courtroom-closure
26 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-5111 | Omar Agor, Jr. v. United States | Ninth Circuit | 2025-07-15 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-rights courtroom-closure judicial-discretion procedural-interpretation public-trial sixth-amendment | Is there an exception to the Sixth Amendment's right to a public trial for a closure of the courtroom during a criminal trial that the district and ci… |
| 24-7382 | Issac Jermale Fisher v. Missouri | Missouri | 2025-06-09 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-significance courtroom-closure public-access structural-error trial-court-standards waller-v-georgia | When do intentional actions designed to restrict the public's entry to the courtroom constitute a closure of constitutional significance that, unless … |
| 24-5947 | Ismail Salaam v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2024-11-08 | Denied | IFP | courtroom-closure judicial-review plain-error sixth-amendment structural-error trial-procedure | At trial, the district court committed structural error by closing the courtroom in the middle of trial during the adult victim witness's testimony, w… |
| 24-5677 | Kelly Daniel Bass v. Chadwick Dotson, Director, Virginia Department of Corrections | Fourth Circuit | 2024-10-01 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-rights courtroom-closure criminal-procedure ineffective-assistance right-to-counsel speedy-trial | 1. Whether criminal defendants are required to prove prejudice for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim where counsel is absent and the defenda… |
| 24-5191 | Quentin Veneno, Jr. v. United States | Tenth Circuit | 2024-07-31 | Denied | Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (22)IFP | constitutional-authority courtroom-closure criminal-procedure federal-rules-of-criminal-procedure intratribal-conduct presley-v-georgia public-trial rule-51(b) rule-51b tribal-sovereignty | 1. Presley v. Georgia, 558 U.S. 209 (2010), held that, before closing the courtroom during a criminal trial, "courts are required to consider alternat… |
| 23-452 | Michigan v. Anthony Joseph Veach | Michigan | 2023-10-30 | Denied | 6th-amendment child-rape child-victim courtroom-closure public-trial sixth-amendment technicality trial-court trial-procedure victim waller-standard | Does the Sixth Amendment right to a public trial require subjecting the child rape victim to an automatic retrial based on a technicality when there a… | |
| 23A175 | Phillip Charles Gibbs v. Becky Carl, Warden | Sixth Circuit | 2023-08-25 | Presumed Complete | courtroom-closure public-trial sixth-amendment strickland-prejudice structural-error voir-dire | Question not identified. | |
| 22-6755 | Lecedric Prentice Harris v. Florida | Florida | 2023-02-10 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | case-specific-justification constitutional-law constitutional-requirement courtroom-closure criminal-procedure judicial-discretion public-trial-clause split-of-authority statutory-interpretation | Whether the state court correctly held — in conflict with holdings of this Court, the supreme courts of other states, and federal courts of appeal — t… |
| 22-511 | Thomas Dixon v. Texas | Texas | 2022-12-02 | Denied | Response RequestedRelisted (2) | confrontation-clause constitutional-error courtroom-closure crawford-doctrine crawford-v-washington due-process hearsay-confession hearsay-exception hemphill-v-new-york recantations sufficiency-of-the-evidence | QUESTION ONE: Should Crawford be a one-way street? Contrary to Hemphill v. New York, __ U.S. __, 142 S. Ct. 681, 692-93, 211 L.Ed.2d 534 (2022), the t… |
| 22-6160 | Wayland Lynn Dilts v. Mike Brown, Warden | Sixth Circuit | 2022-11-29 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | aedpa aedpa-standard constitutional-violation courtroom-closure due-process public-trial public-trial-right sixth-amendment sixth-circuit weaver-v-massachusetts witness-testimony | This case involves an unprecedented public-trial violation claim like no other brought before this Court. The record here reflects, that during a jury… |
| 22-5714 | Tracy Alan Zornes v. William Bolin, Warden | Eighth Circuit | 2022-09-29 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | antiterrorism-and-effective-death-penalty-act-of-1 courtroom-closure criminal-procedure partial-courtroom-closure presley-v-georgia public-trial sixth-amendment voir-dire waller-test waller-v-georgia | The question presented by this petition is whether the Sixth Amendment's public trial guarantee, within the review apparatus imposed by the Antiterror… |
| 22-5431 | Davante Turner v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2022-08-23 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-protections courtroom-closure due-process fair-trial government-agent public-trial sixth-amendment structural-error | (1) Whether it is structural error and a violation of Petitioner's constitutional protections to a fair and public trial under the Sixth Amendment of … |
| 21-1579 | Stephen Alexander v. Georgia | Georgia | 2022-06-22 | Denied | Response Waived | courtroom-closure fundamental-unfairness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel prejudice prejudice-analysis sixth-amendment strickland-standard strickland-v-washington | When Defense Counsel errs by not objecting to an improper courtroom closure, should reviewing courts apply a "fundamental unfairness" test, or the tra… |
