[B4Ranch]

Can a defendant request to be seated behind the 'bar'?

[Zon]

Yes. But it wouldn't do any good though because the defendant would never be granted such a request because there's nothing in the constitution that says that the government must honor that request.

Far more important is the defendant's right to be heard by an impartial jury as stated in the Sixth Amendment and explained in post #11.

[B4Ranch]

The reason I asked was I was at a trial where the defendant did sit behind the bar. He asked the Judge if he would retain all of his Constitutional Rights if he was inside the bar. The judge replied I am not a Constitutional Judge and I refuse to discuss that in my courtroom. So he sat outside the bar.