[Balanceinfinity]

Not surprised they are moving from in-person, but i am surprised they aren't moving to a video system; so much of communications are visual.

[vowelless]

What marginal value does video provide over telephone?

[Balanceinfinity]

It's a fair question - when you're presenting an oral argument the goal is to teach/convince/explain. The ability to see your audience is huge: do they have a quizzical look, are they trying to jump in on your comment; do they look at you with incredulity? an experienced attorney (which all of the SCT bar are) will use these visual cues to focus their argument.

[mythrwy]

To see if they are still awake?

[vowelless]

Seems like a lot of work and bandwidth for something that could be simply addressed with “are you there?”