Supreme Court announces it will delay oral arguments

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will delay oral argument in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

That means the justices will not be in the courtroom when they were to begin resume hearing oral argument next week. Among the high-profile cases on the schedule was the March 31st argument on President Donald Trump's efforts to shield his tax returns and other financial documents from Congress and a New York prosecutor.

The justices will conduct their regular closed-door conference this Friday, but the court said some of them may participate by phone.

The court said last week that it would stop admitting the public but would nonetheless carry on business as usual.

The Supreme Court has not disrupted its own operations since the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, when it was located in the basement of the U.S. Capitol building. The court resumed operations a month later. It moved to its own building in 1935.

During the anthrax crisis of 2001, the court temporarily moved oral argument a few blocks away to a ceremonial courtroom in the US courthouse.