Scalping SCOTUS Tickets?
In order to attend the Supreme Court on an average day you have to line up outside before 7:00am. At 7:30am they hand out 75 tickets that do not guarantee entry, but are merely used to “establish a numerical order” (as if math and the universe hadn’t already established one?). At 9:30am, they let in between 25 and 75 people.
I arrived at 6:40am; I was number 27.
By 9:00am the line was several hundred people long; most were obviously not going to get in. A woman approached my area of the line, asked if we were from DC and then explained that she had driven 9 hours to see the case. She had arrived at 4:00am (though, inexplicably, wasn’t in line at 4am), but was now too far back to get inside. She looked at us in silence, hoping we would feel sorry enough for her to simply offer her a spot in line. When, unsurprisingly, nobody volunteered, she slyly indicated several rolled bills and offered us $60 for one of the numerical order tickets.
Everyone declined — standing in the early morning cold for three hours was worth more than $60.
click to big-ify
But, the question for today is, is it legal to scalp numerical order tickets to the Supreme Court? The court would likely be able to deny entry to a scalped ticket holder, since “no substitution [is] permitted,” but would the act of scalping itself be criminal? Anyone know anything about DC/federal scalping law?
That woman offered me $60. If I had strolled down the line taking bids, how high could I have driven the price? If it had been an abortion or gun rights case, I probably could have pulled down a thousand dollars… sadly today was merely schizophrenia and bankruptcy.
*Ticket images (front and back) lifted from MatthewBradley under CC.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
In essence lobbyists already do this inversely, by hiring the homeless, etc. to stand in line for them. You’re not reselling anything, which I think is the point of scalping. You’re selling your services.
Rather than ask how much you could have gotten, I ask how much would you have taken? Would $200 be enough for 3 hours in the cold? $500?
March 26th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Well, did you get in?
I will be visiting DC in late September, which I believe is at the end of the court’s lenthy summer break. Alas. (Gotta give Scalia some time off to improperly go hunting with Dick Cheney.) Do you think it’s worth it to just visit the building?
March 26th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I would have considered $200… at $250 I think I tip into the ‘yes’ category. I definitely would have done it for $500.
The building’s pretty nice. I’m sure the tour’s quick if they’re not in session.
I definitely thought it was worth sitting through the two arguments. During the first one I was one of the last ones in and seated, so my seat was sort of behind a curtain and I could only see the leftmost 4.5 justices (5.5 with a big lean). When everyone left at the end of the first argument, I was able to move forward and sit in the real chamber. The problem is that you’re exhausted from getting up super early and standing around outside in the cold for hours, so it’s hard to stay focused, but I’m definitely glad I went.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
This whole procedure reminds me of the time jbg and I went to the price is right. Except that if this were the price is right a producer would have interviewed everyone in line and picked the nine most animated to be the justices. Which would make for a rather odd legal system.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Not the justices — the parties and their lawyers. Bob Barker/Drew Carey is the justice! Or maybe he’s the chief justice and the eye candy girls are associate justices? Ow, my patriotism.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I was there in line today as well, and was offered $25 for my place in line, which at the time was unlikely to result in a seat in the courtroom (we did get in for the last half of the last argument). I can’t figure out why they can’t figure out some kind online ticketing thing or some kind of notification scheme for this. It’s one thing to stand outside for hours in the cold waiting to see the oral arguments, but it’s another to stand in that line for just a CHANCE to get in. It is unconscionable for the SCOTUS staff to continue to allow people to stand in line for hours when they know the parts of the line that have NO CHANCE of getting in. I lost some real respect today for the court by how they treated the people who wanted to see the justices so badly.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Well, they did say they usually let in about 50 people, and they only handed out 75 numbers. If you didn’t have a number, you knew (if you asked the staff) that you weren’t going to get in to see the first argument.
I don’t necessarily mind the standing in the cold thing, and I recognize that they don’t know exactly how many seats they’re going to have available so there’s some degree of uncertainty, but they certainly should tell people (or just put up a sign telling people) that if you’re not in the first 100 people and you don’t have a number, you’re not going to get in so don’t bother waiting around.
On the up side, I had a great time and it was worth getting there at 6:45.
Big Cow, what time did you get there?
March 27th, 2008 at 2:32 am
For the cases that involve staying overnight the rate may be as high as $500 to have someone hold your spot. Most of the messenger services in the area offer line-holding services.
I know they let around 75 (from the public line) in for Heller. The lowest number that I know of was 40 for Bush v. Gore.
Lorelei, its worth going by the see the building, it is very nice.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Why don’t they just put it on an obscure cable station like the empty congressional meetings they show ad-nauseum. It’s not like we have enough rights left to bother going through the motions.
April 4th, 2008 at 10:04 am
The Supreme doesn’t allow video recording of the sessions, they only allow audio recording. We could put it on an obscure radio station…