Justice Owens then conferred in a closed courtroom with the lawyers in the case about how to respond.

The instructions said the special cases had to be handled by judges with security clearances, in closed courtrooms with "no visitors, no family, no press."

Four days earlier, in a closed courtroom, Harkin had assigned seating for both sides.

Unless their safety can be guaranteed, they too deserve to testify in a closed courtroom from which the public as well as the news media are excluded.

Prisoner witnesses would give their names in a closed courtroom, she ruled, but the rest of their testimony would be public.

Defendants are tried in closed courtrooms, without lawyers.

The journalist, Ching Cheong, 56, was tried in a closed courtroom earlier this month after being held for 18 months.

"This trial involves sensitive airline security information," Judge Weinstein said in an order issued before beginning the trial in a closed courtroom.

The killers' parents were deposed in a closed federal courtroom, to which the plaintiffs gained access by agreeing to a gag order.

At his hearing, Parlak testified to his torture in a closed courtroom with only the attorneys and the D.H.S. guards present.