Lobbyists and political consultants faced a skeptical judge Monday in Washington as they pressed for access to coronavirus relief funds, in a hearing convened over the phone as courts across the country limit their operations amid the ongoing global health crisis.

The telephonic hearing before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth came a week after the American Association of Political Consultants sued for access to a nearly $350 billion federal loan program designed to help small businesses upended by the coronavirus outbreak.