Generally, an appellate court is a court of law that has the authority to review a lower court’s decision. Proceedings in appellate courts are different from those in trial courts. For example, unlike trial courts, which determine the factual issues in a case, in most situations, appellate courts determine only whether the lower courts correctly applied the law. There are no juries or witnesses in appellate courts. Rather, parties file written briefs and often present oral arguments to a panel of judges focusing on the questions of law in a case. Each appellate court has its own policies on video and audio coverage of oral arguments for public dissemination, and the development of such policies is determined by the relevant policy-making entity or each court. For instance, in March 1996, following a federal judiciary pilot program on cameras in the courtroom, the Judicial Conference—the policy-making body of the federal judiciary—authorized each circuit court of appeals to decide for itself whether to allow video and audio broadcasting of appellate proceedings. The U.S. Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in the country and has the power of judicial review, which is the ability to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional. The Court is part of the federal court system, which also includes U.S. courts of appeals and U.S. district courts, among others. The Court has original jurisdiction—the authority to hear a case for the first and only time—over certain cases, and appellate jurisdiction—the authority to review a lower court’s decision—on most other cases that involve a question of constitutional or federal law. Most of the cases the U.S. Supreme Court hears are appeals from lower courts. The U.S. Supreme Court has discretion over which appeals it hears and parties file petitions for writs of certiorari to ask the Court to hear cases. According to the Court’s website, the Court grants review and hears oral arguments in about 80 cases from the approximately 7,000 to 8,000 petitions it receives each Court term. The Court only grants a petition for a writ of certiorari for compelling reasons. U.S. Supreme Court rules state that such reasons may include, among other things, a U.S. court of appeals has entered a decision in conflict with the decision of another U.S. court of appeals on the same important matter; a state court of last resort has decided an important federal question in a way that conflicts with the decision of another state court of last resort or U.S. court of appeals; or a state court or U.S. court of appeals has decided an important question of federal law in a way that conflicts with relevant decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. If a petition is granted, the case will be scheduled for oral argument. Oral arguments occur when the Court is in session on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, with up to two arguments scheduled per day, and generally last an hour for each case. The Court’s term begins the first Monday in October and continues until the first Monday in October the following year. Figure 2 provides additional information about how cases progress in the U.S. Supreme Court. The federal courts have jurisdiction in cases in which the United States is a party, cases involving the U.S. Constitution or federal laws, certain disputes between citizens of different states, or actions against foreign governments, among other matters. Sitting below the U.S. Supreme Court are 13 U.S. courts of appeals, which are lower appellate courts. These U.S. courts of appeals hear challenges to decisions by U.S. district courts located within their circuits, as well as appeals of certain federal administrative agencies’ decisions. Figure 3 shows the geographical boundaries of the circuits. Cases in the U.S. courts of appeals can be decided based on written briefs alone, but many cases are selected for oral argument. Appeals are generally decided by panels of three judges, but some cases can be heard before more than three judges, or en banc. Oral arguments before U.S. courts of appeals usually last about 30 minutes per case. Most decisions of the U.S. courts of appeals are final, but parties may petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. Each state and the District of Columbia generally have one court of last resort and states may also have intermediate appellate courts. State courts of last resort are generally the final arbiters of state laws and constitutions, although their decisions can be appealed under certain circumstances. State court systems vary from state to state. State courts generally have broad jurisdiction and can hear cases not under the exclusive jurisdiction of federal courts. However, they may not hear cases against the United States and those involving certain specific federal laws. Cases in state courts of last resort that interpret federal law or the U.S. Constitution may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The courts of last resort in the selected countries included in our review— Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom—are the final courts of appeals in their respective countries, and each court’s decisions are generally binding to all lower courts in that country. Table 1 has additional information on the courts of last resort in the selected countries, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court does not provide or allow video or live-audio coverage of oral arguments, but provides taped audio coverage of arguments. Specifically, beginning in the October 2010 term, the Court has posted audio recordings of all oral arguments on its website at the end of each argument week. Prior to the 2010 term, the recordings from one term of Court were not available until the beginning of the next term. The Court also provides transcripts of oral arguments on its website the same day arguments are heard and its decisions—the Court’s most important work, according to the Court’s Public Information Officer (PIO)—within minutes of their release. Further, starting with the presidential election cases in 2000, the Court began granting requests for access to audio recordings of oral arguments on the same day arguments are heard in selected cases. According to the PIO, media organizations submit written requests for such access to the Court’s Public Information Office, which forwards them to the Chief Justice for consideration. If a request is granted, the office issues a press release to inform the public in advance that the Court will provide expedited audio recordings for a given case. The Court’s Marshal, Public Information Office, and Office of Information Technology jointly make the arrangements for release of the recordings, which require advanced preparations for the significant increase in website traffic that may result. The PIO stated that the Court has made audio recordings of oral arguments available on the same day as the argument in rare cases, generally in response to extraordinarily high interest among the public and the media. From the 2000 through 2014 terms, the Court received media requests for access to same-day audio recordings of oral arguments in 58 cases. At its discretion, the Court granted these requests in 26 cases and declined them in 32 cases. Figure 4 shows U.S. Supreme Court decisions on media requests for access to same-day audio of oral arguments. As figure 4 illustrates, since October 2010, when the Court began its current practice of posting audio recordings of oral arguments at the end of each argument week, the Court has received media requests for same- day access to recordings in fewer cases—8 cases from the 2010 through 2014 terms, compared to 37 cases from the 2005 through 2009 terms. According to the General Counsel of C-SPAN, which has requested access to video or same-day audio of oral arguments in almost all of the 58 cases in which same-day audio access was requested, the network has made requests more sparingly since the Court began posting recordings of oral arguments at the end of each argument week and has limited requests to very prominent high-profile cases. See appendix III for a list of cases in which media organizations requested access to same- day audio of oral arguments and whether the Court granted or declined requests. Two of the 13 U.S. courts of appeals—the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and the Ninth Circuits—allow media video coverage of oral arguments. In addition, 10 of the 13 U.S. courts of appeals regularly post audio recordings of oral arguments on their websites. Officials from 9 of these 10 courts stated that their court generally posts audio recordings on the same day arguments are heard. Table 2 summarizes the video and audio coverage and oral argument recording policies and practices in the U.S. courts of appeals for the 13 circuits. The policies and practices of these U.S. courts of appeals differ because, as discussed earlier in the report, each court has discretion to determine whether to allow video and audio coverage of appellate proceedings and how to do so. Among the courts we visited—the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits—the policies and practices ranged from allowing media video and audio coverage of oral arguments conducted in open court upon request and streaming live video of arguments using the court’s own equipment (in the Ninth Circuit) to providing audio recordings of oral arguments on the court’s website (in the D.C. Circuit). The information below illustrates the range of policies and practices in these courts. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The court’s guidelines allow media video and audio coverage of oral arguments conducted in open court, except for criminal matters. The guidelines state that the panel of judges assigned to hear oral argument has sole discretion to prohibit coverage of any proceeding, and will normally exercise this authority upon the request of any member of the panel. In practice, according to the court’s Clerk, the media is required to submit a request for video or audio coverage and the panel of judges must affirmatively grant permission to allow coverage. From its 2010 through 2014 terms, the court received requests for video coverage of oral arguments in 15 cases.