Yesterday I had the privilege of spending several hours in the Ceremonial Courtroom in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in New York City. It is an impressive room where many important cases are heard, yet the cases often over shadow the room and room deserves its own place in the spotlight.

The courthouse, like most courthouses, do not allow you to bring camera inside, so it is difficult to find pictures of the courtroom, so I will try to conjure an image with my words.

As you enter the courtroom, you are greeted by busts of Learned Hand and Henry Friendly. Judge Hand served as an active judge in the Second Circuit from 1924 until 1951, including three years as chief judge. He wrote important decisions about Freedom of Speech. Judge Friendly served as an active judge in the Second Circuit from 1959 until 1974, also including a three-year stint as chief judge.

The courtroom is cavernous. The ceiling is twenty to thirty feet high. Dark wood, leather and ornate marble add to the ambiance, as does rich fabrics used for the curtains and the carpets.

It has the feeling of a temple to justice and lawyers and observers spoke in hushed voices before the judges arrived. I looked around the room to see if there were any electrical outlets where I could plug in my laptop and found none. I didn’t even check to see if there was WiFi.

As I sat in the courtroom for the first time and felt a sense of awe, I wondered if lawyers who have argued in the court many times have that same sense of awe, and at least one affirmed that afterwards, also speaking of the nearly religious feeling the courtroom imparts.

So, I sit on the long wooden benches that resemble pews and wait for the judges to enter. While the powdered white wigs of yesteryear are gone, the sense of dignity and privilege remains. The court considers many important issues, yet one of the important issues, perhaps left to journalists, bloggers and educators is how to make the courts accessible which maintaining their dignity and decorum. I hope this blog post will have done its little part.