# Supreme Court to allow public to hear arguments live in May **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 20, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191 "2020-04-20T14:19:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191/1 "2020-04-20T14:19:26Z")
> **[Supreme Court set to release spring opinions during coronavirus pandemic |...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/politics/supreme-court-decisions-daca-abortion-second-amendment/index.html)** > > It's spring time at the Supreme Court which normally means the justices are just finishing oral arguments and hunkering down to release all outstanding opinions by their self-imposed end-of-June deadline. Arguments will be done via phone. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191/2 "2020-04-21T03:43:22Z")
Weird. Everything is live-streamed in the Supreme Court of Canada. Telephone is pretty Lo-grade tech. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191/3 "2020-04-21T11:17:17Z")
They record all arguments and release the recordings later. For the 2000 election case they released the recording early, a week or so later. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2020, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191/4 "2020-05-03T12:25:29Z")
The live audio starts tomorrow May 4th. Maybe Obi Wan will call in ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191/5 "2020-05-04T18:00:59Z")
anyone listen in? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191/6 "2020-05-04T20:58:07Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > anyone listen in? Yep. Definitely different. Each side gets a 2 minute opening and then they go down in the line in order of seniority to ask questions. Even Thomas had a couple of questions. The case itself is pretty interesting and I’ve changed my mind four times now on who should win. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supreme-court-to-allow-public-to-hear-arguments-live-in-may/852191/7 "2020-05-09T19:13:59Z")
And history has been made: the live telephone proceedings include the sound of a Justice flushing the toilet! (and possibly sounds of … other things … ) [US Supreme Court hears toilet flush during oral arguments - a first](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52572986?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Binforadio%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D) The tactful BBC article doesn’t speculate as to which Justice is the culprit, but Slate goes there, with investigative-techno reporting, and concludes: it was Justice Breyer in the can with a No. 2 ! [Investigation: I Think I Know Which Justice Flushed](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/toilet-flush-supreme-court-livestream.html) (Demonstrates the advantage of live web-streaming - this never happens in the Supreme Court of Canada web-casts!)