“If you could pause time, write the perfect answer to a Justice’s question, hand it to the advocate, and press play, this is the answer the advocate would give.”
Legal scholars usually operate at the level of grand theory, gradually shaping the doctrinal landscape across different areas of law. On this platform, scholars apply their expertise to a narrower field of vision and directly address recent questions that arose during argument at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Advocates arguing before the Court are, of course, among the best the legal profession has to offer, but even superb advocacy can benefit from hindsight and reflection. With this in mind, each contributor to Oral Argument 2.0 selects central questions from one of the argued cases. As needed, contributors provide background and commentary and then propose answers to the selected questions. Each answer offers a kind of oral argument script that an actor, playing the advocate, would recite in a film where everything runs perfectly. The answers are meant to be spoken and received as oral advocacy rather than created and read as a written product.
Support for Oral Argument 2.0 is provided by the Legal Information Institute (LII) of Cornell Law, Justia, and The Oyez Project.
Supreme Court Resources
The Oyez Project – A free law project in collaboration between Cornell’s Legal Information Institute and Justia, Oyez is the internet’s premier source of audio and transcripts from the Supreme Court.
Legal Information Institute – The Legal Information Institute is a non-profit, public service of Cornell Law School that provides free access to current American and international legal research sources.
Justia – Justia is an online platform that provides the community with open access to the law, legal information, and lawyers.
The Supreme Court of the United States – The official website of the U.S. Supreme Court.