From last week's decision of the Federal Circuit (Judges Timothy Dyk, Evan Wallach, and Kara Stoll) in In re Violation of Revised Protocols for In-Person Arguments:
Under the in-person [COVID-related] argument protocols in effect during the events here, "[o]nly arguing counsel and no more than one attendee whose presence is necessary to assist or supervise arguing counsel (e.g., a client, lawyer sitting second chair, or paralegal)" [and who were both either vaccinated or had just gotten a negative test result] were "permitted access to the National Courts Building and the courtroom." …
Respondents are two partners and a special counsel at the same law firm that represented a party in an appeal before this court. A few days before the scheduled in-person argument, Respondents filed a motion seeking leave of court for two of the Respondents as well as two other individuals to attend in addition to arguing counsel (also a Respondent) and the one person authorized to be in the building and the courtroom who was necessary to assist or supervise arguing counsel. The proposed attendees were named in the motion. The motion was forwarded to the merits panel on the appeal for consideration. The panel denied that motion without further elaboration.
After receiving the order rejecting the request for additional attendees, Respondents decided that when one of the Respondent partners argued, an associate would be the one official attendee allowed to assist the arguing partner during the argument. Though they received the order denying their request to enter the building and attend argument only two days prior to argument, the responses state that Respondents nonetheless "determined that [the special counsel and the non-arguing partner] could go to the Court, identify who they were, and ask if they could attend, if circumstances had changed." The responses explain that "[t]hey were hoping … that the panel would let them attend."
