Chris Noel Tagunicar v. California

The Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant a public trial. In Presley v. Georgia, 558 U.S. 209 (2010) (per curiam), this Court held that excluding the public from voir dire of prospective jurors in a criminal trial violated the Sixth Amendment. This Court in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, 592 U.S. ___, 141 S.Ct. 716 (2021) struck down California’s total ban on indoor religious worship services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Court protected one of our nation’s core Bill of Rights values, the First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion. The same pandemic led a California trial court to impose a total ban on the “public” aspect of a criminal trial. The exclusion of the public from petitioner’s trial touches upon another of our nation’s core Bill of Rights values, the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. The questions presented are:

1. Does the Sixth Amendment public trial right mean that members of the public have a right to be physically present in the courtroom during the trial, including during the COVID-19 pandemic?

2. May a criminal defendant assert the media’s First Amendment right to be physically present in the courtroom during trial?