Yesterday, Rep. Lamar Smith, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to James C. Duff, conference secretary of the Judicial Conference of the United States, objecting to Judge Walker’s plans to televise the Proposition 8 trial. Rep. Smith complains of Walker’s overly hasty effort to “deviate[] from longstanding [Judicial] Conference and congressional policy prohibiting televised trial proceedings,” and he “urge[s] the Judicial Conference to do everything in its power” to prevent the planned televising.