Criminal Courts Can't Pause for Pandemics
It’s relatively easy for the Supreme Court to suspend oral arguments. Criminal courts are entirely different.
The rules of habeas corpus are still in effect.
Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesIt’s good news that the Supreme Court has suspended oral arguments indefinitely. If nothing else, it helps keep Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg safe. Spry but still a cancer survivor, she celebrated her 87th birthday yesterday. I would say it’s practically a national security imperative to keep the nation’s unofficial favorite Jewish grandmother away from anyone who might give her the coronavirus.
Apart from the health of the other justices (such as Justice Stephen Breyer, 79), the court personnel and the lawyers, the suspension of Supreme Court arguments also carries an important lesson for the rest of the justice system: It must respond creatively to the pandemic by maintaining core operations while limiting those aspects of its usual functioning that might endanger public health.