The Georgetown Supreme Court Institute celebrated the end of its season of moot courts this afternoon with a reception honoring Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Scalia delivered testimonial remarks for his colleague. He also credited the Institute for helping to raise the quality of Supreme Court advocacy during the time he has been on the Court. In attendance were Justices Alito and Kagan, as well as Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Solicitor General Verrilli, former Solicitor General Paul Clement, who did 5 moot SCI courts this year, and a bevy of Supreme Court reporters including Adam Liptak, David Savage, Tony Mauro. There were also Supreme Court advocates aplenty. And I know I missed a lot of notables. The event also featured a duet from the Washington National Opera for Justice Ginsburg, who (along with Justice Scalia) is apparently a big opera fan.
The personal highlight for me was Justice Kagan coming up as I was conversing with someone to ask me to take a photo of her with a bunch of students, and then teasing me because I did not know where the shutter button on an IPhone was. (I am an Android guy, but she made it out to be a generational thing.)
Congratulations to my colleagues, Executive Director Irv Gornstein, Deputy Director (and former Ginsburg clerk) Dori Bernstein, and Faculty Directors Steven Goldblatt & Cornelia Pillard for a marvelous event and a wonderful year.