settlement comes after the lawsuit was first filed in 2017 against the officers involved in the arrest as well as the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners, which oversees the department. The officers racially profiled and detained Bell, believing was a suspect in a firearms investigation.

On June 8, 2016, officers Jonathan Munyan and Peter Neukirch responded to a call that three Black male teenagers were showing off a firearm to other kids near 91st Street and Marsh Avenue. When the patrol car pulled up on the group and its lights were turned on the boys fled. Two of the boys were apprehended, but one got away.

At the same time as this incident, Bell was walking a few blocks over on 87th Street near a McDonalds restaurant. He had just gotten left summer school when a different cop nabbed him, believing him to be the third suspect. The officer took Bell over to Munyam and Neukirch and the two positively identified him as the boy that ran.

Bells lawyers argued that had the officers listened to his client, who maintained his innocence, and checked their police car dashcam, the young man would have been freed. Instead, he spent three weeks in the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Center.

While the teen was incarcerated, his mother contacted the police department and asked them to share with her the evidence they had against her child, however, they never did until almost a month later.

A detective finally looked at the dash camera video from the patrol car and discovered a grave error had been made. He spoke to a local prosecutor to get the charges dismissed and the young man was released on June 29.

Story continues

Subsequently, the Bell family argued that because the police did not consider the differences between their son and the suspects (i.e. hair, clothing, etc.), the teens Fourth Amendment rights were violated and his arrest was unlawful.

Originally, in March 2019, a lower court dismissed the familys lawsuit. The ruling concluded that the police in question were entitled to qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that stops government officials from getting sued.

Chief Judge Lavenski R. Smith disagreed with the lower court and submitted to the appeals court on behalf of the victim, Given the glaring differences, there was not arguable probable cause to believe that Bell was the fleeing suspect. Bells right to be free from an arrest and detention under the circumstances was clearly established. It is an obvious case of insufficient probable cause.

The Associated Press reported in 2020 that a three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the arresting officers violated Bells constitutional rights when they arrested the teen without probable cause.

They voted that the case should go to trial because the only thing that Bell had in common with the suspect was that he was Black, a juvenile, and male. A jury was presented with the case late last year. That trial ended after the jury was unable to return a unanimous verdict.

Sgt. Jake Becchina, a spokesman for the Kansas City Police Department, said in a statement to The Kansas City Star that the force wanted to come to a successful resolution for all parties since the Bell family filed the lawsuit in 2017. He also noted that the officers were regretful for their actions and wanted to personally express that to Bell. We made a mistake, and the arrest of Mr. Bell was in error, Becchina said in a statement obtained by Fox4.

Through the legal process, the officers involved made it known they would like to meet with Mr. Bell and apologize, Becchina stated. We are glad we reached a mutual resolution and we wish Mr. Bell and his family all the best.

Arthur Benson, Bells legal counsel, stated, It was a part of a national disgrace that has been allowed to persist among white police for forty years: cross-race identifications of Black males by white officers are often wrong.

And they are often wrong because too many police departments do not train their officers that all Blacks do not look alike and how to make an eyewitness identification that is not tainted by racial stereotypes Tyree Bell was a victim of the Kansas City Police Departments failure to address this national outrage, he said.

The agreement will pay $442,00 in compensatory damages to Bell and $458,000 to Benson and the rest of his legal team.

More news from our partners:

For What?! For What?!: Minneapolis Parks Officer Draws His Weapon On Black Woman After Spotting Her Gun Permit, Video Released Following Settlement

@JacksonMahomes You Didnt Have To Lie To Us | Patrick Mahomes Brother Accused Of Scamming Small Business

Black Americans Might Miss Out on the $68 Trillion Transfer of Generational Wealth. Heres Why.

See the original post:
We Made a Mistake: Black Man Wrongfully Jailed as a Teen In 2016 After Cops Misidentified Him Settles with City of Kansas City, Missouri; Officers...

from the going-to-need-to-have-a-deeper-discussion-about-expectations dept

Can cops pretend to be real people on social media to catfish people into criminal charges? Social media services say no. Facebook in particular has stressed -- on more than one occasion -- that it's "real name" policy applies just as much to cops as it does to regular people.

