Friday round-up

EDITH ROBERTS APR 17, 2020 6:49 AM

At CNBC, Tucker Higgins reports that “[t[he Supreme Court’s announcement this week that it will hold oral arguments via teleconference for the first time in its history has a small group of America’s top attorneys prepping for the most important phone calls of their careers.” In commentary at The National Law Journal, Joe Palmore draws on recent experience arguing a state supreme court appeal by telephone to offer some “thoughts on how the Supreme Court can make the best of this format.” For this blog, in a post that first appeared at Howe on the Court, Amy Howe covers the implications of the court’s decision to provide live audio of the arguments, noting that “once the COVID-19 crisis is over and in-person arguments resume, it may be hard to put the genie back in the bottle, and go back to the old system in which audio is not available until later in the week.” At The Atlantic, Melissa Murray argues that “we shouldn’t go back[:] The Court’s switch … is an important and welcome concession to the current climate, but it is a move that should have happened well before a global pandemic demanded it.”

Briefly:

• For The Washington Post (subscription required), Elise Viebeck reports that “[a] Democratic lawsuit challenging Arizona’s absentee ballot deadline is citing the Supreme Court’s recent ruling about the Wisconsin primary to support its case, arguing that the decision to allow absentee ballots to count in Wisconsin if they were postmarked on or by Election Day should also apply in Arizona.”
• At The Supreme Court Historical Society, Clare Cushman looks back at how the court has handled its work during previous public health emergencies.
• At The Fire, Ronald Collins urges the court to review Waronker v. Hempstead Union Free School District and “to clarify when the First Amendment protects public employees’ speech that facilitates democratic self-governance by exposing government corruption.”

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