The U.S. Supreme Court, responding to the impact of COVID-19 on court operations, on Wednesday relaxed administrative rules requiring the filing of certain paper documents and the service of those documents on lawyers with clients in cases before the justices.

Paper copies are the official filings in the Supreme Court even though the justices adopted electronic filing in 2017. But the public health crisis recently spurred concerns and calls by some court advocates for the suspension of the paper filing requirements. The rules had required lawyers or staff to make trips to printers or to deliver copies to the court itself.