In his annual year-end report, Supreme Court President John Roberts praised how US courts responded to the coronavirus pandemic and the “anonymous heroes” who kept the judiciary moving in an almost always virtual system.
The pandemic forced the closure of courts across the country in March. In April, judges were performing judicial functions in their home offices or “kitchen tables,” Roberts wrote in his seven-page report. As court hearings became virtual, judges quickly, “or at least eventually,” became familiar with a wide range of audio and video conferencing tools. “
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In this January 16 archive photo, the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, walks to the Senate House on the Capitol in Washington. Roberts praised state and federal courts in his year-end report. (AP Photo / Matt Rourke, Archive)
Roberts praised the country’s judges for working “with court officials to admit participants in virtual hearings, manage the orderly flow of work and ensure that public access does not endanger public health.”
In an assessment of the legal process, Roberts also suggested that the team and the judges “needed to consider new approaches to filing documents and maintaining information. Much of that work is not glamorous, but it is essential and has been done.”
Many courts have been creatively reconfigured to impose measures of social detachment, such as certain courts installing plexiglass for protection. In some states, such as Michigan and Florida, judges held drive-thru naturalization ceremonies, while ceremonies in Iowa and Minnesota were held outdoors, Roberts noted.
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Roberts also mentioned that the first president of the United States Supreme Court, John Jay, suspended the Supreme Court – then in Philadelphia – in 1793 because of the yellow fever pandemic that killed 5,000 of the city’s 50,000 residents.
Supreme Court sessions were also canceled once again with the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918, he said.