Supreme Court Reform

Supreme Court Reform,
July 22, 2022

Not since the New Deal has the United States Supreme Court been under as much scrutiny as in the past several years, in part because of the passionate views of Americans on both sides of the abortion debate. Bipartisan concern with suggestions of “court packing,” strategically-timed retirements, the hostility of the confirmation process, and the potential intimidation of Supreme Court justices has led observers on both sides of the political aisle to suggest that, instead of lifetime appointments, Supreme Court justices be appointed to staggered, fixed length terms. Yet the devil is in the details, and sometimes the devil we know may be preferable to the devil we don’t.

Featured: Patricia Lee, American Bar Association Standing Committee on Public Education; Erwin Chemerinsky, University of California Berkeley School of Law; John Shu; Alisa Kaplan, Reform for Illinois.

Written materials>>
Audio transcript>>

CLE Credits

Continuing legal education (CLE) credits are available to Illinois lawyers for 30 days from program date. Information is contained in the program registration, or on-demand description. All CLE credits are managed by Reform for Illinois.

Parliamentary-Style Debate

Each program follows the same format, as follows:

Program Format (60 minutes)

• Welcome Remarks (2 minutes)
• Moderator presents resolution (topic)
• Pro (yes) argument opening statement (12 minutes)
• Con (no) argument opening statement (12 minutes)
• Pro argument rebuttal (2 minutes)
• Con argument rebuttal (2 minutes)
• Moderated discussion (20 minutes)
• Audience Q&A (10 minutes)