Law360 (May 4, 2026, 9:42 PM EDT) -- The
Northern District of California modified local court rules late Friday to allow judges to stream audio for civil jury trials in the district, accompanying its announcement with a separate notice that the high-profile Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial over
OpenAI's for-profit conversion is available to access via audio stream.
The rule change amends Civil Local Rule 77-3 to allow remote audio access to civil jury trials at the presiding judge's discretion. The proposed rule change specifically prohibits video access to civil jury trials, and it does not allow audio or video streaming of federal criminal trials.
The rule change, which occurred after a monthlong period of
public comment, also says that remote audio access will not be permitted in scenarios that risk interfering with the integrity of the court proceedings, including creating safety or privacy risks, or materially affecting witness testimony. Recording or rebroadcasting the audio livestream is also prohibited.
During the public comment period, the district only received positive feedback on allowing audio access to federal civil jury trials, according to the district's spokesperson when asked Monday.
Since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, judges in California's Northern District already allowed remote audio access to certain high-profile bench trials, including
Epic Games Inc.'s landmark
antitrust fight against
Apple Inc. and a
bench trial against the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claiming risks of adding fluoride to drinking water.
Headline-grabbing trials that involve testimony from some of the world's highest-paid executives regularly land on court dockets in California's Northern District, which covers Oakland, San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The district's jurisdiction extends as far south as Monterey County and as far north as Del Norte County, which borders Oregon.
The court announced the local rule change Friday alongside a notice that the
high-profile civil jury trial in
Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI Inc.'s for-profit conversion would be audio streamed going forward.
That trial kicked off April 27 in Oakland with
jury selection and the first week of testimony, including Musk's
three-day in-person examination. It has drawn hundreds of onlookers, including attorneys, journalists and others, as well as a few protesters, who have lined up before dawn to get a seat in the courtroom.
So far, attendees have quickly filled the courtroom and an overflow courtroom nearby that airs a live video feed of the trial. During Musk's testimony, some members of the public without seats resorted to sitting on the floor of the overflow courtroom to watch the man who has repeatedly been identified as the richest person in the world testify.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the trial, told counsel she anticipated the rule change would likely occur, and she expressed her hope that audio-streaming the trial would ease the burden on the courthouse's security team.
"I get daily briefings, and it appears there's a lot happening outside the courtroom," the judge told counsel.
For her part, Judge Gonzalez Rogers has publicly admonished multiple members of the public who have been caught by U.S. marshals taking photographs of Musk inside the courthouse despite numerous signs around the courthouse prohibiting photography and recordings. Judge Gonzalez Rogers also told counsel she would audio-stream the trial testimony but not proceedings outside the presence of the jury.
On Monday morning, after the rule change was announced, Musk's counsel cited the new rule's audio-stream exception and asked the judge for permission not to broadcast the examination of witness Shivon Zilis, a former OpenAI board member who has four children with Musk.
Zilis is expected to take the stand later this week in Musk's case-in-chief. Robert K. Kry of
MoloLamken LLP, who represents Musk, argued that audio-streaming her examination could create heightened safety risks for her children who already face significant threats in light of their father's status.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers told Musk's counsel to meet with opposing counsel to discuss the issue before she decides the request.
After the discussion, trial proceeded, and during the examination of the first witness of the day, University of California, Berkeley computer science professor Stuart Russell, the court clerk interrupted Russell's testimony to inform the judge that the court was having "audio issues."
Assuming the clerk was referring to audio issues with the live-streaming, Judge Gonzalez Rogers initially let the witness' examination continue, explaining that she won't stall the trial due to an audio-streaming problem. However, the clerk clarified that a juror's hearing-assistant headset wasn't working. The judge quickly stopped Russell's examination and apologized to the juror.
"We have a lot of [potential] audio issues — audio overflow, audio streaming," the judge told the juror. "You are the only audio problem for which I will wait."
--Editing by Kristen Becker.
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