Predicting the Big Court

Let’s face it–lawyers are competitive.  We love to win our cases, our office fantasy football league, and the interoffice softball games.  In 2009, Professor Josh Blackman from South Texas College of Law (now Houston College of Law) took lawyer competition to a new level with the creation of FantasySCOTUS.  

FantasySCOTUS is “the leading Supreme Court Fantasy League. Thousands of attorneys, law students, and other avid Supreme Court followers make predictions about cases before the Supreme Court. Participation is free and Supreme Court geeks can win cash prizes up to $10,000.”

Participants can create their own leagues to play against friends and colleagues.  I usually create a league for my constitutional law classes and offer a little extra credit to my students who participate.  FantasySCOTUS keeps them interested and engaged in the current Supreme Court term.

In addition to allowing people to predict the outcome of Supreme Court cases, FantasySCOTUS features {Marshall}+, “a revolutionary algorithm that can accurately predict Supreme Court cases.”  {Marshall}+ was created by LexPredict, which now runs FantasySCOTUS.  According to the FantasySCOTUS website, “{Marshall}+ was able to predict every case decided since 1953 at 70% accuracy.”

So, forget the softball league and start thinking about FantasySCOTUS this year!