Legal Experts Equip Educators to Teach Complex SCOTUS Cases

On any given school day, social studies teachers across the country build their students civic and legal knowledge by guiding them in interpreting the Constitution and demystifying institutions like the U.S. Supreme Court. However, despite their passion and professionalism, teaching about law and the Court can be complicated!

Now, what if you could learn about Trump v. United States with a seasoned Supreme Court advocate—who has argued eight cases before the Court and clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States—at your disposal.

Or, what if you could learn about City of Grants Pass v. Anderson from the team of attorneys who represented the respondents in the case?

The 60 teachers who recently attended Street Law’s Supreme Court Summer Institute had access to these Supreme Court advocates and other legal experts, including academics, journalists, and former law clerks.

This fall, they will return to their classrooms equipped with deep knowledge and insights about the Supreme Court and its cases and brimming with enthusiasm to share it with their students.      

Content Experts: A Key Ingredient in Street Law Programming

Street Law was founded on the idea that legal experts can and should play an important role in educating others about law. Since the birth of the “street law” movement in the early 1970s, law students, attorneys, government officials, and community members have been integrated into Street Law programs to share their expertise in particular aspects of the legal system.

Some Street Law programs bring legal experts (also known as community resource people or outside resource people) directly into classrooms to connect with young people. Other programs—like the Supreme Court Summer Institute—provide educators with direct access to the community resource people to deepen their understanding of legal topics, thus building educator capacity to better teach these concepts to their students.

Research confirms this approach, with a 2017 study¹ finding that one trait of high-quality teacher professional development is expert support, which includes the use of subject matter experts to aid in building teachers’ knowledge of specific content areas.

The Supreme Court Summer Institute  

Since 1995, Street Law’s Supreme Court Summer Institute, conducted in close partnership with the Supreme Court Historical Society, has brought secondary social studies teachers to Washington, DC, for an immersive six-day program designed to enhance their instruction about the Court.

The program’s success is due, in large part, to the invaluable contributions of community resource people.

Participating teachers gain unparalleled access to a distinguished group of Supreme Court experts and advocates, who co-facilitate sessions alongside Street Law’s staff. These experts, renowned for their knowledge and experience, dedicate substantial time to engaging with teachers, sharing insights, and addressing questions.    

Rick Tivnan, a social studies teacher who attended the 2024 Institute, highlighted the profound impact of access to legal experts of this caliber. “It is difficult for me to put into words just how much the outside resource people enhanced my learning. Every guest that was brought in came with such an immense wealth of knowledge and expertise that I could not help but gain a deeper understanding of how the court works.”

2024 guest experts included:

• An experienced appellate lawyer who introduced teachers to the Supreme Court through anecdotes and detailed information about the Court’s operations.
• A former chief nominations counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee who shed light on the process and politics of judicial nominations and confirmations.
• Advocates involved in recent cases who guided teachers through in-depth explorations of significant cases and issues and court procedures.
• Attorneys, who collectively have argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court, served as expert coaches, preparing teachers to role play the justices, petitioners, and respondents in a moot court exercise.
• Seasoned SCOTUS journalists who detailed their experiences reporting on the Court and shared their insights into how to analyze media about the Court.  
• Recent law clerks who in a small group setting provided a behind the scenes look at the Court’s inner workings from the perspective of lawyers who work directly for the justices.

Program evaluations demonstrated that teachers valued the contributions of community resource people:“Amazing! This is real life application I’m looking for that I can pass on to my students.”

• “Amazing! This is real life application I’m looking for that I can pass on to my students.”  
• “It’s always so incredibly interesting to hear from someone on the inside, actually doing the things we teach.” 
• “Great opportunity to hear from those who presented oral arguments in SCOTUS, loved hearing their [point of view].” 

Thank you to the 15 members of the legal community who participated as community resource people in the 2024 Supreme Court Summer Institute.

Conclusion

Street Law’s Supreme Court Summer Institute exemplifies the transformative power of integrating legal experts into civic and law-related education programs. By engaging directly with community resource people, teachers deepen their understanding of critical legal content, enhancing their ability to convey complex legal concepts to their students.

The positive impact extends further. The Supreme Court Summer Institute not only utilizes community resource people but also encourages teachers to—and models how—incorporate this strategy in their own classrooms. Teachers who have witnessed the benefits of expert-led lessons are more likely to replicate this approach locally. A resource person need not be a Supreme Court bar member to make a difference; teachers have successfully co-taught with local legal professionals and other community members.

From nationally recognized experts to small-town attorneys, the knowledge and real-world experiences these community resource people bring to civic education fosters a deeper understanding of law and the role of the Supreme Court. Utilizing subject matter experts has been a core strategy for Street Law, Inc. since its inception and will remain a vital tool for building practical knowledge about law and government for the foreseeable future.

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1. Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M. E., Gardner, M. (2017). Effective Teacher Professional Development (research brief). Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. ↩︎