A judge who has fought to open the workings of the court to the public made a case for why it matters.
“The judiciary belongs to the public — not to the judges, and not to the lawyers,” said the judge, retired State Supreme Court Justice David Borden.
At a speech Thursday night before the annual meeting of the Connecticut Society for Professional Journalists, Borden detailed some of the moves made by a task force he heads to open more of the state judiciary’s deliberations and decisions open to the public, and more information available online. His Judicial Branch Public Access Task Force began work in 2006.
Borden challenged the judiciary and the press alike to work together better. The more they do, he said, “the more trust and confidence the public will have that its public servants are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.”
Click on the play arrow to watch him make his case.
Borden spoke upon receiving the society’s Helen Loy Freedom of Information Award. His comments came on the same week that New Haven government is moving to fire a city employee for, among other offenses, violating a new media policy by speaking with a reporter after hours without permission from the mayor’s office. (The head of the state ACLU this week called this week called the policy unconstitutional:“The intimidating impact of employees having to ask a spokesman for the right to exercise a basic privilege creates a chilling effect that can be safely described as an arctic blast.”)
“The judiciary belongs to the public — not to the judges, and not to the lawyers,” Borden told the journalists assembled at North Haven’s Fantasia banquet hall for Thursday night’s SPJ gathering.