Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law

As of this writing (4:30pm on Wednesday, December 21), I now know of seven distinct groups(!) of students that have developed and/or are still developing a draft amicus brief for possible submission in the SCOTUS juve LWOP cases.  Four of these groups involve just a pair of students working together, one group is a trio, one is a quartet, and one group needed six cooks to complete their amicus brief stew.

I am very pleased and quite impressed that 21 students took up the amicus brief project/challenge (which amounts to almost exactly 1/2 of the class), and I can already tell from a quick scan that much impressive and important work is reflected in the drafts that have been so far submitted.  I hope that everyone learned a lot about the substance of these cases and the process of collaborative brief writing along the way.  I also hope many students remain interested in actually getting their briefs filed, although I trust everyone appreciates how hard (and costly) it would be to try to submit seven briefs and ensure that they are all top-flight efforts.

Here is my plan going forward:  I will be reviewing all of the draft briefs closely over the next few days in order to see if I can develop a tentative plan for refining/consolidating these various efforts.  I will aspire to provide an update on my review efforts and plans no later than next Monday (the day after X-mas). 

In the days ahead, students are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED via the comments to this post and/or via e-mails to me to let me know if they are (1) eager to spend (lots of?) time? after X-mas and before the start of classes on revising briefs for potential SCOTUS submission, OR (2) eager to call it quits and not give any more time/energy/attention to these matters.  (I will probably try to convene a meeting of any/all eager beavers who will be around after X-mas to discuss in person plans for moving forward on this project.)