Programs & Videos

The Society held its 15th annual Mock Court Program on March 6, 2020. This year, 135 Washington D.C. high school students made their first oral arguments in court.

Read about the reenactment of a famous Supreme Court case, New Jersey v. T.L.O., an argument on student rights under the Fourth Amendment.

For our re-enactment, Professor Gillian Metzger offered background in the landmark 1984 case before advocates John P. Elwood and David C. Vladeck presented arguments. Judges Judith W. Rogers and Gregory G. Katsas made up a lively Bench which concluded with Professor Christopher J. Walker moderating a panel discussion that included Elwood, Vladeck and Dean John F. Manning.

Judges who heard the Mock Court arguments agreed that the Maret, McKinley Tech, School Without Walls, and H.D. Woodson students were extremely well-prepared and presented their 1st and 4th Amendment cases masterfully.

Before arguing cases involving 1st and 4th amendment issues before 10 federal judges, over 125 high school students crowded into the Ceremonial Courtroom to be welcomed by Chief Judge Merrick Garland. After presenting their well-prepared arguments, the students were praised for their work by Chief Judge Beryl Howell and each of the participating judges.

A panel analyzed the current status of the political question doctrine and its conceptual underpinnings, looking specifically at cases involving impeachment, the war on terror, and political gerrymandering to assess the proper role of the federal judiciary in our constitutional scheme. Following Professor Stephen Vladeck's opening remarks, the re-enactment began. 

Over 240 students came to the Courthouse in December 2017 to watch the re-enactment of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case involving high school students' free speech rights.

The Historical Society's 12th Annual Mock Court Program was a huge success. Over 170 students from McKinley Tech, School Without Walls, H.D. Woodson, and Maret School presented 5-6 minute appellate style arguments before 14 federal and D.C. Court judges on March 10. This was the largest program ever. Over 30 attorneys from D.C.'s legal community volunteered their time and met 4-5 times with the students, assisting them in preparing their arguments.

The full program on video of In re Judith Miller, a Society-sponsored program that explored the common-law basis for a reporter's privilege and how best to strike the balance between the public's right to know and the Government's need to secure information in the national interest. The program began with remarks by Professor David Pozen of Columbia Law School.

The Historical Society presented its 11th annual Mock Court Program at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on March 11, 2016. One hundred twenty-eight D.C. high school students from Maret, McKinley Tech, Woodson and School Without Walls delivered appellate-style oral arguments before 11 participating federal judges. "Outstanding" was the universal judgment.

Over 80 students from five public high schools in the District participated in this year's Mock Court Program, arguing before 10 judges from the Court of Appeals and the District Court. Each student addressed one of two issues: whether a school official violated the Fourth Amendment rights of three students by affixing a GPS device to their bicycles, or whether a provider of webcasting services to high school students violated a user's First Amendment rights by cancelling a webcast that included political and profane content.

A reenactment of the D.C. Circuit argument in Morrison v. Olson on October 28, 2015. Senior Judge Laurence Silberman presided over the argument, with Theodore B. Olson (representing himself) and Catherine E. Stetson (representing the Independent Counsel).

Watch and listen as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and Senior Judge Paul L. Friedman take you behind the scenes at the U.S. District Court and talk about judging -- then and now with moderator Miguel Estrada, Esq.

Listen as James Forman of Yale Law School moderates a discussion on the significance of Bolling v. Sharpe and Brown v. Board of Education as well as key public education issues and challenges presented by the twin goals of achieving integration and improving education in public schools.

About 85 high school students presented arguments before nine federal judges in the Historical Society's ninth Mock Court Program on April 25, 2014. After practicing their arguments with volunteer lawyer mentors in the weeks preceding the program, the students impressed the judges with their ability to argue a case involving search and seizure issues.

The "Women in the Life and Law of the D.C. Circuit Courts" Historical Society program, held June 2013 brought together judges, administrators, law clerks, and practicing attorneys, each with direct experience in our courts, to discuss the past, present, and future of women in the Courts of the D.C. Circuit.

On April 12, 2013, 75 students from six D.C. public high schools and two private schools had the unusual opportunity of arguing in the federal courthouse before federal judges in the eighth Mock Court Program sponsored by the Historical Society. Nine judges heard the arguments and selected an outstanding advocate in each of their courtrooms-with each winner receiving a monetary prize from the Society.

During this April 2012 program, University of Pennsylvania professor Stephen J. Morse described the insanity defense as giving legal life to the moral values of fairness and responsibility that the Supreme Court should uphold as a constitutional right.

A ruling in the mid 1950's by a federal judge in the D.C. Circuit almost single-handedly started turning the judicial tide against the "red scare" generated by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others, according to a panel presented by the Historical Society of the D.C. Circuit in May 2011.

One hundred students from ten Washington area high schools appeared in Federal Court on April 8, 2011 to argue cases before U.S. District Court judges. The students, practicing their litigation skills, were from 10 schools (Columbia Heights Education Campus, Coolidge, Idea PCS, Maret, McKinley Tech, National Cathedral, School Without Walls, St. Albans, Theodore Roosevelt, and H.D. Woodson) and presented their arguments to 11 judges.