Law enforcement believes terms of service don't apply to investigators and actively encourages officers to create fake accounts to go sniffing around for crime. That's where the Fourth Amendment comes into play. It's one thing to passively access public posts from public accounts. It's quite another when investigators decide the only way to obtain evidence to support search or arrest warrants involves "friending" someone whose posts aren't visible to the general public.

What's public is public and the third party doctrine definitely applies: users are aware their public posts are visible to anyone using the service. But those who use some privacy settings are asking courts whether it's ok for cops to engage in warrantless surveillance of their posts just because they made the mistake of allowing a fake account into their inner circle.

Accepting a friend request is an affirmative act. And that plays a big part in court decisions finding in favor of law enforcement agencies. Getting duped isn't necessarily a constitutional violation. And it's difficult to claim you've been unlawfully surveilled by fake accounts run by cops. You know, due diligence and all that. It apparently makes no difference to courts that cops violated platforms' terms of service or engaged in subterfuge to engage in fishing expeditions for culpatory evidence.

Massachusetts' top court has been asked to settle this. And the state justices seem somewhat skeptical that current law (including the state's constitution) allows for extended surveillance via fake social media accounts. No decision has been reached yet, but lower courts in the state are adding to case law, providing additional precedent that may influence the final decision from the state's Supreme Court.

This recent decision [PDF] by a Massachusetts Superior Court indicates the courts are willing to give cops leeway considering the ostensibly-public nature of social media use. But it doesn't give the Commonwealth quite as much leeway as it would like.

Here's how it started:

After accepting a "friend" request from the officer, the defendant published a video recording to his social media account that featured an individual seen from the chest down holding what appeared to be a firearm. The undercover officer made his own recording of the posting, which later was used in criminal proceedings against the defendant. A Superior Court judge denied the defendant's motion to suppress the recording as the fruit of an unconstitutional search, and the defendant appealed. We transferred the matter to this court on our own motion.

Here's how it's going:

Among other arguments, the defendant suggests that because his account on this particular social media platform was designated as "private," he had an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in its contents. The Commonwealth contends that the act of posting any content to a social media account de facto eliminates any reasonable expectation of privacy in that content.

The competing arguments about expectation are (from the defendant) "some" and (from the Commonwealth) "none." It's not that simple, says the court.

Given the rapidly evolving role of social media in society, and the relative novelty of the technology at issue, we decline both the defendant's and the Commonwealth's requests that we adopt their proffered brightline rules.

In this case, Boston police officer Joseph Connolly created a fake Snapchat account and sent a friend request to a private account run by "Frio Fresh." Fresh accepted the friend request, allowing the officer access to all content posted. In May 2017, Officer Connolly saw a "story" posted by "Frio Fresh" that showed him carrying a silver revolver. Connolly recorded this and passed the information on to a BPD strike force after having observed (but not recorded) a second "story" showing "Frio Fresh" in a gym. The strike force began surveilling the gym and soon saw "Frio Fresh" wearing the same clothes observed in the first story (the one the officer was able to record with a second device). Strike force members pursued "Frio Fresh" and searched him, recovering the revolver seen in the Snapchat story.

The court recognizes the damage free-roaming surveillance of social media can do to constitutional rights, as well as people's generally accepted right to converse freely among friends.

Government surveillance of social media, for instance, implicates conversational and associational privacy because of the increasingly important role that social media plays in human connection and interaction in the Commonwealth and around the world. For many, social media is an indispensable feature of social life through which they develop and nourish deeply personal and meaningful relationships. For better or worse, the momentous joys, profound sorrows, and minutiae of everyday life that previously would have been discussed with friends in the privacy of each others' homes now generally are shared electronically using social media connections. Government surveillance of this activity therefore risks chilling the conversational and associational privacy rights that the Fourth Amendment and art. 14 seek to protect.

Despite this acknowledgment, the court rules against the defendant, in essence saying it was his own fault for not vetting his "friends" more thoroughly. The defendant seemed unclear as to Snapchat privacy settings and, in this case, willingly accepted a friend request from someone he didn't know who used a Snapchat-supplied image in his profile. In essence, the court is saying either you care about your privacy or you don't. And, in this case, the objective expectation of privacy is undercut by the subjective expectation of privacy this user created by being less than thorough in his vetting of friend requests.

