U.S. judge bans Twitter from court room

People who use Twitter update others on what they're doing or observing from their mobile devices or computers by posting "tweets" over the internet.

According to District Judge Clay Land in Georgia, Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure should be interpreted to prohibit twittering during court proceedings.  Rule 53 states that, "Except as otherwise provided by a statute or these rules, the court must not permit the taking of photographs in the courtroom during judicial proceedings or the broadcasting of judicial proceedings from the courtroom."

A reporter for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer had apparently asked permission to tweet updates from the corruption trial of local attorney Mark Shelnutt, which was scheduled to start on Monday. But the judge concluded that the term "broadcasting" in Rule 53 should include sending electronic updates from the court room that describe trial proceedings for immediate public viewing.

In a four-page order, Judge Land said, "It cannot be reasonably disputed that 'twittering,' as previously described, would result in casting to the general public and thus making widely known the trial proceedings. Moreover, it appears clear that the drafters of Rule 53 intended to extend the Rule's reach beyond the transmission of trial proceedings via television and radio."

However, it remains unclear if other courts would follow the same rule during trial proceedings. In March, a judge in Kansas allowed reporter to use the micro-blogging service Twitter to provide constant updates from a racketeering gang trial.