WASHINGTON – Lawyers arguing in jeans and hoodies. A justice who has been silent for years regularly talking.
A sound like a toilet flushing during the discussion of a case. Arguments at the Supreme Court have looked and sounded a lot different over the past year since the justices closed their marble-columned courtroom to the public and began hearing cases by telephone because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The justices have now heard nearly 50 arguments by phone. And more than 100 attorneys have called in to the virtual sessions, some from homes and offices hundreds or thousands of miles from Washington.
One of the justices has been in Massachusetts. The court has said it will hear arguments by phone at least through March. But it's