👖 What it’s like to argue in front of SCOTUS...in a pandemic
Lawtrades | Jan 6 |
For most lawyers, presenting an oral argument to the Supreme Court is a career milestone. You get to walk some of the nation’s most hallowed halls and look the United States’ best-known jurists in the eye.
Except there’s that whole coronavirus thing, and now everything’s done over the phone. A few lawyers dished to the WSJ about the new SCOTUS experience.
Sweatshirts are OK: Lawyer Ramzi Kassem wore a hoodie from his law school classroom in Queens. Formal wear is no longer mandatory when nobody can see you.
But a landline is: SCOTUS likes people to call in via landline, rather than smartphone. They don’t want any dropped calls. One young lawyer named Sarah Harris had to visit a friend’s house to make her argument on a landline.
You have to worry about loud noises: A Philadelphia lawyer remembers a loud truck rolling up by his house just as the hearing began. He sent his son outside with $100 to convince any noisemakers to go away.
You can make it as lifelike as you want: A Louisiana lawyer traveled to Washington DC for his argument, and a law firm hosted him -- in a room with nine framed pictures of the justices set atop nine podiums.
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