Procedures

• STEP 1 (of 4)

  As a class, view the video clip below to learn about the process and importance of oral arguments during a Supreme Court case.

  Supreme Court Oral Arguments (7:42): The justices of the Supreme Court discuss the process and importance of the oral arguments during a Supreme Court case.

  • How long are the oral arguments for most cases in the Supreme Court? Why are they limited to this time?
  • What is most time during an oral argument spent on? Why do you think this is the case?
  • Explain at least three key points that the justices or attorneys shared about the questioning period. What similarities and differences do you notice from these views?
  • Do you think the oral argument process is effective? Explain why it is or how it could be more effective.

• STEP 2 (of 4)

  Direct your students to select a Supreme Court case from below and complete the chart as they listen to the oral arguments. The list of oral arguments will be updated as the Supreme Court term continues.

  Lesson Materials:

  • Handout: Supreme Court Oral Arguments Notetaking Chart (Google Doc).
  • Resource: The U.S. Supreme Court on C-SPAN (Website).
  • Resource: Oyez (Website).
  • Resource: SCOTUSblog (Website).

• 10/3/2022: Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency (1:48:12).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): What is the proper test for determining whether wetlands are “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act?

• 10/3/2022: Delaware v. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Consolidated (1:08:42).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Are unclaimed MoneyGram checks “money orders” or “similar written instruments” and thus subject to a federal law that remits them to the states where they were purchased?

• 10/4/2022: Merrill v. Milligan (1:54:00, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does Alabama’s 2021 redistricting plan for its seven U.S. House seats violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act?

• 10/4/2022: Arellano v. McDonough (47:42).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Can the one-year filing deadline for veterans to submit disability claims after they are discharged be extended under principles of equitable tolling?

• 10/11/22: National Pork Producers v. Ross (2:12:18).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does a California law that prohibits the in-state sale of pork from animals confined in a manner inconsistent with California standards violate the “dormant” component of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause?

• 10/11/2022: Reed v. Goertz (59:54).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): When does the statute of limitations for a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim seeking DNA testing of crime-scene evidence begin to run?

• 10/12/22: Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts v. Goldsmith (1:43:05).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): What is the proper test for whether a work is “transformative” under the first factor of the Copyright Act’s fair use doctrine?

• 10/12/22: Helix Energy Solutions v. Hewitt (1:33:54).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is a supervisor who makes over $200,000 annually, calculated on a daily basis, entitled to overtime pay, despite a regulation that carves out an exception for highly paid executives?

• 10/31/22: Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina (2:45:12, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key questions in case (as listed on Oyez.org): May institutions of higher education use race as a factor in admissions? If so, does UNC’s race-conscious admissions process violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution?

• 10/31/22: Students for Fair Admission v. President & Fellows of Harvard College (1:55:46).

  Key questions in case (as listed on Oyez.org): May institutions of higher education use race as a factor in admissions? If so, does Harvard College’s race-conscious admissions process violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

• 11/1/22: Jones v. Hendrix (1:20:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): May a federal inmate who did not challenge their conviction on the ground that the statute did not criminalize their activity subsequently apply for habeas relief after the Supreme Court retroactively invalidates the circuit precedent on which the inmate relied in not challenging their conviction?

• 11/1/22: Cruz v. Arizona (1:02:00).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is the Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling that a state rule of criminal procedure precluded post-conviction relief an adequate and independent state-law ground for the judgment against him, thereby precluding review by a federal court?

• 11/2/22: Bittner v. United States (1:12:06).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is a “violation” under the Bank Secrecy Act the failure to file an annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (no matter the number of foreign accounts), or is there a separate violation for each individual account that was not properly reported?

• 11/7/22: Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission (1:30:01).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Do federal courts have jurisdiction to hear constitutional challenges to the Federal Trade Commission’s structure, procedure, and existence, or must such challenges be raised first in the administrative proceeding?

• 11/7/22: Securities and Exchange Commission v. Cochran (1:09:30).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does a federal district court have jurisdiction to consider claims challenging the constitutionality of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s administrative proceedings?

• 11/8/22: Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. (1:48:12).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does a state registration statute for out-of-state corporations that purports to confer general personal jurisdiction over the registrant violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

• 11/8/22: Health and Hospital Corp v. Talevski (1:34:06).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): May a plaintiff file a federal civil rights claim for violation of the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act, which was enacted under Congress’s Spending Clause power?

• 11/9/22: Haaland v. Bracken (3:12:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Do the Indian Child Welfare Act’s restrictions on placement of Native American children violate anti-commandeering principles of the Tenth Amendment?

• 11/28/22: Percoco v. United States (1:08:00).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Can a private citizen who has informal political or other influence over governmental decisionmaking owe a fiduciary duty to the general public such that he can be convicted of honest-services fraud?

• 11/28/22: Ciminelli v. United States (1:17:48).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the Second Circuit’s “right to control” theory of fraud state a valid basis for liability under the federal wire fraud statute?

