The Maryland
supreme court plans to offer live Webcasts of its oral
arguments in time to broadcast arguments in a challenge to
the state's same-sex marriage ban on December 4, the
Baltimore Sun reported Monday.
In January, Judge
M. Brooke Murdock ruled in a suit first brought by the
ACLU of Maryland two years ago that "Maryland's statutory
prohibition against same-sex marriage cannot withstand
constitutional challenge." The case was originally
slated to be argued in the court of special appeals,
but supreme court justices have agreed to expedite the
process and hear the case.
"The whole
purpose behind what's known as electronic government is
for ordinary citizens to get information and see how their
government works," said Donald Norris, a public policy
professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore
County. "The court of appeals providing greater access
to its proceedings is a good thing." (The Advocate)