When a court is in session, the judge has taken the bench and the court’s authority is switched on: rulings become binding, testimony goes on the record, and everyone in the room is subject to the judge’s control. The phrase marks the boundary between informal preparation and formal judicial power. Nothing said before a session opens or after it adjourns carries the same legal weight.
What It Legally Means for a Court to Be in Session
Once a session opens, the judge has activated the court’s jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter. During that window the judge can issue binding orders, hear evidence, rule on objections, and grant or deny motions. A court reporter or a digital recording system captures every word spoken, and that transcript is what an appellate court later reviews to decide whether the trial met legal and constitutional standards. If a ruling or piece of testimony never made it onto the record, proving what happened on appeal becomes very difficult.
Sessions default to open proceedings because the Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant the right to a public trial.1Legal Information Institute. Sixth Amendment That constitutional baseline shapes almost every rule about who can watch, who can be excluded, and when a judge can shut the doors.
How a Session Begins and Ends
The opening of a session follows a set routine. A bailiff or clerk calls for everyone to rise as the judge enters. In many courts the bailiff still uses the traditional “Oyez, oyez, oyez,” a centuries-old call for silence that the U.S. Supreme Court continues to use at the start of every public session. Gavels, despite their pop-culture status, are rarely used in real courtrooms; the Federal Judicial Center notes that judges seldom if ever pick one up during actual proceedings.2Federal Judicial Center. Why Do Judges Use Gavels?
Once a session is running, three different pauses can happen, and the differences matter.
- A recess is a temporary break within the same session. Proceedings pick up where they left off when the judge returns.
- An adjournment ends the session for the day. No further business can take place until the court reconvenes.
- A continuance postpones the case itself, often by weeks or months, usually because a party needs more time, a witness is unavailable, or new evidence has surfaced.
The distinction is not just vocabulary. Events during a recess, like a witness talking about testimony in the hallway, can carry direct legal consequences for the ongoing session.
Rules of Conduct While Court Is in Session
Everyone in the courtroom is expected to behave in a way that lets the reporter capture every spoken word cleanly. The basics: stay silent unless the judge addresses you or it is your turn to speak; keep phones off or fully silenced; remain seated unless a court officer tells you to stand; dress appropriately and remove hats. Most courts prohibit photography and recording unless the judge has specifically authorized it, and federal criminal proceedings flatly ban cameras and broadcasting from the courtroom.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 43 – Taking Testimony
Breaking these rules can lead to a finding of direct contempt of court, meaning the judge personally witnessed the disruption and can impose punishment on the spot. Federal courts have broad authority to punish contempt by fine or imprisonment at the court’s discretion.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 18 Section 401 – Power of Court State-court penalties vary, but a judge can typically order a disruptive person removed, impose a fine, or in serious cases order a brief period of jail time. The punishment is usually coercive rather than criminal: comply with the court’s authority and it ends.
What You Can and Cannot Bring Into the Courtroom
Security screening at the courthouse entrance catches most prohibited items before you ever reach the courtroom. At federal courthouses, Court Security Officers check bags by X-ray and require you to walk through metal detection.5U.S. Marshals Service. What To Expect When Visiting a Courthouse
Weapons of any kind are universally banned. The Supreme Court’s own prohibited-items list is a fair benchmark for what most courthouses keep out of the building: firearms and replicas, knives of any size, pointed objects other than pens and pencils, pepper spray, box cutters, and aerosol containers. Food and beverages are also banned in many courthouses.6Supreme Court of the United States. Prohibited Items
Restrictions tighten further once court is actually in session. At the Supreme Court, briefcases, purses, bags, hats, overcoats, sunglasses, books, magazines, and strollers are all barred from the courtroom during proceedings. Notepads are allowed. Political buttons and clothing with political messages are prohibited.6Supreme Court of the United States. Prohibited Items Lower courts set their own rules, and the pattern is similar: anything that could distract from proceedings or suggest partiality stays outside.
Witness Sequestration During a Session
One of the most consequential things that happens once a court is in session is witness sequestration, known informally as “invoking the rule.” If either party asks, the judge must order witnesses out of the courtroom so they cannot hear each other’s testimony. The judge can also do it on the court’s own initiative.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 615 – Excluding Witnesses The reasoning is straightforward: a witness who hears another witness may, deliberately or not, shape their own account to match.
