1. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause prohibits a State court from directly violating one of its own court rules, by failing to provide the litigants in a civil action the opportunity to participate in conferences which a State court rule mandates be provided to them, with respect to issues material to the claims involved.

2. Whether the litigants in a State court civil action fail to receive a hearing "appropriate to the case," as required by the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, when they are arbitrarily denied the benefits of a court rule intended to provide them with a fair opportunity to present the live testimony of a critical witness at the time of trial, and as a result of that denial are relegated to presenting the testimony of that witness via the inferior means of videotape.

3. Whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause is violated when, as the result of a State court's arbitrary application of its own court rules, the litigants in a State court civil action are relegated to presentation of the testimony of a critical expert witness via videotape, while an opposing party in the same case is provided with the opportunity to present the live testimony of its own expert witnesses.

Whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause prohibits a State court from directly violating one of its own court rules, by failing to provide the litigants in a civil action the opportunity to participate in conferences which a State court rule mandates be provided to them, with respect to issues material to the claims involved