Howard Pearson v. Charles James, Superintendent of Collins Correctional Facility

JACOBS and JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judges,

concurring:

We subscribe to the opinion of the Court, and agree in particular that we are required to reverse because of Ayala’s holding that a state judge violates the Sixth Amendment by closing the courtroom for the testimony of an undercover agent who is slated to return to the same duties at the same post, unless the court, on its own motion, has considered one or more lesser alternatives. See Commodity Futures Trading Comm’n v. Dunn, 58 F.3d 50, 53-54 (2d Cir.1995), cert. granted, — U.S. —, 116 S.Ct. 1846, 134 L.Ed.2d 947 (1996); United States…