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Schedule of Events

Friday sessions will be held in the McGlothlin Courtroom.  Saturday sessions will be held in Room 119 with overflow in Room 120 unless otherwise specified

Friday, September 19th

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM: Networking with Students

Available panelists will meet with registered W&M students to talk about their lives in the law and to give advice they wish they had been given when in law school.

4:00 PM: Welcome (Professor Allison Orr Larsen)

4:05 PM - 5:30 PM: Moot Court - Chiles v. Salazar

  • Advocates:  Jaime Santos & Ben Snyder

Brief Description of Case:  In 2019, Colorado enacted a law banning licensed mental health professionals from engaging in "conversion therapy" with minors, defined as efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor and practicing Christian, challenged the law, arguing that it prevents her from providing counseling consistent with her religious beliefs. She works with clients who want to discuss issues that, she says, “implicate Christian values about human sexuality and the treatment of their own body.” Chiles contends that the Colorado law violates her First Amendment rights to free speech and to freely exercise her religion. The Tenth Circuit rejected her claim, ruling that the law regulates professional conduct, not speech, and is therefore subject to rational basis review, which it passes.

*As in the past, the audience is reminded that the moot court is an academic exercise only and no questions or positions taken by either the moot court justices or advocates should be attributed to them personally.

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM: Procedural Changes at the Court: What is Next for Nationwide Injunctions and the Emergency Docket?

This panel will discuss the implications from the Supreme Court’s end-of-term decision significantly limiting nationwide injunctions (Trump v. CASA), in addition to providing context about changes to the Court’s emergency docket (aka shadow docket).  The discussion will likely include insight on what those changes mean for the Court more broadly particularly in light of recent public criticisms from members of the Court.

Saturday, September 21st

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM: Election Law

In addition to a high-stakes campaign finance case, the Justices have recently asked for briefing to consider the constitutionality of section two of the Voting Rights Act in the Louisiana redistricting controversy. This panel of experts will discuss those two cases and speculate on potential election disputes that may appear on the emergency docket this Term.

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Litigation over Executive Orders (Non-Immigration Edition)

The panel will discuss the unprecedented number of President Trump’s executive orders currently facing legal challenges (either on the emergency docket or otherwise). At stake in these cases are the constitutional status of independent agencies, challenges to the administration’s authority to impose tariffs, lawsuits opposing funding restrictions on universities, and more.

Break

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM: The Judges Panel: How Minds are Changed in Judicial Deliberation

Judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals will answer questions about the deliberation process in judicial decision-making, with a focus on how and when they change their mind.  Does oral argument matter? Is a changed mind more likely before or after drafting an opinion?  Do norms affect the deliberation process?  The goal of this conversation will be to pull back the curtain on the third branch of government to get a sense of how decisions are reached.

12:15 PM – 1:00 PM: Lunch Break 

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Docket Deep Dives (3 choices in 3 different rooms):

  1. Administrative Law
  2. Immigration Law
  3. Criminal Law

2:00 PM – 2:15 PM: Break and return to 119

2:15 PM – 3:15 PM: Civil Rights Panel

The Court will hear cases this Term involving the free exercise of religion, free speech, sports participation for transgender athletes, challenges to the death penalty under the Eighth Amendment, and a case presenting a Heck v. Humphreys federal courts issue involving remedies available under 1983.  This panel will discuss the arguments in these cases and make predictions.

3:15 PM – 4:15 PM:  The Supreme Court & The Internet

The Court will decide Cox Communications v. Sony Music this term which is a high-stakes case asking the Court to define copyright infringement liability for internet service providers (ISPs) based on their customers’ acts of infringement. This panel will discuss the arguments in that case and situate it within the Court’s recent forays into disputes that involve the Internet.  These experts will speculate on themes and future moves including thoughts on the pending emergency application involving state age-verification and parental-consent requirements for social media accounts.

 

4:15 PM CONCLUDE