Classroom Guide to Moot Courts

A moot court is a role-play of an appeals court or Supreme Court hearing. This 11-lesson-plan guide supports teachers in implementing moot courts in their classrooms. The lessons help set the stage for a successful moot court experience—from understanding the appellate process to granting cert to judicial opinion writing to evaluation tools.

You may access this resource by downloading the entire guide as a single file or as individual lesson files.

Recommended moot courts for the classroom:

Below are links to and descriptions of case summaries that are ideal for moot courts.

• Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls, et al. (2002)
  • Fourth Amendment: Search and seizure
  • Does suspicionless drug testing under the Student Activities Drug Testing Policy violate the Fourth Amendment rights of students?
• Carpenter v. United States (2018)
  • Fourth Amendment: Search and seizure
  • Does the government need to get a warrant before gathering cellphone location data from a suspect’s wireless company?
• Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021)
  • First Amendment: Student speech
  • Does the precedent set in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, that public school officials may regulate speech that would materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school, apply to student speech that occurs off campus?
• Tyson Timbs and a 2012 Land Rover LR2 v. State of Indiana (2019)
  • Eighth Amendment: Excessive fines
  • Is the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause incorporated against the states under the 14th Amendment?
• Matal v. Tam (2017)
  • First Amendment: Trademark
  • Does the section of federal law that requires the federal government to refuse to register “disparaging” trademarks violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech?
• United States v. Virginia (1996)
  • Constitutional Law: Equal protection based on gender
  • Does VMI’s refusal to admit women violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment?
• Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
  • First Amendment: Freedom of Religion
  • Does Wisconsin’s compulsory school attendance law violate the freedom of religion set forth in the First Amendment?