Rios v. People.

2025 CO 46. No. 23SC571. Constitutional Law—Sixth Amendment—Right to Public Trial—Courtroom Closures—Waller Test.

June 23, 2025

The supreme court granted certiorari to answer whether virtual public access to observe a criminal jury trial alone can satisfy a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial.

The court concluded that virtual access alone is not a substitute for giving the public the opportunity to observe critical proceedings in the physical courtroom. Here, the exclusion of all spectators from the physical courtroom constituted a nontrivial closure of the courtroom that did not violate Rios’s right to a public trial because the closure, which was necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, satisfied the requirements set forth in Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 48 (1984). Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeals.