Washington, D.C. — This morning, Judge Mehta denied the motion filed by Economic Liberties, Demand Progress, Open Markets Institute, and the Revolving Door Project asking the Court to provide a publicly available audio feed of the unsealed portions of the upcoming Google Search antitrust trial.

“The company whose infamous mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible was successful today in its effort to block the public from accessing the most important antitrust trial of the century,” said Katherine Van Dyck, Senior Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “The public has a very real stake in this case, and neither Google nor the Court should be allowed to shroud it in secrecy. Unfortunately, this decision does just that and prioritizes Google’s privacy over the public’s First Amendment right to listen, in real time, to witnesses that will layout how Google monopolized search engines. Judge Mehta’s ruling guarantees that the only people who will be able to see the trial and talk about what happens are Washington, D.C. lobbyists paid to advance the interests of Big Tech.”

Ms. Van Dyck added, “Our request for an audio feed is not about mere convenience. Transparency in judicial proceedings is critical to a stable democracy. If Judge Mehta is correct that he is administratively barred by the Judiciary from providing a live audio feed of trials of enormous public interest and import, then the Judiciary’s rules need to change. This trial, and others looming on the horizon in D.C., will test the strength of our economy and our democratic ideals. If our access to our courts is not modernized, and the people of the United States cannot hear the testimony, see the documents, and judge the evidence for themselves, they will not trust their outcomes.”

Concentration of corporate power directly affects the general public, leading to increased prices, lower quality products and services, underinvestment and stymied innovation, and harm to workers. As the motion explains, access to the courtroom should not be restricted to special interest groups in Washington, D.C. The American public has a right of access to proceedings like the trial that will play out before the Court in D.C., deciding the legality of Google’s undisputed monopoly over a number of internet search-related markets that they access every day.

As James Madison warned, “A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy: or perhaps both.”

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.