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Bissoon | PA Courts
PITTSBURGH – Litigation from a public interest law organization against a criminal court judge in Allegheny County, which claimed that the judge violated the First Amendment through preventing the plaintiff and members of the public from remotely observing criminal proceedings in his courtroom, has been settled and withdrawn.
Abolitionist Law Center first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on March 2 versus Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Judge Anthony D. Mariani. Both parties are of Pittsburgh.
The plaintiff is a nonprofit law firm which oversees a court-watching program in Pennsylvania’s Fifth Judicial District, which includes Allegheny County. The program’s volunteers observe dozens of criminal hearings each week, in order to monitor the day-to-day operations of the County’s justice system and share those observations with local community members, advocates and journalists
A lawsuit alleging First Amendment violations against an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge has been formally dismissed.
In March, the Abolitionist Law Center’s Court Watch program sued Judge Anthony M. Mariani in federal court alleging that he was refusing to provide access to proceedings before him.
The program alleged that its court watchers had requested virtual access to more than 100 proceedings in Mariani’s courtroom, but he refused them each time.
However, a few days after the lawsuit was filed, Mariani began granting remote access.
In late March, court administrators issued an order requiring all Common Pleas and magistrate judges to continue to offer the public access to remote proceedings through June 30.
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After being
sued last month for blocking virtual access to his courtroom, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani has been allowing remote attendance by court observers but not in all cases.
The Abolitionist Law Center filed the suit in federal court, alleging that earlier this year Mariani denied more than 100 requests from ALC’s volunteer court watchers to view criminal proceedings online.
Within a few days of being sued, Mariani began to allow the court watchers to observe hearings remotely, according to ALC Court Watch program director Autumn Redcross. And several weeks later, President Judge Kim Clark issued an order requiring that the public receive online access “to those proceedings that are being conducted remotely … rather than by in-person proceeding.”