The live streaming of United States Supreme Court online hearing became a meme topic for netizens as a loud toilet flush sound was heard during the hearing. Due to lockdown directions following the pandemic, the Supreme Court is conducting hearings over telephones and has been broadcasting the proceedings live.
The audio clip of the toilet flush sound has become viral on social media as people are making memes out of it and circulating it widely with funny comments. However, it was not clear where the sound generated exactly.
Toilet flush sound heard during the hearing
The incident occurred when Roman Martinez, the attorney representing the American Association of Political Consultants was presenting his arguments. Martinez was presenting an argument regarding the law on prohibiting robocalls also known as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
During the live streaming, Martinez's image was visible when the flush sound was heard. However, it was not clear whether the sound came from Martinez's office or from the venue of other parties online on the conference call. Martinez continued to talk even after the sound was heard, so netizens are claiming that it may not have come from Martinez's office. Netizens took to Twitter and posted the audio clip of toilet flush sound with various comments.
Netizens are in splits
One of the Netizens, Mark Joseph Stern wrote: "The sound of the toilet flushing during Supreme Court arguments is so loud that I have to believe the culprit was IN the bathroom, though not necessarily on the toilet." "Is it too early to give out another audio Pulitzer?," wrote sean (@rameswaram).
"The sound of Democracy being flushed down the toilet no doubt," wrote Liz BeyBey (@liz_beybey). Connecting it to the governance, James Connors (@JimRConnors) wrote "This is a perfect metaphor for the current administration."
Reacting to the same, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, humorously shared the clip with the caption: "To be clear, the FCC does not construe the flushing of a toilet immediately after counsel said "what the FCC has said" to reflect a substantive judgment of the Supreme Court, or of any Justice thereof, regarding an agency determination."
The US apex court made history as it allowed online hearing of cases including live streaming the same first time in the history of US court proceedings. Currently, the arguments are only heard and no video is available. The US court is all set to hear high-profile cases too online including a case to decide if subpoenas can be issued for President Donald Trump's tax returns.
