> The only reason courthouses are public is so the public can satisfy themselves that the courts are doing their job in a fair way. Closing the court sessions

> The only reason courthouses are public is so the public can satisfy themselves that the courts are doing their job in a fair way. Closing the court sessions eliminates that assurance. We have seen multiple times in our history that closed sessions are used to break the laws and conventions of this country in a way that harms our citizens and degrades their rights (see FISA court). > That is equally satisfied by having the court proceedings sealed for a given time, for example 5 years. By then, the information is nearly worthless to a competitor. There's an old saying, "justice delayed is justice denied". If in 5 years it turns out this this judge (who has since retired/died) violated all common sense and fair administration of the law, what happens? Nothing. Hell, even if they are still in office, what's the worst that will happen? They resign in shame? Meanwhile 300 million American people spend 5 years suffering the ill effects of the miscarriage of justice. That is not a fair return and it's not justice. Secrecy is largely incompatible with democracy and justice. Think of why wikileaks was so damaging: because our government did things that were illegal, immoral, and kept them a secret from us. Same thing with the FISA court, which basically eliminated the 4th amendment. And at least those instances relied on the idea that they were special needs due to foreign intelligence requirements and security; Google's only argument is that they might lose money.