Attending Oral Arguments

The Fifth Circuit hears oral argument at regularly scheduled sessions in New Orleans, Louisiana, and on occasion in other cities throughout the circuit — including Austin, Fort Worth, Houston, Jackson, and San Antonio.

The calendar of cases to be argued at each session is posted five weeks in advance. Interested persons can subscribe to receive notice of the calendar and its updates via RSS feed. See the Court and Special Hearings Calendars.

The courthouse doors open at 8:00 a.m. on argument days. Visitors must show photo identification and pass through security screening. Attorneys and their staff may bring electronic devices into the courthouse. All electronic devices must be turned off in the courtroom unless being used by counsel — with all sounds muted — during argument of their case to retrieve documents previously downloaded to the device. A wireless internet access point is available in the library for use with personal electronic devices (Room 106 — see the librarian for the password).

Fifth Circuit Rule 34.7 provides that no cameras, tape recorders, or other equipment designed for the recording or transmission of visual images or sound may be present during oral argument. All visitors attending oral arguments must turn off cell phones, laptop computers, and similar electronic devices when in the courtroom. You may not blog, tweet, or otherwise transmit contemporaneous or live transcription or observations from the courtroom.

Food and beverages may not be brought into the courtrooms.

See the New Orleans 5th Circuit Library Visitor's Guide and directions to the John Minor Wisdom Court of Appeals Building.

Public seating in the courtrooms is on a first-come, first-seated basis, and the amount of gallery seating in each courtroom varies widely. Courtroom locations are listed in the sidebar.

Oral arguments start at 9:00 a.m. each day for morning panels and at 1:00 p.m. for afternoon panels.

Each side generally has 20 minutes of argument time, for a total of 40 minutes per case. Appellants argue first and may reserve five minutes of their time for rebuttal following the Appellee's argument.

Counsel in the first case should seat themselves at counsel table before court starts. Only attorneys may sit at counsel table; clients should be seated in the audience. Only attorneys admitted to the Fifth Circuit Bar who have filed an appearance form in the case may present oral argument. See the Form for Appearance of Counsel.

Three to five argument panels may sit each day the court is in session. Cases are randomly assigned to oral argument panels, and the identity of the assigned panel is released one week prior to courtweek.

The court initially schedules five cases per day before each panel, but changes may occur in the number and order of cases up until the time of argument. Initial notice and calendar updates are available via RSS feed.

Fifth Circuit oral argument audio files in MP3 format are posted on the court's website after 5:00 p.m. on the day of oral argument. See the Oral Argument Recordings.

Groups. Groups planning to attend oral argument are encouraged to contact the court at (504) 310-7630 for assistance in coordinating their visit. See Group / Visitor Information.

Media. Media interviews and public gatherings must be conducted off the courthouse property and courthouse steps and must not impede public access to the courthouse. See Press Information.

High-profile cases. The court will post a Media Advisory on its News & Announcements page whenever additional arrangements are made for argument in high-profile cases. See the Notice for Cases of Interest.