Borked!

May 10, 2010 10:06 AM

How does one score tickets to Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan's Confirmation Hearings?

I've attended Supreme Court Hearings by waiting in queue outside the morning of (non-controversial cases are usually a breeze) but would like to attend a day of Ms. Kagan's confirmation hearings. How does one go about getting tickets? Are they allocated to Congresional types to disburse amongst their favorites? Family/press only? Has anyone gone? The supreme court's website doesn't offer anything specific w/r/t confirmations.

Many thanks

posted by Hurst to law & government (7 answers total)

Shouldn't this be a senate hearing rather than a supreme court hearing? Am I misunderstanding you somewhow?
posted by JMOZ at 10:14 AM on May 10, 2010

In general, unless you have some political connection or are a journalist, you find out when it is, and then you stand in line for it. If you don't want to wait in line, you can pay someone to do it for you.

Also, don't expect to be able to hang around all day. I went to some hearings a long while ago, and waited from 4AM to 1PM and was allowed in to watch for only 1/2 hour.
posted by procrastination at 10:19 AM on May 10, 2010

It's going to be a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, not a hearing at the Court. I've never been to a nomination hearing before, but, for an old job, I've been to a lot of other House and Senate Committee hearings. Typically, there are not tickets and seating is first come, first served.

I suspect that confirmation hearings are similar, but that the demand will be much higher. Thus, there will be long lines, but probably no tickets. I fear it might be difficult to work out the details until we know when the hearings will actually be held.
posted by ecab at 10:22 AM on May 10, 2010

You wait in line the day of. That is the only way. There are no real tickets. The big people use line standers, who are part and parcel of the low-wage sector here.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:41 AM on May 10, 2010

If one of your Senators is on the Judiciary committee, I've heard it might be possible to get tickets by contacting that Senator's office, but you'd probably a) need to have a better-than-average reason to want to attend, and b) already be known by the office.
posted by anastasiav at 11:27 AM on May 10, 2010

Yes this is SJC stuff. I remember trying to email my senators for Sotomayor but they said they had a limited # of tickets that were allocated. Ironmouth's response seems to have confirmed that one can indeed wait in line for entrance and I guess that's all I needed to hear.

Thanks
posted by Hurst at 11:45 AM on May 10, 2010

Now that the hearings are due to start on Monday at 12:30 pm, the Senate Judiciary Committee has published information on exactly how the standing-in-line process will work for members of the public.

The short version is that you will stand outside on the corner of First Street and C Street NE on the morning of each day's hearings in order to be issued passes, which will permit you entrance "for a limited period of time in order to allow more members of the public access to the hearings." One sign that you can expect extremely long lines if you don't arrive early is the warning that "[i]ndividuals wishing to wait in line for the following day's hearing may do so ONLY after the current day's hearing has concluded."
posted by Partial Law at 2:36 PM on June 22, 2010