• 11/29/22: United States v. Texas (2:16:44, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key questions in case (as listed on Oyez.org): 1. Do the state plaintiffs have Article III standing to challenge the Department of Homeland Security’s Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law? 2. Do the Guidelines violate the Administrative Procedure Act? 3. Does 8 U.S.C. § 1252(f)(1) prevent the entry of an order to “hold unlawful and set aside” the guidelines under 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)?

• 11/30/22: Wilkins v. United States (1:06:00).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is the Quiet Title Act’s statute of limitations a jurisdictional requirement or a claim-processing rule?

• 12/5/22: 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (2:22:29, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does application of the Colorado AntiDiscrimination Act to compel an artist to speak or stay silent violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment?

• 12/5/22: MOAC Mall Holdings v. Transform Holdco (1:10:18).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does Bankruptcy Code Section 363(m) limit the jurisdiction of appellate courts over an order approving the sale of a debtor’s assets or instead simply limit the remedies available on appeal from such an order?

• 12/6/22: United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Services (1:16:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the government have the authority to dismiss a False Claims Act lawsuit brought by an individual on behalf of the government if it initially declined to take over the case, and if so, what standard applies?

• 12/6/22: Bartenwerfer v. Buckley (1:11:36).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Can a bankruptcy debtor be held liable for another person’s fraud, even when they were not aware of the fraud?

• 12/7/22: Moore v. Harper (2:54:20, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Under the U.S. Constitution, does the state legislative body, independent of any constraints by state courts or other laws, have sole authority to regulate federal elections?

• 1/9/23: In Re Grand Jury (1:08:06).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): If a communication involves both legal and non-legal advice, when is it protected from disclosure by attorney-client privilege?

• 1/9/23: The Ohio Adjutant General's Department v. Federal Labor Relations Authority (1:29:36).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 empower the Federal Labor Relations Authority to regulate the labor practices of state militias?

• 1/10/23: Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1:25:18).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the National Labor Relations Act preempt a state-court lawsuit against a union for intentionally destroying an employer’s property during a labor dispute?

• 1/11/23: Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Inc. (56:36).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA)’s general grant of jurisdiction to the federal courts over claims against the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico and claims otherwise arising under PROMESA abrogate the Board’s sovereign immunity with respect to all federal and territorial claims?

• 1/17/23: Santos-Zacaria v. Garland (1:03:42).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does 8 U.S.C. § 1252(d)(1) bar a court of appeals from reviewing an immigrant’s claim that the Board of Immigration Appeals had engaged in impermissible factfinding because the immigrant had not exhausted that claim through a motion to reconsider?

• 1/17/23: Türkiye Halk Bankasi A.S. v. United States (1:36:11).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): May the district courts properly exercise subject-matter jurisdiction over the criminal prosecution against Halkbank in this case based on the commercial activity exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act?

• 1/18/23: Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools (1:29:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Do the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require a student to exhaust his administrative proceedings against the school district even when such proceedings would be futile?

• 2/21/23: Gonzalez v. Google (2:41:28, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act immunize interactive computer services when they make targeted recommendations of information provided by another information content provider?

• 2/22/23: Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh (2:30:55, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key questions in case (as listed on Oyez.org): 1. Does an internet platform “knowingly” provide substantial assistance under 18 U.S.C. § 2333 merely because it allegedly could have taken more “meaningful” or “aggressive” action to prevent such use? 2. May an internet platform whose services were not used in connection with the specific “act of international terrorism” that injured the plaintiff still be liable for aiding and abetting under Section 2333?

• 2/27/23: Dubin v. United States (1:32:42).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does a person commit aggravated identity theft any time they mention or otherwise recite someone else’s name while committing a predicate offense?

• 2/28/23: Department of Education v. Brown (1:16:05, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness program unconstitutional?

• 2/28/23: Biden v. Nebraska (2:02:56, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key questions in case (as listed on Oyez.org): 1. Do Nebraska and other states have judicial standing to challenge the student-debt relief program? 2. Does the student-debt relief program exceed the statutory authority of the U.S. Secretary of Education, or does it violate the Administrative Procedure Act?

• 3/1/23: Arizona v. Mayorkas (N/A). The case was REMOVED from the February 2023 argument calendar on 2/16/23.

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): May the State applicants intervene in this case to challenge the district court’s order directing the Biden administration to end the policy of barring entry of individuals into the United States to protect the public from contagious diseases?

• 3/1/23: New York v. New Jersey (1:29:18).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): May New Jersey unilaterally withdraw from the Waterfront Commission Compact with New York?

