Their case was one of the few scheduled to move forward under Judge Bissell's order to open the special-interest hearings, and a hearing date had been scheduled for June.
The agency, made up of 220 immigration judges in 51 jurisdictions, is headed by Judge Michael Creppy, who in September -- at the direction of Mr. Ashcroft -- ordered that all special-interest hearings be closed.
The suit followed a Sept. 21 memo by the country's chief immigration judge, Michael J. Creppy, at the direction of Attorney General John Ashcroft, ordering immigration judges to close all special-interest hearings and withhold related information.
"On balance, however, we are unable to conclude that openness plays a positive role in special-interest deportation hearings at a time when our nation is faced with threats of such profound and unknown dimension".
Wall Street executives have taken an interest in the hearings since they were announced late last month.
The crush had not formed, however, because of any interest in the hearings but because of a traffic snarl-up.
The heightened profile and interest in the hearings has inevitably made this panel a focal point for those engaged in election debates.
Despite growing certainty about the ultimate conclusion after five days of hearings, interest groups on both sides announced plans on Friday to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on television commercials intended to influence the outcome.
They include providing for the presence of a "public interest advocate" in hearings before the FISA court; allowing companies to publish more information about the volume and nature of court orders they receive demanding information; and forcing the F.B.I. to get judicial approval before issuing national-security letters that compel communications companies to hand over personal data.
According to its Web site, the status is available to those who "played a direct and significant role" in the scandal, had a "significant interest" in the hearings or "may be subject to explicit or significant criticism during the inquiry proceedings or in its report".
