May 24, 2018
On Wednesday, May 23, seniors in the MPA Constitutional Law class headed to the Minnesota Judicial Center to present arguments on current U.S. Supreme Court cases to panels of judges from the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Filling four courtrooms in the building, each group of seniors presented their case for 30 minutes, including 15 minutes for both sides of the argument, similar to the way cases are truly argued before the Supreme Court. Each group has been working on one of six cases that the Supreme Court heard during this term.
Judge Jill Halbrooks of the Minnesota Court of Appeals coordinates this experience for MPA students, and the annual project began with Judge Edward Touissant more than 15 years ago. While a number of the judges who hear these cases are actually judges on the MN Court of Appeals, some others are lawyers and staff members, retired judges or law professors, including MPA alums Paul Shapiro ’05 and Sam Bolstad ’08 who work as attorneys.
For MPA seniors who take constitutional law, this has been the capstone experience for more than a decade. MPA is the only school that the Court of Appeals makes this opportunity available to, and without exception, students in the classes who have visited the court have found the experience to be exceptional and worthwhile.
