New York Becomes First US State to Ban Smart Glasses From All Courthouses

Overview

New York’s Unified Court System will bar smart glasses and other recording-capable eyewear from every courthouse in the state starting July 20, under a memo from the Office of Court Administration reported by Gizmodo and TechSpot. The rule applies to more than 1,240 state, county, city, town, and village courts, making New York the first state to adopt a blanket, statewide ban on the devices, according to Engadget.

What We Know

• The ban covers “any eyewear or headwear that contains recording devices, including either audio or video,” according to Gizmodo, including prescription smart glasses with recording capability, as reported by GovTech.
• The policy applies to everyone entering a courthouse, “including court staff and attorneys,” according to GovTech. CNY Central reports it extends to “litigants, attorneys, witnesses, family members, UCS employees and anyone entering the facility.”
• Visitors who arrive wearing the devices will have to leave them with uniformed court officers before entering the building, according to Engadget. TechSpot reports that visitors who need prescription eyewear are “encouraged to bring a set of regular glasses.”
• According to a memo from the Office of Court Administration, quoted by both Gizmodo and CNY Central: “The reason for this prohibition is to ensure that individuals cannot surreptitiously record court proceedings in violation of the New York State Civil Rights Law and applicable court rules.”
• The rule is also meant to prevent recordings that could “accidentally (or intentionally) reveal the identity of jury members,” according to TechSpot. Concerns about juror and witness privacy and the identification of minors are also cited by FingerLakes1.
• The memo, dated July 1, was first reported by Syracuse.com, according to Gizmodo.
• New York’s existing court rules already forbid “taking photographs, films or videotapes, or audiotaping, broadcasting or telecasting, in a courthouse including any courtroom, office or hallway thereof, at any time or on any occasion, whether or not the court is in session,” according to Engadget; the new memo extends that prohibition explicitly to camera- and microphone-equipped eyewear.
• Some courts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania already restrict smart glasses, but New York is the first state to issue a ban covering every courthouse statewide, according to Engadget and GovTech. Federal courts also prohibit recording but have not announced a smart-glasses-specific policy, according to GovTech.
• Signs about the new policy have already gone up at some courthouses, including outside the Honorable James C. Torney III Criminal Courthouse in Syracuse, according to TechSpot.

Context

Concern over camera-equipped eyewear in courtrooms built up earlier this year. In February, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg testified in a Los Angeles trial over allegations that Meta and YouTube designed their platforms to encourage compulsive use among young people, and members of his team wore Meta Ray-Ban glasses “when they escorted him inside,” according to Engadget — an episode Engadget says “brought attention to the use of smart glasses in court.”

During that trial, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl ordered anyone wearing the AI glasses to remove them and warned that using facial-recognition technology to identify jurors was banned, telling those in the courtroom, “This is very serious,” according to CBS News. That hearing took place on February 19, 2026, according to CBS News.

What We Don’t Know

• Neither the memo nor the outlets that reviewed it specify penalties beyond confiscation for anyone who refuses to surrender the devices at the door.
• It is unclear whether other states plan to follow New York with statewide bans of their own, or whether the federal court system will adopt a similar smart-glasses-specific rule.