Effective Monday, July 20, 2026, anyone entering any New York court facility will have to leave their smart eyewear at home. A memo sent to administrative judges ad New York City chief clerks and district executives stated any individual with smart glasses, “eyewear or headwear containing a camera, microphone, computer or other technology that permit the user to record video or audio,” prescription or nonprescription, will not be allowed in the facility.
New York already broadly prohibits video and audio recording in courtrooms and court houses, even when there is no court in session, without prior approval. The inclusion of smart glasses expands this rule to the 1,240 courthouses in the state.
Wearers can give their smart glasses to uniformed personnel for safekeeping, but they will not be allowed entry with them on. The prohibition covers litigants, attorneys, witnesses, family members and employees.
The rationale, the memor states, is “to ensure that individuals cannot surreptitiously record court proceedings in violation of the New York State Civil Rights Law and applicable court rules.” Read the brief memo here.
The Decision Isn’t Surprising
The move doesn’t completely surprise the AI in Eye Care professional editors. “We’re starting to get the legal guardrails around recordings. It’s not hard to imagine in the medical world where a patient—or doctors or staff—cannot wear smart glasses to covertly record an exam,” says Scot Morris, OD.
“The ruling raises a lot of questions. The ground is shifting. Asking these kinds of questions is maybe the best way to determine the next steps,” says Rehan Ahmed, MD. “There are certainly valid discussions about how this ability to record makes other people feel.”
Dr. Morris agrees. “It’s a bidirectional ethics question. It isn’t just about protecting the consumer, but also the providers or attorneys, judges and juries. It’s a question of transparency, accountability, responsibility and safety.”
In the meantime, they say, it would be prudent for eyecare professionals to let patients who use wearable technology know about the new rule so they’re not surprised and potentially left unable to see clearly should they go to a courthouse for any reason.
Recordings in courtrooms
The Radio Television Digital News Association states that only five states—Delaware, Iowa, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania—strictly prohibit cameras in most court proceedings. Other states, such as California, Illinois and Massachusetts are judicial discretion states, where the judge can decide whether to allow cameras or to what extent to limite them. Still others are prior approval states, in which media organizations need to submit requests to the presiding judge.
When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified on behalf of Meta in February, in a case that alleged Instagram is designed to be addictive to kids, the judge threatened anyone wearing smart glasses and covertly recording would be held in contempt of court.
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