The first case before the Supreme Court on Monday will be Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. University of North Carolina.
Patrick Strawbridge, representing SFFA, will be first at the podium. He works for a boutique law firm called Consovoy McCarthy that also represented former President Donald Trump in election law disputes. Strawbridge served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas.
North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Y. Park, representing UNC will go next. He’s a former law clerk to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well as retired Justice David Souter. He teaches North Carolina Constitutional law at Duke Law. He will be followed by David G. Hinojosa, who works for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and is representing students from the school.
After they are finished, we will hear from US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar for the United States, a former clerk to Ginsburg and Justice Elena Kagan.
The court has scheduled 90 minutes of arguments but is likely going to go much longer.
Under a new questioning format that gives justices a chance to ask as many follow up questions as they like court sessions have gotten very long of late.
Next up will be SFFA v. Harvard College
Another Consovoy McCarthy lawyer, Cameron T. Norris, will begin arguing the second case. He previously defended Trump in the financial-documents litigation in Trump v. Mazars before an appeals court. Norris is also a former Thomas clerk.
Former Solicitor General Seth P. Waxman will argue for Harvard. He has delivered more than 80 arguments at the Supreme Court.
Then, Prelogar will rise to again argue for the United States before Norris has a chance at rebuttal.
This argument is scheduled for 70 minutes. If the court goes long in the UNC case, that deadline might actually hold.
