THE HEARING HAS ENDED

The hearing has ended. It lasted longer than expected, about an hour and a half. Here are my initial thoughts.

Apologies. I reported on this blog that the public would not be allowed in the courtroom. There were in fact some ten people in the room today. I do not know who they were or why they were there. I apologize to all  my readers about my false information I presented. I called the Clerk's office on two different occasions and asked about the public's attendance. I was told flatly on both occasions that the public would not be allowed in the room. Obviously that was not correct. I should not have passed on that information and I am sorry for doing it.

James Lockemy is the Acting Justice. He is the Chief Judge of the SC Court of Appeals. He seemed to me to be knowledgeable about the case and comfortable with the Church's position.

I was dismayed by Chief Justice Beatty's comments. I will have to listen to all he said again, but it seemed to me as if he wanted to back away from his participation in the majority decisions of 2017. 

Justice Few talked the most and seemed bothered by the accession question. He seemed to want more factual findings about each parish's accession. I just wonder how such a thing could be done at this point.

Justice Kittredge did not talk much but seemed satisfied with the 2017 decision. At one point the asked Runyan, "How many bites of the apple do you get?" Indeed.

I am going to re-listen to the hearing and try to make more sense of it. At this point, nothing is clear. I do not know how to read any conclusion into today's hearing.

Just off the top of my head, it seemed that Kittredge and Lockemy were satisfied that the 2017 was final. Few, mostly, and James to a lesser degree, were bothered by the 2017 decision. Once again, as in 2017, Beatty is an unknown. In 2017 he wound up siding with the Episcopal side but he sounded today if he were not sure that was the right side. So, who knows how Beatty will move now?