101 First Street
on Aug 3, 2017 at 2:35 pm
This past term, while the Supreme Court was on its winter break, First Mondays released a special two-episode series called “101 First Street.” The series is designed to serve as an introduction to how the Supreme Court works for nonexperts and nonlawyers. The first episode, “Ser-shee-or-RARE-eye,” walks listeners through the Supreme Court’s case-selection process — including such minutiae as the difference between “relists” and “reschedules” and how to pronounce “certiorari” — as well as the court’s process for resolving merits cases up to and including the briefing stage. The second episode, “The Most Exciting Parts,” picks up where the first episode left off, and describes the oral-argument process and the rest of the court’s decision making, including its issuance of written opinions.
We hope that these 101 First Street episodes will serve as a valuable and timeless resource to anyone who wants to know more about how the Supreme Court works. Law students in particular might find them useful, and we encourage law professors teaching classes with a heavy Supreme Court focus (such as Constitutional Law or Criminal Procedure) to suggest them to students.
