S. 783: Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2015

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S. 783: Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2015

114th Congress · introduced 2015-03-18 · Law · Latest: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1631; text of measure as introduced: CR S1631-1632)

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Official title

Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2015

Plain summary

Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2015 Authorizes the presiding judge of a U.S. appellate court or U.S. district court to permit the photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising to the public of court proceedings over which that judge presides, except when such action would constitute a violation of the due process rights of any party. Directs: (1) a district court, upon the request of any witness in a trial proceeding other than a party, to order the face and voice of the witness to be disguised or otherwise obscured to render the witness unrecognizable to the broadcast audience of the trial proceeding; and (2) the presiding judge in a trial proceeding to inform each witness who is not a party of the right to make such request. Allows a presiding judge to obscure the face and voice of an individual if good cause is shown that photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising such features would threaten the individual's safety, the court's security, the integrity of future or ongoing law enforcement operations, or the interest of justice. Prohibits a presiding judge from permitting the photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising of any juror in a trial proceeding, or of the jury selection process. Terminates a district court's authority under this Act three years after enactment of this Act. Requires the Judicial Conference of the United States to promulgate mandatory guidelines which a presiding judge must follow for obscuring certain vulnerable witnesses. Prohibits any audio pickup or broadcast of conferences which occur in a court proceeding between attorneys and their clients, co-counsel of a client, adverse counsel, or counsel and the presiding judge, if the conferences are not part of the official record of the proceedings.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

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Alternatives

Needs sources: no published alternatives yet (for example a different bill, a law instead of an amendment, or keeping current law). We only show items backed by a published source. Suggest one.

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Officials and money

Sponsor: Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA] · 9 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), John Cornyn (R-TX), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

Sponsor's campaign money: Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA] reported raising $527,998 (2025–2026). Details. Shown for context only; it does not mean any donor supported this bill.

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Sources

• Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in Senate)
• Congress.gov
• Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-114s783.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/114/s>

Record fed-us-cong114-s783 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong114 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong114