Letter to Chief Administrative Judge Marks on the Public Right of Access to Virtual Civil Proceedings in New York Supreme Courts

The NYCLU wrote to Chief Administrative Judge Marks concerning public access to civil proceedings in New York Supreme Courts. Since April 2020, and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, those courts have been routinely scheduling and conducting virtual proceedings for civil matters without providing the public access to freely attend and observe those proceedings. The failure to provide public access to judicial proceedings severely undermines the legitimacy of those proceedings and violates the First Amendment’s right of access and the similar right under Section 4 of the Judiciary Law. We, therefore, request that you take immediate action to assure that the public has ready access to all judicial proceedings in New York.