• 3/20/23: Arizona v. Navajo Nation (1:49:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on SCOTUSBlog.com): (1) Whether the opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, allowing the Navajo Nation to proceed with a claim to enjoin the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior to develop a plan to meet the Navajo Nation’s water needs and manage the mainstream of the Colorado River in the Lower Basin so as not to interfere with that plan, infringes upon the Supreme Court’s retained and exclusive jurisdiction over the allocation of water from the LBCR mainstream in Arizona v. California; and (2) whether the Navajo Nation can state a cognizable claim for breach of trust consistent with the Supreme Court’s holding in United States v. Jicarilla Apache Nation based solely on unquantified implied rights to water under the doctrine of Winters v. United States.

• 3/21/23: Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc. (1:27:42).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the Lanham Act permit the owner of a U.S.-registered trademark to recover damages for the use of that trademark when the infringement occurred outside the United States and is not likely to cause confusion in the United States?

• 3/21/23: Coinbase, Inc. v. Bielski (1:22:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does a non-frivolous appeal of the denial of a motion to compel arbitration oust a district court’s jurisdiction to proceed with litigation pending appeal?

• 3/22/23: Jack Daniel's Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products (1:23:59).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is humorous use of another’s trademark as one’s own on a commercial product subject to the Lanham Act’s likelihood-of-confusion analysis, or instead entitled to heightened First Amendment protection?

• 3/27/23: United States v. Hansen (1:22:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the federal prohibition on encouraging or inducing unlawful immigration for commercial advantage or private financial gain violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?

• 3/27/23: Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi (1:39:18).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): What must a patent applicant provide to meet the statutory requirement of a description of the invention that would enable a “skilled artisan” to “make and use” the claimed invention?

• 3/28/23: Smith v. United States (1:16:48).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does a criminal trial’s improper venue as to one count require vacatur of the convictions for other counts?

• 3/28/23: Lora v. United States (1:01:48).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does federal criminal sentencing law require a man who was convicted and sentenced for his role in a drug-trafficking-related murder to serve consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences?

• 3/29/23: Samia v. United States (1:38:24).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does admitting a codefendant’s redacted out-of-court confession that immediately inculpates a defendant based on context violate the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment?

• 3/29/23: Polselli v. Internal Revenue Service (50:42).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the exception in I.R.C. § 7609(c)(2)(D)(i) to the notice requirements for an Internal Revenue Service summons on third-party recordkeepers apply to a summons for anyone’s records whenever the IRS thinks that person’s records might somehow help it collect a delinquent taxpayer’s liability?

• 4/17/23: Pugin v. Garland (1:39:54).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is Virginia’s offense of accessory after the fact to a felony an “offense relating to obstruction of justice” under the Immigration and Nationality Act?

• 4/17/23: Slack Technologies v. Pirani (1:10:12).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Do Sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 require plaintiffs to plead and prove that they bought shares registered under the registration statement they claim is misleading?

• 4/18/23: Groff v. Dejoy (1:48:26, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is inconvenience to coworkers an “undue burden” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 such that it excuses an employer from providing an accommodation requested for religious exercise?

• 4/18/23: United States ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu (1:12:48).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Is a defendant’s contemporaneous subjective understanding about the lawfulness of its conduct relevant to whether it “knowingly” violated the False Claims Act?

• 4/19/23: Counterman v. Colorado (1:46:46, with featured sections bookmarked).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): To establish that a statement is a "true threat" unprotected by the First Amendment, must the government show that the speaker subjectively knew or intended the threatening nature of the statement?

• 4/24/23: Dupree v. Younger (58:12).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): To preserve the issue for appellate review, must a party reassert in a post-trial motion a purely legal issue rejected at summary judgment?

• 4/24/23: Lac du Flambeau Band v. Coughlin (58:36).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does the Bankruptcy Code unequivocally abrogate tribal sovereign immunity?

• 4/24/23: Yegiazaryan v. Smagin (1:04:36).

  Key question in case (as listed on Oyez.org): Does a foreign plaintiff with no alleged connection to the United States state a cognizable claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act when it suffers an injury to an intangible property?

• 4/26/23: Tyler v. Hennepin County (1:48:18).

  Key questions in case (as listed on Oyez.org): 1. Does taking and selling a home to satisfy a debt to the government, and keeping the surplus value as a windfall, violate the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause? 2. Is the forfeiture of property worth far more than needed to satisfy a debt a fine within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment?

• STEP 3 (of 4)

  As a class, discuss the main arguments on both sides in the case, and explain its significance to the United States.

• STEP 4 (of 4)

  Choose an activity from C-SPAN Classroom's Deliberations site to engage your students in a structured student-centered analysis of the case.

• OPTIONAL EXTENSION

  Since 2009, C-SPAN has released a survey on public opinion regarding the Supreme Court whenever there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

  The following lesson extension has students analyze the findings of the 2022 Supreme Court survey conducted by Pierrepont and compare the data to previous surveys conducted by PSB in 2018, and 2017, and 2015, using charts and other resources to examine public perceptions of the Supreme Court and draw conclusions about current trends.

  Access the lesson extension and materials here: Public Perceptions of the Supreme Court.