Waller v. Georgia

On its own, the impact of Waller v. Georgia was slight. An informal review of Supreme Court cases over a period of nearly 15 years following the Court's 1984 decision, for instance, found only five cases that referred to Waller specifically. Considered as part of a larger trend, however, the results of Waller were powerful indeed. This trend relates at least as much to the First Amendment as to the Sixth: together with Press- Enterprise and the earlier cases of Gannett Co. v. DePasquale (1979), Richmond Newspapers, Inc. v. Virginia (1980), and Globe Newspaper Co. v. Superior Court for the County of Norfolk (1982), it helped to usher in an era of increased public awareness of trial proceedings. The introduction of cameras into the courtroom, which materially increased this awareness manifold, helped enhance public interest in the 1995 trial of O. J. Simpson and other legal actions. This in turn spawned a veritable industry of "courtroom entertainment" in the 1990s, symbolized by the creation of the Court TV network, which put a new spin on the idea of a "public trial" by broadcasting courtroom proceedings to millions of homes.