What is a Public Trial Clause

Instructions

• 1

  The public trial clause is a clause in the constitution of the USA that allows general public to attend and witness proceedings in a trial case. The courts are open to people and whoever wishes to attend the proceedings can do so. However, the people might be subjected to security checks and might not allowed to take accessories such as cameras in the courts.
• 2

  The clause in the US constitution was introduced through an amendment called Sixth Amendment and since then people are attending and witnessing court proceedings in public trials.
• 3

  Public trial cases are allowed to be witnessed by general public in all countries where law acts to make it legal and fundamental right of public to witness court proceedings of case, whether or not they have any concerns with the case.
• 4

  Under the law it is considered a human right to attend open courts and witness cases. This is a sort of publicity of the proceedings that the trials are held in a fair and impartial legal and justice system. This is the reason that people are allowed to attend the proceedings of the case.
• 5

  The law only protects the right of the people to attend the court proceedings in public trials or open courts. However, people are not allowed if the courts for some reasons are not open to general public. It can be due to sensitivity of the information being used in the case, security reason or due to any other reasons.
• 6

  People can also apply for permission to attend certain cases, if they are not allowed to do so in general. The court has to decide then whether people who have requested to attend the court should be allowed or not.
• 7

  If the court thinks that presence of certain people can influence the case or cause any other issues in the court, they are entitled to bar general public from attending the cases. Generally, there are not many trial cases in which public is not allowed to witness the trial.