I am teaching a seminar on current issues at the Supreme Court. Here are the assignments from the Syllabus, if you want to follow along. I also will have quick videos that the students will watch before class giving a little bit of background. Here is the first one.

Monday, August 28  The certiorari process:

1. Read Rule 10 of the Supreme Court’s Rules on when certiorari is granted. https://www.supremecourt.gov/filingandrules/2023RulesoftheCourt.pdf
2. Read the petition for certiorari and reply in Netchoice v. Paxton by clicking on the links here.  https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/netchoice-llc-v-paxton/
3. Choose any other petition for certiorari from this list of potentially viable petitions and skim it.  You will present it to the class, and we will discuss in class whether the petition is likely to be granted.  https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/petitions-were-watching/

Monday, Sept 4 (no class – Labor Day)

Monday, September 11 Oral argument:

1. Carefully read the transcript OR listen to oral argument in Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC.  You can do either or both, but make sure you give this your undivided attention.  https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/audio/2022/21-707
2. Asynchronous Assignment: 
   1. Watch the video I post.
   1. Choose two of the Justices(this may require reading the transcript unless you can recognize a particular Justice’s voice) and email me at least 225 words explaining how their questions and questioning styles differ, and how well the litigants did responding to their questions.

Monday, September 18 Briefs:

1. Read the briefs of petitioner and respondent in Great Lakes Insurance v. Raiders Retreat Realty.  You do not have to read the amicus briefs or the briefs during the stage of petitioning for certiorari.  https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/great-lakes-insurance-se-v-raiders-retreat-realty-co-llc/  Make sure you understand the legal issues and think about what strategies are being used for writing the briefs.
2. Asynchronous Assignment:
   1. Watch the video I post.
   1. Email me at least 200 words on which brief you found more convincing and why.

Monday, September 25 Supreme Court process and ethics:

1. Read the following five articles: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/committees/death_penalty_representation/publications/project_blog/scotus-shadow-docket-under-review-by-house-reps/

The Supreme Court’s recusal process is its next ethical conundrum

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/05/05/who-should-enforce-a-code-of-conduct-on-the-supreme-court

Ethics rules for Supreme Court justices approved on party-line vote by U.S. Senate panel

Supreme Court clears the way for Alabama to resume executions

• Asynchronous Assignment: 
  • Watch the video I post.
  • Find something pending on the current Shadow Docket of the Supreme Court and discuss it with me in 150 words, relating it to the reading for today.  https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/emergency/emergency-docket-2022/

Monday, October 2 Scholarship on the Supreme Court:

1. Read Supreme Court Reform and American Democracy  https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/supreme-court-reform-and-american-democracy

Read the Abstract and Introduction to The Remand Power and the Supreme Court’s Role

https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4928&context=ndlr

During class, we will discuss these articles in relation to what makes a good piece of law review scholarship and how to develop a thesis, so make sure you can pick of the thesis of both of these articles.

• Asynchronous Assignment: 
  • Find another piece of scholarship on the Supreme Court.  It can be recent or old.  Spend at least 35 minutes reading/skimming the article and jotting down some thoughts on what makes it a good piece of scholarship, especially in comparison to the other articles we read for today’s class.  Be prepared to present your thoughts on this article and the other articles we read to the class. 

Monday, October 9 Paper Topic Selection:

1. Decide on a particular topic that you would like to write about.  This will require several hours of research into the topic and also examining what has already been written about the topic.  Come up with a tentative thesis, which is one or two sentences, divided into subparts, that can be explored in several sections of an article.
2. Asynchronous Assignment:
   1. Watch the video I post.
   1. Email me your tentative thesis.  This does not have to be entirely ironed out, but I would like to see a one or two sentence argument about your topic.  You may change your mind later.

Monday, October 16 303 Creative v. Elenis:

1. Read carefully the full opinion, including the dissent.
2. Look over the briefs and petition for certiorari.  This can involve skimming.
3. Asynchronous Assignment:  Tell me in 200 words which side you agree with and why.

Monday, October 23 Organizing Your Paper:

1. Read the Introduction to Debunking Antinovelty and think about what makes a good organizational structure for a law review article.  https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3895&context=dlj
2. Chose a recent, published student Note that has been written about the Supreme Court and look at the organizational structure.
3. Asynchronous Assignment: 
   1. Watch the video I post.
   1. Email me 200 words on this student Note and what it is about and what works and doesn’t work about its structure.

Monday, October 30 Outlines:

1. Outline is due!  Email me your outline. 
2. Asynchronous Assignment: 
   1. Watch the video I post.
   1. Send me 100 words on the process of outlining and the strengths and weaknesses of your outline.

Monday, November 6 Amicus Briefs:

1. Read the top amicus brief for each side in Allen v. Milligan.  https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/merrill-v-milligan-2/
2. Skim the lower court opinion – a very light skim to understand the issue.  https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/AL-caster-20220124-order-granting-PI.pdf
3. Read another amicus brief of your choosing.
4. Asynchronous Assignment:  Email me 200 words on the amicus brief of your choosing and how it compares to the other amicus briefs that you read.

Monday, November 13 Drafts:

1. Draft is due!  Send me the Introduction section and at least Part One of the Paper.  We will spend class looking at your drafts, comparing them with other students, and thinking about how to revise them.
2. Email me your draft by 7:00 pm Sunday night before class.
3. Asynchronous Assignment:  Email me 100 words on the process of drafting and how you think it went for you.

Monday, November 20 The Confirmation Process:

1. Watch a combined total of at least 30 minutes of confirmation hearings from at least 3 different Justices.  https://www.c-span.org/liveEvent/?confirmationhearings
2. Read the following three articles

https://newrepublic.com/article/165982/abolish-supreme-court-confirmation-hearings

https://ballsandstrikes.org/nominations/supreme-court-confirmation-hearings-brief-guide/

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R44234 (this is the longest one)

• Asynchronous Assignment:  Send me 200 words on how the different confirmation hearings differed and what surprised you about the confirmation hearings.

Monday, November 27 Paper is due!

1. Email me your paper. 
2. We will spend class reflecting on the paper-writing process, reflecting on class, eating pizza, and chatting about the upcoming Supreme Court term and forthcoming opinions.
3. Asynchronous Assignment: 
   1. Watch the video I post.
   1. Send me 150 words on how your views about the Supreme Court have changed after taking this class and how listening to your classmates has influenced you.