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By Don Knox, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court is considering broadcasting its proceedings, but those telecasts — whether on cable television or the Internet — won’t begin until the new Ralph Carr Justice Center is completed in 2013, a top court official said Friday.
The state’s high court is moving in May to a new temporary home on the first and eighth floors of The Denver Post building, 101 W. Colfax Ave. But the new courtroom that’s under construction isn’t being configured for TV coverage, Colorado Judicial Branch Legal Counsel Carol Haller told members of the newly formed Colorado Channel Authority.
The authority provides live coverage of proceedings of the Colorado House and Colorado Senate. It is seen as a vehicle for offering broadcasts of other entities, including the court system.
Haller, asked to talk about the judicial efforts to provide programming to the authority, said “all of the court’s energy” is focused on having temporary space to hold proceedings while the new justice center is being built at the site of the current court.
“This is a retrofit for a very temporary period of time,” she told Law Week Colorado after the meeting. “The courts are going to have to share the space [with The Post]. We may have to have some proceedings in other locations depending on what happens. Our concentration is making sure we have a place to hold court that is appropriate and able to be scheduled for all of the things that we need.”
Additionally, the cost of broadcasting the proceedings hasn’t been budgeted, she said.
But Haller, who sits on the authority’s board, told her fellow board members that Judicial Branch officials are interested in having conversations about the technical requirements for broadcasting from the new Carr Justice Center.
“There’s a media room already” in building plans, she told Law Week. “The shell design is well underway, and the interior design is just starting. To that extent, I’ve seen plans where media rooms are in there.”
Haller said she didn’t know whether the court’s seven justices have had conversations about broadcasts, though judicial administrators who work for the justices seem amenable to the idea.
“What I keep telling people is there certainly is no one putting the breaks on being as transparent as possible,” she said. That extends to putting up a live audio feed from the supreme court and the appellate court; the current feed is delayed.
“I think the court is very cautious about not wanting to spend money frivolously and to make sure there’s a desire and a need for it first,” Haller said. “And I think there is.”
Telecasts of high court arguments would set the Colorado courts apart from the U.S. Supreme Court, where cameras aren’t currently allowed.