WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court will allow no television coverage of its historic argument session this Friday in the Florida election case, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said Monday.

In a letter to C-SPAN Chairman Brian Lamb, the chief justice said the nation's highest court will stick to its ban on television and photo coverage in the courtroom.

"A majority of the court remains of the view that we should adhere to our present practice of allowing public attendance and print media coverage of argument sessions but not allow camera or audio coverage," Rehnquist said.

The chief justice said a written transcript of the argument would be made available on an expedited basis Friday.

C-SPAN's general counsel, Bruce Collins, said in a statement his organization was not surprised, "but we are disappointed."

"It is difficult to conceive of any other oral argument before the court more deserving of the largest possible audience than this one," Collins said.

C-SPAN spokeswoman Joyce Genter said that when the transcript of the argument becomes available Friday, C-SPAN will conduct a full reading on its television and radio stations.

Lamb wrote to the chief justice last week a request to cover any argument held in George W. Bush's appeal of a Florida Supreme Court decision that extended the deadline for reporting hand-counted ballots in the state's presidential vote.

"We respectfully suggest that televised coverage ... would be an immense public service and would help the country understand and accept the outcome of the election," Lamb's letter said.

Lamb said C-SPAN and other media organizations had demonstrated to the court in 1988 that "unobtrusive television coverage could be easily accomplished" by using two cameras, including a miniature camera facing the attorneys' lectern, no extra lighting and the court's own sound system.

In recent years, some justices have made it clear they opposed allowing television coverage of their arguments.

In 1996, Justice David Souter told a House Appropriations subcommittee, "I think the case is so strong that I can tell you the day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it's going to roll over my dead body."

He said that when he was a judge in New Hampshire, camera coverage affected his behavior on the bench, because he believed questions he might ask would wind up being taken out of context on the evening news.