Supreme Court

Penn Model Congress is proud to announce the return of the Supreme Court program for its fifth year. This program is designed to allow a select number of delegates the opportunity to participate in a working model of oral argument on the U.S. Supreme Court. Supreme Court sessions will take place during the legislative Full Session allotted times and will not conflict with committee meetings. Like all other delegates, the Supreme Court delegates will be required to submit mock legislation and will be able to participate fully in their legislative committees.

Pre-conference preparation for this program will be significant. Prior to the conference, Supreme Court delegates will be given pamphlets of materials related to each of the two cases that will be examined in the mock sessions. These materials will be identical in content to those required for submission in response to a U.S. Supreme Court’s granted writ of certiorari. That is, briefs from the petitioner and the respondent and their respective amici curiae (briefs advising the Court on law or fact that have been submitted by parties not involved directly in the litigation) will be provided to the students along with any prior State Court or lower Federal Court decision. We will tailor appropriately the case material for readers that are unfamiliar with legal concepts and reasoning. We recommend that the Supreme Court delegates be willing and especially capable to perform highly in their analysis and argument at the conference. 

Preparatory materials for the two cases the Supreme Court will be hearing are now available.

• Supreme Court 2010 Program Logistics
• Supreme Court 2010 Delegate Outline
• Supreme Court 2010 Case Documents - Kyllo v. United States & Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township

We invite each delegation to nominate two delegates for this special program. Delegates will function in teams of two as petitioner, as respondent, and as justices on a rotating basis for two different cases.

Each team of delegates will function as a justice and as either petitioner or respondent for each case. Each team will change courtrooms after the first session, allowing each team to participate with a different set of teams during the second session. Each courtroom will contain four teams of two Supreme Court delegates and one PENNMC staff member who will act as the Chief Justice. The PENNMC staff member in each of the three courtrooms will participate in questioning as little as possible, allowing the Justice delegates to determine for the most part the direction of the discussion.

The sessions will be 3 hours in length. Identical to oral argument on the U.S. Supreme Court, the petitioner and the respondent will be allotted 30 minutes each, inclusive of questioning from the Justices, to present. Upon the completion of oral argument, the petitioner, the respondent, and the PENNMC staff member will leave the room for 10 minutes in order to allow the Justice delegates to deliberate and form preliminary opinions. Following the 10 minutes, the PENNMC staff member will enter the room for no more than 5 minutes to discuss the outcome of the deliberation, to cast his or her vote, if necessary to determine a majority, and to ensure that the opinions (brief in length) of the Court are prepared. The petitioner and the respondent will reenter the room and the opinions (brief in length) of the Court will be read and discussed lightly for anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes. The Court will break for 5 minutes and, following the recess, will begin the same process again with the second case and the new roles.

Oral Argument: We are looking to mimic the actual U.S. Supreme Court as closely as possible in our proceedings. Fittingly, we will look for delegates to articulate argument based upon the elements of law examined in the case materials, not upon the factual circumstances of the cases. We will not expect, however, that the delegates go into searching detail on the evolution of Court’s decisional doctrine surrounding the various constitutional provisions referenced either explicitly or implicitly in the case materials. Supplemental materials provided to the delegates will outline clearly the appropriate legal issues and precedent to, respectively, consider and consult. Despite the challenge associated with a delegate’s communicating properly legal arguments without an established background in law, we feel that our adhering strictly to the procedures of the U.S. Supreme Court will offer the Supreme Court delegates a unique and a more accurately representative experience.

Operative Rules: The same rules regarding a delegate’s conduct in the main conference will apply to that in the Supreme Court sessions. Parliamentary procedure will not explicitly apply because of the unique procedures of a session of oral argument on the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court delegates acting as petitioners and as respondents will be required to begin their arguments in the customary manner, “Mr./Madame Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.” The petitioner typically reserves a portion of his or her time (normally 3 to 5 minutes) for a rebuttal/conclusion following the respondent’s argument. While this will not be explicitly required of the delegates, it will be encouraged. During oral argument, the delegates acting as Justices may interrupt the petitioner or respondent at anytime with questions. The petitioner or respondent will be required to discontinue his or her argument and to answer the Justice’s question. Questions from Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court tend to help further along the petitioner or the respondent with his or her case, and are not exclusively for the Justice’s information. This practice will not be discouraged during the conference. Throughout the sessions, the PENNMC staff member acting as the Chief Justice will ensure that the delegate Justices maintain respect for the petitioners and the respondents and that the Justices’ questioning remains additive to the discussion and lacks any pejorative motivations.

Teamwork: What makes this opportunity especially valuable is the high place of dynamic teamwork required within the Supreme Court delegate teams. We feel that this Supreme Court exercise, while enlightening and informative as to the processes of the U.S. Supreme Court and as to the interpretation and articulation of legal concepts, will prove to be markedly constructive in its showcasing the delegates’ abilities to work efficaciously on high performing teams.

This program is in its fifth year in Penn Model Congress. We feel that is important to stress that delegations nominate their most analytically capable, self-motivated, and team-oriented students to this program. The nominated delegates will not be able to participate in legislative Full Sessions, but are fully expected to participate effectively in all of their committee sessions. Please note that each participating school MUST send two delegates to the Supreme Court program. We are confident that the Supreme Court program will be as successful at PENNMC 2010 as it has been in the past. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Supreme Court Program Coordinator, Rachel Levick, at levick@sas.upenn.edu. You can also visit the website of the United States Supreme Court by clicking here.