In response to the PROTECT Act in which Congress placed more limitations on judicial discretion at sentencing proceedings, one federal judge has begun videotaping sentencing proceedings:

The move comes amid a backlash over a new law intended to make it more difficult for judges to depart from federal sentencing guidelines, and to make it easier for the government to appeal light sentences. Weinstein claimed that the law effectively gives the Second U.S.Circuit Court of Appeals the power to re-sentence defendants when it finds that a so-called "downward departure" was unjustified.

"It would be very hard to do that without seeing the defendant," said Weinstein, adding he would make all tapes available to the appeals court.

Weinstein, who has a reputation as an activist jurist, is among several federal judges who have openly accused Congress of trying to bully them into imposing harsher sentences.