Nonetheless, the defendant's privacy interest in this case was substantially diminished because, despite his asserted policy of restricting such access, he did not adequately "control[] access" to his Snapchat account. Rather, he appears to have permitted unknown individuals to gain access to his content. See id. For instance, Connolly was granted access to the defendant's content using a nondescript username that the defendant did not recognize and a default image that evidently was not Connolly's photograph. By accepting Connolly's friend request in those circumstances, the defendant demonstrated that he did not make "reasonable efforts to corroborate the claims of" those seeking access to his account.

[...]

Indeed, Connolly was able to view the defendant's stories precisely because the defendant gave him the necessary permissions to do so. That the defendant not only did not exercise control to exclude a user whose name he did not recognize, but also affirmatively gave Connolly the required permissions to view posted content, weighs against a conclusion that the defendant retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in his Snapchat stories.

The final conclusion is that this form of surveillance -- apparently without a warrant -- is acceptable because the surveilled user didn't take more steps to protect his posts from government surveillance. There's no discussion about the "reasonableness" of officers creating fake accounts to gain access to private posts without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Instead, the court merely states that "undercover police work" is "legitimate," and therefore not subjected to the same judicial rigor as the claims of someone who was duped into revealing the details of their life to an undercover cop.

The defendant may get another chance to appeal this decision if the state's Supreme Court decides creating fake accounts to trawl for criminal activity falls outside the boundaries of the Constitution. Until then, the only bright line is don't accept friend requests from people you don't know. But that's still problematic, considering there's no corresponding restriction on government activities, which may lead to officers impersonating people from targets' social circles to gain access to private posts. And when that happens, what recourse will defendants have? The court says it's on defendants to protect their privacy no matter how many lies law enforcement officers tell. That shifts too much power to the government and places the evidentiary burden solely on people who expect their online conversations to be free of government surveillance.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyones attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise and every little bit helps. Thank you.

The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: law enforcement, massachusetts, police, privacy, sharing information, social media, third party doctrine, undercoverCompanies: snapchat

Excerpt from:
Massachusetts Court Says No Expectation Of Privacy In Social Media Posts Unwittingly Shared With An Undercover Cop - Techdirt

Russia just had to remind us all that its still a nuclear power. Then they told us that they were having their nuclear forces conduct drills, I guess because you never know when you might need nuclear missiles those times when you are not invading Ukraine. The Associated Press article in the Seattle Times that brought us this information was as short on details as you would expect given that everything is up in the air at this moment (the morning of Friday, Feb. 18).

I mean, when theyre talking about missiles, are those short-range missiles? Long range? Really long range? Are they tactical nuclear weapons? You know, like itty-bitty nuclear weapons? I think that would be everyones preference going into an invasion the Russians say they arent going into.

How do you drill with nuclear weapons? Does the guy who operates the missile launcher shout BANG extra loud? Do the guys forced to play the enemy have to fall down en masse? Does the missile launcher lose points if the make-believe bomb make-believe explodes upwind, so he and all the troops hes with suffer make-believe fallout?

Im dying to know what an invasion of Ukraine will do to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. So far, its been tanking because of the fear of war, but something tells me investors will rally when war is upon them, and they start calculating all the ways industry can profit from it. Once wars break out, everybody remembers how good theyve been for business. World War I was terrific for sales of heroin, Ive heard.

Theres a bunch of interesting local news. A big development for Real Change is that King County is dropping the police enforcement of the bicycle helmet laws soon in most places, including Seattle. Instead theyll try to get people to wear helmets through education and by giving helmets away for free.

It could be interpreted as a vote of no-confidence in the police. Were there not strong evidence that the enforcement of the laws has been mainly among the homeless and minorities, it probably wouldnt have come to this.

