WASHINGTON—The first U.S. Supreme Court arguments conducted by teleconference—a break from tradition because of the COVID-19 pandemic—played out smoothly May 4 in a case involving the hotel reservation website Booking.com, with even the typically silent Justice Clarence Thomas joining the fray.
The pandemic has prompted changes at almost every level of U.S. society, with the nine justices holding arguments in the trademark case not in their courtroom but by participating remotely using a dial-in format to combat the pathogen’s spread.
