By Josh Gerstein

A collection of groups pushing to open the Supreme Court to television coverage is trying something new: television advertising.

The Coalition for Court Transparency is rolling out a 30-second TV ad this week with a modest local cable buy in Washington, D.C.

“The Supreme Court’s decisions impact the lives of Americans everywhere, but only a privileged few get to see justice in action,” a narrator says in the new spot. “State and federal courts allow cameras in the interest of transparency. Shouldn’t our Supreme Court do the same?”

The ad campaign is backed by a wide array of media-related groups: American Society of News Editors, National Association of Broadcasters, National Press Foundation, National Press Photographers Association, Radio Television Digital News Association, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Society for Professional Journalists. Also joining in the effort are several legal organizations, including the liberal Alliance for Justice and Constitutional Accountability Center, the conservative Liberty Coalition and the pro-transparency group Openthegovernment.org.

The new ad is scheduled to run nearly 300 times through mid-March, a coalition spokesman said. He did not offer a dollar figure for the ad buy, but said it was financed by a charitable foundation called the New Venture Fund.

“The idea that…individuals, and other concerned parties from across the country, would have to fly to Washington, find a hotel, and stand in line for hours – or pay someone to do so – just to see justice in action shows how far the [Supreme] Court needs to come to get more in step with technology and transparency today,” said Bruce Brown of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

“The idea that such a fundamental function of our judiciary is hidden from the vast majority of the American public does not comport with 21st century expectations of transparency, no matter what your political leaning,” the Liberty Coalition’s Michael Ostrolenk said. “At a time when the public’s confidence in the Supreme Court is eroding, and skepticism in secretive government institutions is high, putting cameras in the Court would be a simple way to help restore the Court’s image.”

“There’s nothing the government does that’s more impressive than the high-quality debates that take place before the Supreme Court,” added Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center. “The American people, regardless of where they live, deserve to see the fullness of Supreme Court arguments in real time.”

The Supreme Court no longer has a sitting justice like the still-living former Justice David Souter, who famously said in 1996 that cameras would be allowed in the court over his dead body. However, the pattern in recent years has been for justices to sound positive about the idea during confirmation hearings and less so after actually joining the court.

Legislation requiring the high court to open most of its sessions to cameras was introduced in both the House and Senate last year, but has not made it out of committee.