| 21-7484 | Hayze L. Schoonover v. Illinois | Illinois | 2022-03-29 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | courtroom-closure defendant-rights media-access overriding-interest public-trial sixth-amendment substantial-reason waller-test | (1) Whether allowing the media to remain in the courtroom preserves a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a public trial during a partial courtroom c… |
| 21-764 | Patrick Huff v. Florida | Florida | 2021-11-23 | Denied | Amici (2)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) | constitutional-rights courtroom-closure criminal-procedure first-amendment public-access sixth-amendment trial-procedure waller-analysis waller-v-georgia | Whether, as the court below and two other states hold, trial courts may close a courtroom pursuant to a closure statute without undertaking the Waller… |
| 21-5697 | Shawn Mayreis v. Bobby Lumpkin, Director, Texas Department of Justice, Correctional Institutions Division | Fifth Circuit | 2021-09-17 | Denied | IFP | constitutional-rights courtroom-closure due-process fundamental-unfairness ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel public-trial right-to-counsel strickland voir-dire | I. This Court has established that a defendant's right to a public trial extends to voir dire. When counsel's defective advice given in advance of tri… |
| 20-7521 | Lionel Lewis v. New York | New York | 2021-03-23 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-rights courtroom-closure criminal-procedure due-process public-trial sixth-amendment undercover-officer | Does an undercover officer's interest in potentially continuing undercover work in the general area where a defendant's family members reside categori… |
| 20-7089 | Kemen Lavatos Taylor, II v. Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, et al. | Eighth Circuit | 2021-02-09 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-scrutiny courtroom-closure courtroom-closures eighth-circuit-court-of-appeals judicial-procedure minnesota-supreme-court public-trial sixth-amendment triviality-exception | 1. Whether the Sixth Amendment's public trial guarantee contains a triviality exception, consistent with the Minnesota Supreme Court and Eight Circuit… |
| 20-6869 | Tavarius D. Radford v. Illinois | Illinois | 2021-01-13 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | courtroom-closure direct-appeal ineffective-assistance partial-closure public-trial sixth-amendment structural-error waller-v-georgia weaver-v-massachusetts | (1) Whether the "overriding interest" test established by this Court in Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39 (1984), to determine if a defendant's Sixth Ame… |
| 20-6778 | Richard Anderson v. United States | Second Circuit | 2021-01-05 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | burden-of-proof courtroom-closure criminal-procedure family-member-exclusion public-trial sixth-amendment triviality-exception waller-v-georgia | On October 4, 2013, and again on December 4, 2013, Kevin Felton, a friend of Mr. Anderson, tried to attend Mr. Anderson's trial. On both occasions, wi… |
| 19-8388 | Terrence Jamal Williams v. Sherry L. Burt, Warden | Sixth Circuit | 2020-05-04 | Denied | IFP | constitutional-error courtroom-closure due-process fundamental-fairness fundamental-unfairness ineffective-assistance-counsel ineffective-assistance-of-counsel judicial-discretion sixth-amendment waiver-doctrine weaver-v-massachusetts | Whether counsel's failure to object to the closure of the courtroom because he did not want to draw attention to his conduct meets the Weaver v Massac… |
| 19-7426 | Joseph Njonge v. Margaret Gilbert, Superintendent | Ninth Circuit | 2020-01-28 | Denied | Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP | courtroom-closure prejudice public-trial public-trial-right sixth-amendment trial-procedure triviality-exception voir-dire waller-v-georgia | Whether the "triviality exception" to the Sixth Amendment public-trial right comports with Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39 (1984), which provides the s… |
| 19-6735 | Kwok Cheung Chow, aka Raymond Chow, aka Ha Jai v. United States | Ninth Circuit | 2019-11-22 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-principles counsel-of-choice courtroom-closure government-interest governmental-interest harmless-error overriding-interest public-trial right-to-counsel sixth-amendment | 1. In Presley v. Georgia, 558 U.S. 209 (2010), this Court held the right to a public trial in criminal cases extends to the entire trial, and any clos… |
| 19-5890 | Fernando Cabral-Varela v. Massachusetts | Massachusetts | 2019-09-10 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | constitutional-law constitutional-rights courtroom-access courtroom-closure criminal-procedure due-process public-trial sixth-amendment structural-error witness-intimidation | Where there was no risk of witness intimidation for most, if not all, of the Commonwealth's witnesses for the final three days, did the judge deprive … |
| 18-8207 | Wayland Lynn Dilts v. Michigan | Michigan | 2019-03-01 | Denied | IFP | constitutional-rights courtroom-closure criminal-procedure due-process fair-trial fundamental-fairness new-trial public-trial secret-trial sixth-amendment trial-fairness | Whether Petitioner's Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated |
| 18-6565 | Charles C. Gore v. Illinois | Illinois | 2018-11-06 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | 6th-amendment adversarial-proceedings constitutional-rights courtroom-closure criminal-procedure critical-stage-of-trial defendant-rights jury-deliberations public-accountability public-trial right-to-public-trial | Whether the right to a public trial is violated when the trial court closes the courtroom while addressing questions posed by the jury during delibera… |