The same may be a factor in the lawsuit before the Washington Supreme Court to the effect that transit enforcement of prepaid fares is unconstitutional. I dont really understand the legal arguments on either side of the lawsuit; I never took Law 101 in college. I am kicking myself for that now. Instead, I took Philosophy 101 and learned how to tell when a ship that has had all its parts replaced is a new ship or still the old ship. (Spoiler: it doesnt matter, its completely up to you. You control the horizontal, you control the vertical not philosophers. This is the official position of the International Association of Philosophers: Dont drag us into the stupid ship problem. Weve had it up to here with the ship problem.)

I do know that the people bringing the lawsuit are mainly basing it on a Fourth Amendment argument, saying that demanding to see proof of prior payment is a form of prohibited search and seizure. The idea is, as I understand it, you can ask to see the proof of payment and you can be evicted from the transit if you dont agree to do so, but it stops there. No arrest, no fine. Just get off the bus or train. I support that idea, not that the Washington Supreme Court is going to care what I think about it. I bet they have their own thoughts about it I could never imagine.

In other local news, several local rich people are preparing to donate $10 million to solve homelessness in this area. Amazon, Starbucks, the Ballmers and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.So far, Im not very impressed. To have any long-term impact, that money has to be spread out over years so some of it can earn money to spend later. Theyre talking about using the money to guide people into suitable shelters. Suitable shelters are a fiction.

Homeless people need housing now. They dont need to be kicked into inappropriate shelters. New units need to be built and the new occupants need breaks on the rent. Its not rocket science, its been done over and over. Just be quick about it.

Dr. Wes is the Real Change Circulation Specialist, but, in addition to his skills with a spreadsheet, he writes this weekly column about whatever recent going-ons caught his attention. Dr. Wes has contributed to the paper since 1994. Curious about his process or have a response to one of his columns? Connect with him at drwes@realchangenews.org.

Read more of the Feb. 23-Mar. 1, 2022 issue.

See the rest here:
Suitable shelters and philosophy takes on boats are fiction - Real Change News

Two important government institutionspolice departments and the judicial systemlargely function in a black box. Police conduct most of their day-to-day activities outside the watchful eye of the public. Judges, too, typically operate in empty courtrooms with limited public oversight. But since March 2020, the sunlight on these two government bodies has started shining brighter.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the racial justice uprising following George Floyds murder provided new opportunities to observe government in action. Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) and videos taken by 17-year-old Darnella Frazier captured Floyds brutal murder at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, raising awareness about the importance of a robust right to record police and the need for public access to BWC recordings. Social distancing requirements forced courts to revisit decades-old policies banning recording devices in courtrooms and accelerated live audio and video technology, providing the public a peek inside courts.

For these and other reasons, the issues of access to BWC recordings, the right to record police, and cameras in courts have received heightened attention the past two years. This article addresses recent events surrounding these three important issues, the current state of the law, and what it means for the future of police transparency and court access.

Access to police body-worn camera (BWC) recordings

Access to BWC recordings has lagged behind the drastic rise in BWC use over the past decade. As of 2016, nearly half of U.S. law enforcement agencies required BWCs, and police departments in many states, including California, Colorado, and New York, are required to use them. Yet access to BWC recordings is restricted in many jurisdictions. State legislatures have enacted a wide range of laws to determine whether and when BWC recordings are released publicly.

In Texas, for example, the public can submit written requests for BWC recordings, but there are many exceptions to disclosure under the states Public Information Act, and police cannot release any portion of a recording made in a private space or a recording involving the investigation of a misdemeanor punishable by fine only and that does not lead to an arrest without permission from the person who is the subject of the recording. Other states feature a range of polices:

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Brennan Center for Justice maintain databases showing the patchwork of BWC policies.

BWC recordings played a pivotal role in the Derek Chauvin trial, as the public and jurors saw up-close the violence of the Minneapolis Police Department. This month, BWC recordings changed the narrative surrounding the death of Amir Locke during the execution of a no-knock search warrant. Minneapolis PD initially claimed Locke had pointed his gun at officers. But BWC recordings released days later contradicted those allegations, showing that Locke did not target officers with his gun. Five days later, police arrested the actual murder suspect.

As the Amir Locke case shows, BWC recordings can be powerful tools in providing a check on police, but this oversight can only occur if the recordings are released publicly.

