Yes, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has a YouTube channel, and it’s the only federal court in the country that livestreams its audio proceedings, according to David Sellers Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
And while some other federal courts may have their own YouTube channels, Sellers said that only the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco uses the videos for broadcasting actual trials; the others use them for educational videos.
The 9th Circuit launched its YouTube channel in 2010. And the most popular video by far is the travel ban case 17-35105 State of Washington, et al. v. Donald J. Trump et al., which has been seen more than 100,000 times by Thursday morning.
That’s something many non-legal types might not have known, until Tuesday.
#9thcircuit Court of Appeals is the only fed court to livestream oral arguments. Guess which was most popular? https://t.co/A7gz7kD4Sj pic.twitter.com/xPYD1gfczr
— Lisa Fernandez (@ljfernandez) February 9, 2017
Probably not too many people knew the #9thCircuit had a @YouTube channel until this week. https://t.co/Zhv98k1uhv pic.twitter.com/PTkXQ3xwq9
— Lisa Fernandez (@ljfernandez) February 9, 2017
Many more observers all over the world tuned in to listen to oral arguments made in the now-famous travel ban case, which was also streamed online from the court’s website. The live audio was also embedded in several mainstream news sites. The court's stream was so hot on Tuesday afternoon, #9thCircuit was trending on Twitter.
Nothing really touches the travel ban case in terms of YouTube popularity.
The next most popular 9th Circuit video was a case two years ago Johnny Baca v. Derral Adams with 37,000 views, and after that, the Edward Peruta v. the County of San Diego, was seen nearly 19,000 times.
