Justice Clarence Thomas broke a year-long silence on the bench during the Supreme Court’s first remote oral arguments on Monday, posing a number of rare questions under the court’s new format.
WashingtonJustice Clarence Thomas broke a year-long silence on the bench during the Supreme Court’s first remote oral arguments on Monday, posing a number of rare questions under the court’s new format.
Thomas has long been the silent justice, letting years go by between any query to a lawyer at the Supreme Court lectern while his eight colleagues engaged in rapid-fire questions.
But during the high court’s first remote arguments on Monday, when the nine justices were not in their usual grand courtroom and no one could see any of them, Thomas asked as many questions as the other justices — perhaps because the format was the exact opposite of the usual speedy questions and interruptions.
Monday’s historic session had the feel of a congressional hearing.
