Post Date: May 18, 2005
Harvard Law School’s Federalist Society and American Constitution Society will join forces next fall to host provocative, off-the-record moot court sessions previewing Supreme Court cases.
The Supreme Court Advocacy Project, sponsored by the two organizations and Dean Elena Kagan, will invite litigants of upcoming cases to present their arguments before a panel of experts, discuss case strategy and receive critiques. The Project will host two sessions each semester in the Ames Moot Courtroom.
“By bringing litigators to HLS to ‘moot’ their Supreme Court arguments before professors and other litgators, we will not only be helping them to shape their arguments, but also providing HLS students with a unique opportunity to witness and be involved in the process,” said Jeffrey Jamison, president of the American Constitution Society.
“There are already several major constitutional cases on the docket for next term, and we hope that HLS will become the forum of choice for attorneys seeking a rigorous and thorough practice argument before appearing in front of the Court,” said Jeffrey Harris, the Federalist Society coordinator for the project.
The two organizations will alternate organizing of the sessions based on the Court’s schedule of oral arguments. The project aims to stimulate debate on campus and tackle challenging legal questions, such as medical marijuana and the 10 Commandments, which were the subject of the two groups’ moot courts last year.