In advance of its launch, The Yale Law Journal Online joined with the Yale Law School Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic to host a conference, "Important Questions of Federal Law": Assessing the Supreme Court's Case Selection Process, on September 18, 2009, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The conference considered the nature and causes of changes in the Supreme Court's docket in recent years, as well as suggestions for reform of the certiorari process. The conference was made possible by the generous support of the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund.  Among the panelists were the Hon. J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Seth Waxman, Sanford Levinson, and Linda Greenhouse. Media coverage of the event included The National Law Journal's piece, "The Supreme Court Cert Pool: Sotomayor Joins It, Lawyers Attack It," available at Law.com.

If you were unable to attend, podcasts of conference sessions and downloadable papers from the panelists will be made available by Yale Law School's main website. Select papers will also be published by The Yale Law Journal Online.

Information on the conference can also be downloaded by clicking here.

Left: Vicki Jackson, Georgetown University Law Center; Sandy Levinson, University of Texas Law School; Alan Morrison, George Washington University Law School; Carter Phillips, Sidley Austin LLP; Ted Shaw, Columbia Law School; Seth Waxman, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP; Moderator: Andrew J. Pincus, Mayer Brown LLP and Yale Law School.

Center: Lisa Blatt; Joshua Civin, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; Fred Schauer, University of Virginia Law School; