Lecates v. Lecates

Layton, C. J.,

delivering the opinion of the Court:

Whether the words “All courts shall be open,” contained in the ninth Section of Article 1 of the Constitution, mean that trials and hearings shall be conducted in public, is not clear. The language appears in all of the Constitutions of this State, and it may not be an idle supposition that the provision was inserted in the Bill of Rights for the purpose of forefending against abuses in the administration of justice that undoubtedly existed in England prior to the fall of the Stuart dynasty.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) wrote,

“Only in proportion…