Legal Question in Constitutional Law in California

Re: trails

Trials are held publicly more for the benefit of society than for the benefit of individual defendants. Countries that hold trials in secret usually have citizens who believe the justice system is not trustworthy -- and who are usually right. Courts that operate under public scrutiny are much less likely to become tools of oppression than our courts that operate in secret.

Additionally, any bias or favoritism that a judge -- or the entire system -- might otherwise let influence its decisions will be kept in check by the fact that the public might find out about it.

Even a truly just system that happens to operate in secret would make people suspicious. People who don't see that the courts are operating justly are likely to believe that they operating unjustly, so holding trials publicly prevents needless suspicion of the courts.

For essentially the same reasons, most proceedings in Congress and in the various state legislatures are also open to the public.