Professor Jason Mazzone, an expert in constitutional law, recently spoke with the Illinois News Bureau about whether the Supreme Court is likely to keep livestreaming its oral arguments after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Why did it take a pandemic to get the U.S. Supreme Court to start airing its oral arguments live? Shouldn’t this have happened years ago?

Supreme Court practices do not change often or quickly. Consider this: The three newest members of the court – Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – all clerked at the court soon after they graduated from law school. I am sure that when they returned to the court as justices decades later, it took no time for them to figure out how to do the job because very little would have changed.

Against that background, the court’s decision to hold, for the first time ever, arguments by telephone in 10 cases this month and to live broadcast those arguments is revolutionary.

Read the full interview at news.illinois.edu.