Josh Gerstein, who writes for Politico, had an interesting story about forgetting to record oral argument in the 7th Circuit:
A federal appeals court has ordered an unusual re-argument in a terrorism cases after clerks failed to record the public portion of oral arguments held in the case on Wednesday.
The Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit announced Friday afternoon that it will try to make up for the error by hearing argument again next Wednesday in the case of Adel Daoud, who’s accused of plotting to set off a bomb at a Chicago bar in 2012. Prosecutors filed the appeal after a district court judge ruled that Daoud’s lawyers should be able to see classified surveillance that led to the investigation.
“By inadvertence, the device that makes a sound recording of the oral arguments of our cases was not turned on for the public argument in this case on Wednesday,” Judges Richard Posner, Michael Kanne and Ilana Rovner wrote in an order (posted here). “Since there is no other record of the oral argument, the court has scheduled a new oral argument for next Wednesday, June 11, 2014 at 2:30 p.m.”
The judges went on to say that no law requires appeals arguments to be recorded electronically or by a stenographer, so there’s “no legal obligation” to have the case argued again. But they suggest that the appearance of the recording screw-up persuaded them the argument should be re-done.
Read the full story here.
blog.amjudges.org 
I viewed a cuploe “opinion announcements” a few years ago (it was near the end of the term and no arguments were scheduled). For these you had to show up hours ahead of time to get a spot. They only let in perhaps 50 “normal” folks (not SC bar members, or those with special invitations, etc.). However, I’ve heard that a more mundane matter, such as the argument in a bankruptcy case, is dead easy to go see. Probably the less appealing the argument the higher the chances you’ll get in without showing up at 6:00 am (which is what I did).
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