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a30 feature/people & arts
Friday 24 april 2020
You've reached the Supreme Court. Press 1 for live arguments

By MARK SHERMAN and in the Library of Congress
JESSICA GRESKO archives. Still, the decision
Associated Press to hold 10 arguments in
WASHINGTON (AP) — This cases via telephone during
is how the Supreme Court six days in May and let the
embraces technology. public listen in was unimag-
Slowly. inable even two months
It took a worldwide pan- ago.
demic for the court to The dramatic change is a
agree to hear arguments product of efforts to slow
over the telephone, with the spread of the virus, rec-
audio available live for the ognize the reality that most
first time. C-SPAN plans to of the justices are at risk
carry the arguments. because of their age and
Just two years ago case fil- decide significant cases by
ings were made available the court's traditional sum-
online, decades after other mer break.
courts. Other forays into This year, those cases in-
technology, including post- clude President Donald
ing opinions online, have Trump's effort to shield his
not always gone smoothly. tax and other financial re-
Chief Justice John Roberts cords and whether presi-
acknowledged in 2014 that dential electors must cast
courts will always be cau- In this Nov. 30, 2018, file photo, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gather for a formal group their Electoral College bal-
tious when it comes to em- portrait to include the new Associate Justice, top row, far right, at the Supreme Court building in lots for their states' winners.
bracing the "next big thing" Washington. Until now, argument ses-
in technology. Associated Press. sions have looked the
And even the decision to in transitioning from print- Sonia Sotomayor wears an iPad, though not perhaps same, day after day, year
hold arguments via tele- ing opinions in the court's electronic sensor that mon- to its maximum advantage after year.
phone is "sort of retro," basement on Linotype ma- itors her diabetes. And Jus- — she told an audience in A buzzer sounds at 9:55
given much of the country chines, which used metal tices Neil Gorsuch and Brett 2016 that she uses the iPad a.m. to signal the start of
and other courts are doing type, to electronic printing Kavanaugh have teenage as a sound machine to court is five minutes away.
meetings and arguments in the early 1980s. and pre-teen children who help her sleep. It rings again at 10 o'clock,
using video conferencing, Before the coronavirus out- might be expected to text The court has come a long followed by the crack of
said Clare Cushman, the break, the justices circulat- their fathers. way since 1993, when Jus- the marshal's gavel. The jus-
director of publications at ed messages and opinion Even the court's two oldest tice Anthony Kennedy, tices emerge from behind
the Supreme Court Histori- drafts on paper rather than justices are somewhat tech now retired, marveled over a heavy red curtain, the
cal Society. by email. savvy. a new device in his home marshal calls the court to
But the decision remains Still, most of the nine jus- This month, 81-year-old Jus- and invited two colleagues order and everyone sits.
a "giant leap forward," tices — six of them over the tice Stephen Breyer used who lived nearby to come An hour or two of argu-
Cushman said, for a court age of 65 — seem perfectly Zoom to talk to students use it. ments ensue. When the
that has shunned technol- comfortable with modern at a New York school. His "In my lower level office at last lawyer asks for a favor-
ogy in favor of tradition. technology in their own background: a picture of home I have a FAX ma- able ruling, Roberts says,
The court used an obso- lives. Justice Elena Kagan the court. chine. The thing works 24 "The case is submitted."
lete document delivery has said she is on Twitter, And 87-year-old Justice hours a day. You can use With that, the gavel cracks
system, pneumatic tubes, and Justice Samuel Alito Ruth Bader Ginsburg has it to send and receive again, everyone stands
until 1971. It was slow to has described reading said she reads her email any time you like," Ken- and the justices disappear
add computers and late briefs on an iPad. Justice on an iPhone and uses an nedy wrote in a note now whence they came. q
Whitney Houston biopic in the works

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A professional experience and two Emmys before her
feature film about Whitney with Whitney from her late death in 2012. McCarten,
Houston's life is in the works teenage years to her tragic who has gotten Oscar nom-
from the screenwriter of premature death, I know inations for his scripts for
"Bohemian Rhapsody." The the full Whitney Houston "The Theory of Everything,"
biopic is being shepherded story has not yet been "The Darkest Hour" and "The
by the Whitney Houston Es- told," Davis said in a state- Two Popes," said in a state-
tate, music producer Clive ment. He said Anthony Mc- ment that he's grateful to
Davis and Primary Wave Carten's script will finally be working closely with the
Music, the partners said reveal the "whole Whitney people who knew Houston
Wednesday. whose vocal genius deeply best. The announcement
"I Wanna Dance with affected the world while also said that Stella Meghie
Somebody" will follow she fiercely battled the de- is in "advanced talks" to di-
Houston from obscurity to mons that were to be her rect. Meghie most recently
pop stardom and prom- undoing." directed "The Photograph"
ises to be "frank about the Houston sold over 200 mil- with Issa Rae and LaKeith
price that super-stardom lion records worldwide Stanfield.
exacted," according to the during her 25-year career The project does not have
In this Nov. 22, 2009 file photo, Whitney Houston performs at the
37th Annual American Music Awards in Los Angeles. announcement. and won six Grammys, 16 a studio or distribution
Associated Press. "From all my personal and Billboard Music Awards yet.q