Right to record police

The First Amendment protects the right to publicly record the police conducting their duties in public in 61 percent of the country. Five federal appellate courtsthe First, Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuitshave recognized this right, while the other circuits have yet to decide the issue. This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court dodged the opportunity to adopt a national right to record police. See Frasier v. Evans, 992 F.3d 1003 (10th Cir. 2021), cert denied, No. 21-57.

During protests after the murder of George Floyd and other incidents of police violence, the public and press exercised their right to record police in record numbers. But police officers often failed to respect this right. The U.S. Press Freedom Foundation found that 80 percent of the record 438 assaults and 142 arrests of journalists in 2020 occurred during protests. As of December 16, 2021, journalists had filed 45 lawsuits against police officers across 24 cities for First and Fourth Amendment violations following arrests and assaults at protests.

Many of these lawsuits are still pending. In August 2021, five news photographers sued the New York Police Department under 42 U.S.C. 1983 for allegedly targeting them while peacefully recording police activity from a public street and sidewalk. Gray v. City of New York, No. 21-cv-06610 (S.D.N.Y.). The case is currently in the discovery phase of litigation. But other lawsuits have been resolved. In February 2022, the ACLU of Minnesota settled a lawsuit brought by journalists injured while covering protests in Minnesota. The state agreed to pay $825,000, change several policies, and cease acts of violence against journalists. A list of other lawsuits filed by journalists against police officers is maintained by the U.S. Press Freedom Foundation.

The doctrine of qualified immunity has also seen recent reforms. When bringing a civil rights lawsuit, a plaintiff must prove that the police violated a clearly established constitutional right. Because the U.S. Supreme Court has set a high bar for when a right is clearly established, state legislatures have stepped in and passed qualified immunity laws. New Mexico and Colorado, for example, have banned qualified immunity. Still, prevailing on a civil rights lawsuit remains an uphilland an expensiveendeavor.

Besides civil lawsuits, criminal charges have been brought against police for violence against the public and press during protests. For example, a Travis County grand jury indicted 19 Austin police officers on excessive force charges after around 30 protestors sustained injuries during the George Floyd protests, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Officers allegedly used beanbag ammunition and rubber bullets against protestors, causing brain injuries and broken bones. Austin officials have already agreed to a $10 million settlement relating to two of those injured protestors.

Cameras in courts

Courts have recognized a First Amendment right to access court proceedings and documents, but this right has not been extended to the use of audio or video recording devices in courts. Instead, courts have largely prohibited the public and press from recording court proceedings. For example, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53 bans photography in or the broadcasting of federal criminal hearings. State courts vary on whether audio or video recordings are permitted.

Because of strict capacity limits during the COVID-19 pandemic, many courts implemented new policies offering electronic or telephonic access to parties through platforms such as Zoom and YouTube, and most courts extended that remote access to the public.

The pandemic provided the public and press a front-row seat to the Derek Chauvin trial in Minnesota. Hennepin County District Courts had traditionally only allowed cameras in criminal trials with the consent of all parties. In the Chauvin case, his attorneys consented to cameras, but prosecutors did not. But because of social distancing requirements limiting the number of people who could be in the courtroom, the court ruled that cameras should be allowed to preserve Chauvins Sixth Amendment right to a public trial and First Amendment right of access. The court wrote: The press does not simply publish information about trials but guards against the miscarriage of justice by subjecting the police, prosecutors, and judicial processes to extensive public scrutiny and criticism. (quoting Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 350 (1966)). A coalition of media organizations banded together to implement the courts ruling. Court TV aired the trial live, while two pool print reporters and two pool broadcast reporters served as the eyes and ears of the public in the courtroom.

The pandemic also improved public access to the U.S. Supreme Court. While the Court had previously made audio recordings of oral arguments available on a delayed basis, beginning in May 2020, the Court live-streamed audio of oral arguments while the Justices and advocates participated remotely. Once in-person proceedings resumed, the Court continued to permit the live streaming of audio. The Court has not announced whether this access will remain going forward.

Link:
Racial Justice Movement and COVID-19 Pandemic Highlight Importance of Police Oversight and Access to Judicial Proceedings - Lexology