Kagan and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wondered about the difference between legislative bodies such as Congress, where the audience members are spectators, and a town council, where citizens sometimes are compelled to attend to receive specific recognition or make requests. Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia law professor representing the complaining residents, Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens, said that is what distinguished the case from the court’s landmark 1983 decision in Marsh v. Chambers.