A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday quizzed lawyers from a Washington, D.C., litigation boutique about their motivations for trying to keep under wraps videotapes of the 2010 trial that concluded a ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

The judges repeatedly asked John Ohlendorf of Cooper & Kirk for declarations or other evidence in the record that his clients, including former California state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, really care whether the hours of tapes are released. Public radio and television station KQED and same-sex marriage advocates have asked the courts to lift the seal on the recordings U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker made of the landmark case.