One of the web sites I follow advertised a competition for motivated high school students called the "Harlan Institute Virtual Supreme Court." I suspect none of us are qualified to sign up for it (high school was nearly 45 years in the past for me, and I wasn't the kind of student who would excel at this kind of thing).
But this year's competition has an interesting premise: student teams will debate the question "Should the United Colonies declare independence from Great Britain?" and use for their research only sources from the period.
I, for one, will be interested in seeing how the teams line up and what they do with their opportunity.
https://harlaninstitute.org/lesson-plans/lesson-plan-patriots-v-loyalists/
And who knows, someone on this forum *might* be in the right demographic to form a team and compete in it.
What a great idea! I wish I hadn't celebrated the 53rd anniversary of my 18th birthday and could go. I too will be watching to see how it turns out.
I know that Professor Blackman will eventually create a playlist on YouTube of all of the entrants' arguments, including those in the semifinals, round of 8, round of 4, and finalists, but he hasn't done that yet.
I have found only one video submission that has been labeled as such and is easy to find. This is it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnDH0L9F_JY
What a great way to engage students and get them to think on their own while learning how to properly debate their point. I too would have loved and possibly excelled at this 26 years ago. LOL Thanks for sharing!
The semifinalists in the Virtual Supreme Court competition have completed their arguments in Patriots v. Loyalists, and Professor Blackman posted links to their videoed arguments.
Enjoy.
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/02/19/harlan-virtual-supreme-court-semifinalists-2/
And this really cool competition continues.
Now, the teams that did well in the semifinals arguing *for* independence have to argue the case *against* independence. I haven't watched them yet, but if the quality of work these kids put into their semifinal round persists, they should be very interesting. These young people are clearly on a path to a bright future.
https://reason.com/volokh/2026/03/18/harlan-virtual-supreme-court-round-of-8/
Have to say I'm extremely impressed by the work done by the team of Eileen Wang and Sarah Tarka. Every one of their arguments so far has been really well presented and researched. I suspect we'll see them at the national archives final round.
BTW, I posted the semifinals and round-of-8 link, but Professor Blackman has posted a YouTube playlist of *all* the entries up to the round-of-8 as well:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMIM2V8Vm4YrmeyIglG4MzJHx5TwAeXI0