Next month, the Supreme Court will hear cases ranging from the Electoral College to Trump’s financial documents. However, they will be hearing these cases via telephone, and offering opinions via telecommunication.
“In keeping with public health guidance in response to Covid-19, the justices and counsel will all participate remotely,” the court said in a statement.
The idea of the court cases being read out over cellphones is mind-boggling for a number of reasons. None the least of which, of course, is that it’s never happened before.
This is an unprecedented move for the highest court in the nation, and one that has come off as somewhat hypocritical. Earlier this month, there was furor over whether Wisconsin’s democratic primary should be held via mail-in ballot only. The Court ruled that all ballots mailed in must be postmarked by election day.
Several ballots people already sent had no postmarks at all. Many ballots were tossed out. This resulted in voter suppression. In turn, many people scrambled to find a nearby polling place.
Of course, polling places were shut down over COVID-19 concerns. Thus, only residents of rural, remote areas were able to vote in person. Critics across the nation were mortified at the court’s decision, which affirmed a form of voter suppression at the highest level of government.
Meanwhile, the Court is concerned over their own wellbeing, and they’ll only be hearing cases remotely for the foreseeable future.
This is an astonishing move for the Supreme Court, which has previously never allowed audio recordings of their proceedings. Prior to the COVID pandemic, the Supreme Court allowed up to 500 spectators to listen in on their proceedings. They also forbade audio and video recordings.
However, with this new set-up, the court’s audio proceedings will be available as public record. This is notable due to the hotly contested case over Trump’s financial records. The US will get to hear the court’s reasoning, in real time, on why (or why not) the US House of Representatives should be able to subpoena Trump’s financial institutions for his documents.
Another major case for the court involves “faithless electors.” These are members of the Electoral College who chose to not vote for the candidate their district voted for. Essentially, this defies the very purpose of the Electoral College and undermines democracy.
