Litigation » SCOTUS To Lawyers: Stand In Line Yourself

SCOTUS To Lawyers: Stand In Line Yourself

October 8, 2015

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Members of the Supreme Court bar who want to see an oral argument in person cannot send someone to stand in line for them, the Court said this week as it begins a new term. The Court has a maximum capacity of 400, and seats are set aside for media and guests of the justices. The practice of bringing in “line standers,” who are sometimes paid, sometimes homeless, or sometimes lower associates, “have become part of the spectacle of a major Supreme Court hearing, where people pay up to $50 an hour to have someone secure one of several hundred spots,” the Washington Post reports. Last year, some paid as much as $6,000 to ensure they could be admitted for all the days of oral argument in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Court’s major same-sex marriage case. “Court officials were aware of the increasing use of line-standers, and this new procedure attempts to end the practice,” said public information officer Kathleen Arberg.

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