The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Wednesday it is taking the unprecedented step of broadcasting live audio of the remaining arguments in its April 2020 session.
The federal appeals court has moved to handling its cases entirely by phone, so the court said it would make the audio of the arguments available to the general public. Dial-in numbers will be posted on the court’s website each day for use by the media and the general public.
“These conference lines will be available in ’listen only’ mode, with a separate line used to access each panel,” said Peter Marksteiner, the court clerk, in a statement. “Recordings of all arguments will be posted on the court’s website after the conclusion of arguments each day. Because of limited on-site staff availability, the Clerk’s Office will neither be able to provide technical assistance to anyone trying to access the conference lines nor be able to provide access information either ahead of time or beyond what is posted on the court’s website.”
The federal judiciary has not uniformly adopted any single approach to sharing its arguments with the public. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is located approximately two miles away from the Supreme Court, which has postponed planned oral arguments. The Supreme Court has not made same-day audio and live broadcasts of oral arguments routinely available to the public.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.