Federal Rule of Evidence 615 lists four categories that cannot be excluded:
- A party who is a natural person, such as a criminal defendant or a civil plaintiff.
- A designated representative of a party that is a company or organization, one officer or employee chosen by the attorney.
- A person shown to be essential to presenting a party’s case, such as a case agent or an expert who needs to hear other testimony to help counsel.
- A person authorized by statute to be present, such as victims under federal crime victim laws.
A judge can also go beyond removing witnesses from the room and prohibit them from discussing testimony with each other or reading trial transcripts.7Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 615 – Excluding Witnesses If a witness violates the order, the judge’s options range from letting the opposing attorney highlight the violation to the jury, to holding the witness in contempt, to excluding the testimony altogether.
When a Session Is Closed to the Public
Although sessions default to open, a judge can close proceedings when sensitive information is at stake. These closed sessions are called in camera proceedings, from the Latin for “in chambers.” Common triggers include reviewing whether communications are protected by attorney-client privilege, protecting a minor’s identity, hearing classified national security evidence, or evaluating sealed materials in a trade secret dispute.
Closure is not casual. In Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court, the Supreme Court held that the presumption of public access can be overcome only by an “overriding interest” and that any closure must be “narrowly tailored to serve that interest.”8Legal Information Institute. Press-Enterprise Co v Superior Court of California The judge must put specific findings on the record so an appellate court can review the decision. When the interest at stake is a defendant’s right to a fair trial, the judge must find a “substantial probability” that publicity would cause prejudice and that no less restrictive alternative would work. In practice, full closures are rare; judges more often seal particular documents or close the courtroom for a narrow stretch of testimony.
Remote and Virtual Sessions
Courts have expanded the use of video and audio technology, but the default is still testimony in open court. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 43(a) lets a witness testify by video or audio from another location only when the court finds “good cause in compelling circumstances” and puts appropriate safeguards in place.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 43 – Taking Testimony
Criminal proceedings are more restrictive. Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53 generally bars broadcasting judicial proceedings from the courtroom. During the pandemic, the CARES Act temporarily let federal courts hold certain criminal proceedings by video and telephone, but that emergency authority expired in May 2023. Federal criminal proceedings have since returned to the pre-pandemic requirement of in-person appearances except where existing rules already allowed otherwise.
Public access to remote proceedings has its own rules. Each federal circuit decides whether to broadcast appellate arguments. For civil and bankruptcy matters, a policy in effect since September 2023 gives individual judges discretion to allow remote public audio access to non-trial proceedings, so long as no witness is testifying at the time.9United States Courts. Remote Public Access to Proceedings Criminal cases generally have no remote public access.
Attending a Session as a Spectator
Public sessions are open to any member of the public with seat. Start by finding the daily docket, which most courthouses post on digital screens or bulletin boards near the entrance; it lists each case, the courtroom, and the scheduled time. Then clear the security checkpoint. Leave prohibited items at home or in your car to avoid delays.5U.S. Marshals Service. What To Expect When Visiting a Courthouse
You do not need permission from anyone to enter the public gallery of an open courtroom. Sit toward the back so you do not disrupt attorneys, clerks, and court staff moving through the room. If the courtroom is full, wait for a spot to open; high-profile cases sometimes draw more spectators than the room can hold, and court staff handle entry on a first-come basis.
Accessibility and Language Access
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, courts must provide reasonable accommodations so that people with disabilities can meaningfully access proceedings, and that duty extends to spectators, not just parties and witnesses. Accommodations can include sign language interpreters, assistive listening devices, large-print documents, or accessible seating. Courts are not required to supply personal devices like wheelchairs or hearing aids, but their facilities and services must be usable. Request accommodations as early as possible, though courts must make reasonable efforts even for late requests.10U.S. Department of Justice. Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Regulations
If you are a party or witness in a federal case and you do not speak English fluently, the court must provide an interpreter at no cost when one is needed to understand the proceedings or communicate with counsel.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. United States Code Title 28 Section 1827 – Interpreters in Courts of the United States State courts run their own language access programs and typically maintain registries of certified interpreters. Interpreter services for pure spectators are generally not provided, though practice varies by jurisdiction.