Oklahoma court's livestream a first

As media and public interest grew around three tax and fee cases argued Tuesday at the Oklahoma Supreme Court, Chief Justice Doug Combs faced a dilemma.

"The chief justice knew there was a lot of public interest, and so we anticipated we would get a lot of requests for cameras," said the court's Administrative Director Jari Askins.

They reached out to OETA, the state's publicly funded television station, to help broadcast the morning-long hearing. Both OETA and the court shared the live feed Tuesday, at one point drawing about 700 people at once to watch the historic day of legal arguments.

"If only a small fraction of those had come, there would not have been room in the courtroom for them," Askins said.

Read more: http://newsok.com/smile-oklahoma-high-courts-livestream-a-first-as-camera-documents-proceedings/article/5559417