Professor Pamela Karlan weighs in on the Supreme Court’s new decision to ban “line-sitters” in the “lawyers line” at the Court. 

Membership in the Supreme Court Bar isn’t nearly as exclusive as it sounds: Thousands upon thousands of lawyers have paid the $200 admittance fee even though they will never argue a case at the court.

But membership has its privileges. One of them is a separate and much shorter waiting line to see a Supreme Court oral argument in person — the only way anyone can see an argument at the Supreme Court, where television cameras are banned.

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The “lawyers line,” as it is referred to at the court, has always been a bit more genteel. “Usually, if you show up by 6 [a.m.] you’ll get in, sometimes even later,” said Pamela S. Karlan, co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School.

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The homeless are often employed to wait in line. One asked Karlan to look after his spot “so that he could go to the shelter and get something to eat,” she said.

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It is unclear how the new policy will be enforced, but as Karlan and others noted, the need is rare.