Court Reporters’ Open Letter – The Rule of Law Begins With the Legal Record

The legal record is not a convenience or a product. It is constitutional infrastructure. As courts quietly replace licensed stenographic court reporters with unregulated recording systems, they are not modernizing procedure. They are removing accountability from the point where law becomes fact. Without a trustworthy, professionally certified record, due process weakens, appellate rights erode, and judicial legitimacy itself is placed at risk.