In her just concluded State of the Judiciary speech, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye mentioned that the Supreme Court will begin live streaming its oral arguments. There were many other more important things in the speech, but, for appellate practitioners, this is a big deal. Previously, oral arguments were televised only occasionally, such as when a particularly high profile case was before the court or when the court would hear arguments at a law school.
[Update: Watch the entire speech here. The announcement of live streaming starts around 29:50. The Chief states, “I’m excited to say that soon we will live stream our oral arguments at the Supreme Court.”]
[March 9 update: coverage of the speech, which is now also available on YouTube, includes articles by Kevin Lee in the Daily Journal [subscription], Cheryl Miller in The Recorder [subscription], and Jonathan Cooper at the Associated Press. Cooper’s report includes this about live streaming: “A spokesman for the Judicial Council of California, Cathal Conneely, said officials are planning to livestream the court’s San Francisco arguments in May, but Los Angeles sessions will come later because of technological limitations.” A year and half ago, we were told that live streaming oral arguments “comes down to two issues: funding and technology resources.”]
Selected CSC oral arguments have been webcast for nearly a decade via The California Channel. Ross v. RagingWire in 2007, In re Tobacco II Cases in 2009, etc. I don’t know if these were carried live, however.
Hopefully the comment you quote means that all arguments will soon be webcast, but it’s tough to know for sure if that is what is actually being asserted.