Black robes or bathrobes? Virus alters high court traditions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic is forcing big changes at the tradition-bound Supreme Court.

The justices will hear arguments this month by telephone for the first time since Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention in 1876.

Audio of the arguments will be broadcast live by the news media, another first.

This will be just the second time that the justices will meet outside the court since the Supreme Court building opened in 1935.

The discovery of anthrax in a court mailroom in 2001 forced a temporary relocation to another federal courthouse less than a mile away.

The first argument is Monday, and the court will hear a total of 10 cases over six days.

The cases to be argued: President Donald Trump’s bid to keep certain financial records private and whether presidential electors are required to cast their Electoral College ballots for the candidate who won their state.

Before taking the bench, the justices gather just behind the courtroom to put on their black robes and shake hands, another tradition upended by the virus outbreak. But with no one to see them, they could just as easily wear their bathrobes.

The same goes for lawyers who argue before the Supreme Court.

Appropriate court attire for lawyers, the court says, is “conservative business dress in traditional dark colours.” Think navy blue, or charcoal gray. Sweatpants come in those colours, don’t they?

Meanwhile, the Justice Department says the government’s lawyers will wear their traditional long-tailed formal morning coats and present their arguments from the conference room of the solicitor general, the government’s top Supreme Court lawyer.

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