Published on: Monday, November 9, 2020

Concerns about a recent surge in positive coronavirus cases in Arkansas led the chief judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas to announce Friday that all federal civil and criminal jury trials scheduled through January 15, 2021 will be postponed (article available here). The order impacts all three of the district's courthouses -- in downtown Little Rock, Jonesboro and Helena-West Helena. The court noted "hearings of all sorts" will continue by videoconference or teleconference when possible, and in person when necessary. The driving force behind the court's eighth administrative order since March, when the coronavirus pandemic started being felt in Arkansas, is an increase in requests from potential jurors to be excused from jury duty for virus-related reasons.

Similarly, federal courts in the Southern District of Ohio, Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois have reported new cases of COVID-19 in their courthouses, according to orders issued by their respective chief judges (articles available here and here).

In Ohio, a deputy U.S. marshal working out of the Potter Stewart Courthouse in Cincinnati tested positive Thursday. The chief judge closed the courthouse to the public until Nov. 16 or until another order is issued. The deputy marshal visited multiple public areas in the courthouse, including all floors, and  came into contact with court employees while infected but asymptomatic, before later becoming symptomatic.

Meanwhile, in Northern District of Illinois, a court security officer in the Everett M. Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago tested positive for COVID-19. In the Southern District of Illinois, the Court issued an order canceling trials through January 24, 2020, due to a recent increase in COVID-19 infections in southern Illinois. 

Courthouses around the country have closed and reopened since the pandemic ramped up in March, with many shutting back down as cases continue to rise. Last week, spike in COVID cases suspended trials in Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota. In August, the Central District of California, the most populous federal judicial district in the nation, announced that it is mostly closing its courthouses again to the public and that jury trials will continue to be postponed due to the surge of COVID-19 cases in the region.