In United States v. Allen, --- F.4th ---, No. 21-10060 (9th Cir. 2022), the Court vacated Allen’s conviction and the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress, and remanded for a new suppression hearing and a new trial.
In 2020, due to COVID-19, the district court prohibited members of the public from attending Allen’s suppression hearing and trial, and rejected his request for video-streaming of the proceedings.
The Court held that these protocols violated Allen’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. It found the restrictions were not narrowly tailored.
The Court noted that other trial courts throughout the country, facing the same need to balance public health issues against a defendant’s public trial right, consistently developed COVID protocols that allowed some sort of visual access to trial proceedings.
"Here, the public could not observe or attend either the suppression hearing or the trial. Accordingly, the only remedy 'appropriate to the violation,' is a new suppression hearing and a new trial. We therefore vacate Allen’s conviction and the district court’s denial of the motion to suppress, and remand for these proceedings."
