Supreme Court Role-Playing   [Archived Catalog]
2014-2015 School of Law Academic Catalog
   

LAW 684 - Supreme Court Role-Playing

Credits, 2-3 sem. hrs.
In the roles of advocates and Supreme Court Justices, students conduct and hear argument in, and student-justices decide, cases pending before the United States Supreme Court. Each student-justice, in the role of a particular Supreme Court Justice, hears argument, participates in a conference on the cases with the other student justices, votes on the outcomes, and writes a judicial opinion in one or more of the cases. Each student-advocate also writes a memorandum identifying the key issues in her or his case and their likely resolution by the Court and each Justice. Students who wish to use the paper(s) prepared for this course toward satisfaction of the upper-level writing requirement may do so. Most students receive two hours of academic credit. Students with roles demanding an extraordinary amount of work, such as unusually heavy opinion-writing responsibilities, may apply to receive three hours of academic credit.