U.S. Supreme Court Picking Up the Telephone To Hear Cases

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justices in the United States Supreme Court are getting back to work, although in an unprecedented way.

They canceled oral arguments about a month ago, due to the coronavirus. However, this week they announced they'd hear 10 cases over the telephone May 4th through the 13th.

The Supreme Court has never done this before, and people may wonder why they aren't at least doing video arguments.  The answer is the Supreme Court has never even allowed a photograph of their proceedings.

College of St. Benedict and St. John's University Political Science Professor Phil Kronebusch says the 10 cases are about half of what they were going to hear yet this term.

I just saw that if they decide these 10 cases it will actually be the smallest number of cases decided in a Supreme Court term since 1860.

Several of the cases are related to President Trump's tax records, which they'd like to address before the November election.

Kronebusch says the Supreme Court term usually wraps-up by the end of June, but he expects they'll still be announcing their decisions into July and August.