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FantasySCOTUS.org
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FantasySCOTUS.org
(coming September 2010)
Download the
FantasySCOTUS.org Powerpoint
Presentation
Now
your
students can play like the 10th Justice!
In November, 2009 Blackman launched the Internet’s first
Supreme Court Fantasy League, FantasySCOTUS.net allows members to
predict the outcome, split, and votes of individual Justices for every
case the Supreme Court considers during the term. With 4,000 members,
FantasySCOTUS.net has assembled some of the Supreme Court’s closest
followers, and has generated a buzz across the legal scene. Lawrence
Hurley asked Justice Stephen G. Breyer about the public interest in the
Supreme Court and FantasySCOTUS.net in an interview. Justice Breyer
responded that "I’m glad the public is interested. The more the public
knows about the court, the better." CNN’s Supreme Court Producer called
FantasySCOTUS.net the “hottest new fantasy-league game” on the
Internet. Blackman has also been interviewed by ABC News Radio and the
Wall Street Journal Law Blog, and has been featured on numerous web
sites.
In addition to avid court watchers, several dozen teachers from across
the country have incorporated FantasySCOTUS.net into their lesson plans
to teach about civics, government, the law, and political science. The
Institute has been in contact with a number of these teachers, who have
asked for a version of FantasySCOTUS geared towards high school
students. For the 2010-11 academic year, the Harlan Institute aims to
do just that, and launch FantasySCOTUS.org.
FantasySCOTUS.org will be a Supreme Court fantasy league
targeted towards high school classes that teach about the Supreme
Court, the Constitution, and civics. The site will be free for all
teachers and students to use.
During the October 2010 Supreme Court term, the
Institute will
select ten cases; five cases from the October sitting to correspond to
the Fall Semester, and five cases from the January sitting to
correspond to the Spring Semester. These cases will be of special
interest to students, and focus primarily on constitutional issues,
though other significant non-constitutional cases will also be
considered. Each class will submit predictions for these ten cases,
speculating as to the outcome of the case (Affirm or Reverse/Vacate),
the split, and the Justices in the majority and in the dissent.
For each case, the Institute will provide teachers with lesson plans.
For examples of lesson plans, please see samples we created for two
cases this term; United
States v. Stevens and Padilla
v. Kentucky. Each plan will provide a plain English
explanation of the parties involved, the question presented, the
background of the case, the opinion of the lower court, and the
competing arguments of the Petitioner and the Respondent. Following
this background information, the lesson plan will discuss all relevant
constitutional provisions, statutes, precedents, and other relevant
information needed to understand the case pending before the Supreme
Court.
In order to aid the students in predicting the case, the plan will also
include descriptions of relevant precedents and what the various
Justices have written about the subject matter of the case. This data
will help students understand how stare decisis and precedent influence
the decisions of the Supreme Court. Finally, the plan will provide
teachers with issues to discuss and questions that may be of interest
to the students. FantasySCOTUS.org will be closely integrated with
YourConstitution.org and Google Scholar to provide students with
information and links to relevant precedents.
In addition to the predictions, classes will also hone their writing
skills in a fun and interactive medium: blogging. Each classroom will
maintain a blog, and students will write posts about each of the cases,
including their analysis of the precedents, their thoughts about oral
arguments, and predictions for the holding. While the predictions will
be graded automatically, Institute personnel will be responsible for
grading and critiquing the blog posts according to a predetermined
scoring rubric. In addition, we will offer an interactive chat room and
forum, where teachers and students can interact with each other, and
learn more about the cases.
Classes will compete against other classes in small leagues .
Depending how many classes sign up, we can create leagues
based on states, regions, or other bases. At the end of the Supreme
Court term, the team with the best score in each league and their
teacher will receive a
to-be-determined prize.
What makes FantasySCOTUS.org so effective for
pedagogical
purposes is that it is real. These are real cases that the students
will read in the news. Leveraging the immense popularity of fantasy
sports among teenagers, FantasySCOTUS.org will transform following the
Supreme Court from a routine review of old cases into an exciting game
of predicting live cases. Factoring in the competition aspect, as
students will compete with other classes across the Nation, this
engaging and interactive platform will make the Supreme Court speak to
the students unlike ever before.
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