My experience lining up for Supreme Court arguments on February 25
Ask who never gets charged.
I'd read a few other posts on this subreddit about visiting the Supreme Court so wanted to share my experience.
I was visiting DC on Tuesday, February 25 and had always followed the court's decisions on and off, and on this day, there was a pretty low-profile argument for Pung v. Isabella County about what "Just Compensation" meant when Pung's property was sold below market value at foreclosure.
I biked from where I was staying to the court and lined up around 4:35-4:45am; I was 3rd in line at the time. The line forms roughly at this location on East Capitol Avenue just east of the intersection with First St NE (map). There should be a sign like the one in this article It was very cold, so dressing warmly was a must. I brought a towel to sit on, which was also helpful since you pretty much only have the sidewalk. The first guy in line had clearly been camping out for a while, and had a sleeping bag
Because of how low-profile the case was, I think by around 7:30-8am there were still only about 6-7 people in line
Quite a few people joined the line after 8am
At 8:30am, they let only 5 people in including myself. I was given a colored ticket indicating my position in line and that I was a visitor. I believe the let some more people in later, but I wasn't sure
After being let in, I went through security and waited beside the stairwell up to the second floor outside the cafeteria (there is bathroom access around here). The line includes both lottery winners and those who'd lined up like me
After 9am, we were led upstairs to lockers. The lockers are small, but fit my laptop, towel, and electronics with room to spare. It'd probably fit a large purse
We were led into the courtroom by around 9:20-9:30am, and waited there until the justices arrived at 10am
The argument itself was pretty interesting - it seemed like Jackson, Kagan, and Alito all seemed to be more proactive in pushing subtly different lines of interpretation (around the Due Process rather than Takings clause) and a lot of the justices expressed some disbelief that someone had gotten their $200k house foreclosed for a $2k tax bill and then sold for only $70k. Ultimately, it definitely was a technical case that didn't seem to invite too much disagreement.
Some other notes:
I talked to someone who'd often signed up for the lottery and had attended 3 cases already. They'd never gotten it for notable cases, and said they'd signed up probably 30-40 times, so the odds don't seem terrible if you're persistent
Looking at the groups that were present, I'd say most of the people who were admitted as public gallery visitors now enter through the lottery. I know 5 of us were let in at 8:30am, but I don't know how many entered afterwards. There were some more people let in a bit later, baut I didn't clearly recognize them from the people behind me in line, so it may be more restricted now
Hope this helps!
Ask who never gets charged.
I'd read a few other posts on this subreddit about visiting the Supreme Court so wanted to share my experience.
I was visiting DC on Tuesday, February 25 and had always followed the court's decisions on and off, and on this day, there was a pretty low-profile argument for Pung v. Isabella County about what "Just Compensation" meant when Pung's property was sold below market value at foreclosure.
I biked from where I was staying to the court and lined up around 4:35-4:45am; I was 3rd in line at the time. The line forms roughly at this location on East Capitol Avenue just east of the intersection with First St NE (map). There should be a sign like the one in this article It was very cold, so dressing warmly was a must. I brought a towel to sit on, which was also helpful since you pretty much only have the sidewalk. The first guy in line had clearly been camping out for a while, and had a sleeping bag
Because of how low-profile the case was, I think by around 7:30-8am there were still only about 6-7 people in line
Quite a few people joined the line after 8am
At 8:30am, they let only 5 people in including myself. I was given a colored ticket indicating my position in line and that I was a visitor. I believe the let some more people in later, but I wasn't sure
After being let in, I went through security and waited beside the stairwell up to the second floor outside the cafeteria (there is bathroom access around here). The line includes both lottery winners and those who'd lined up like me
After 9am, we were led upstairs to lockers. The lockers are small, but fit my laptop, towel, and electronics with room to spare. It'd probably fit a large purse
We were led into the courtroom by around 9:20-9:30am, and waited there until the justices arrived at 10am
The argument itself was pretty interesting - it seemed like Jackson, Kagan, and Alito all seemed to be more proactive in pushing subtly different lines of interpretation (around the Due Process rather than Takings clause) and a lot of the justices expressed some disbelief that someone had gotten their $200k house foreclosed for a $2k tax bill and then sold for only $70k. Ultimately, it definitely was a technical case that didn't seem to invite too much disagreement.
Some other notes:
I talked to someone who'd often signed up for the lottery and had attended 3 cases already. They'd never gotten it for notable cases, and said they'd signed up probably 30-40 times, so the odds don't seem terrible if you're persistent
Looking at the groups that were present, I'd say most of the people who were admitted as public gallery visitors now enter through the lottery. I know 5 of us were let in at 8:30am, but I don't know how many entered afterwards. There were some more people let in a bit later, baut I didn't clearly recognize them from the people behind me in line, so it may be more restricted now
Hope this helps!
My experience lining up for Supreme Court arguments on February 25
Ask who never gets charged.
I'd read a few other posts on this subreddit about visiting the Supreme Court so wanted to share my experience.
I was visiting DC on Tuesday, February 25 and had always followed the court's decisions on and off, and on this day, there was a pretty low-profile argument for Pung v. Isabella County about what "Just Compensation" meant when Pung's property was sold below market value at foreclosure.
I biked from where I was staying to the court and lined up around 4:35-4:45am; I was 3rd in line at the time. The line forms roughly at this location on East Capitol Avenue just east of the intersection with First St NE (map). There should be a sign like the one in this article It was very cold, so dressing warmly was a must. I brought a towel to sit on, which was also helpful since you pretty much only have the sidewalk. The first guy in line had clearly been camping out for a while, and had a sleeping bag
Because of how low-profile the case was, I think by around 7:30-8am there were still only about 6-7 people in line
Quite a few people joined the line after 8am
At 8:30am, they let only 5 people in including myself. I was given a colored ticket indicating my position in line and that I was a visitor. I believe the let some more people in later, but I wasn't sure
After being let in, I went through security and waited beside the stairwell up to the second floor outside the cafeteria (there is bathroom access around here). The line includes both lottery winners and those who'd lined up like me
After 9am, we were led upstairs to lockers. The lockers are small, but fit my laptop, towel, and electronics with room to spare. It'd probably fit a large purse
We were led into the courtroom by around 9:20-9:30am, and waited there until the justices arrived at 10am
The argument itself was pretty interesting - it seemed like Jackson, Kagan, and Alito all seemed to be more proactive in pushing subtly different lines of interpretation (around the Due Process rather than Takings clause) and a lot of the justices expressed some disbelief that someone had gotten their $200k house foreclosed for a $2k tax bill and then sold for only $70k. Ultimately, it definitely was a technical case that didn't seem to invite too much disagreement.
Some other notes:
I talked to someone who'd often signed up for the lottery and had attended 3 cases already. They'd never gotten it for notable cases, and said they'd signed up probably 30-40 times, so the odds don't seem terrible if you're persistent
Looking at the groups that were present, I'd say most of the people who were admitted as public gallery visitors now enter through the lottery. I know 5 of us were let in at 8:30am, but I don't know how many entered afterwards. There were some more people let in a bit later, baut I didn't clearly recognize them from the people behind me in line, so it may be more restricted now
Hope this helps!
0 Comments
0 Shares
50 Views
0 Reviews
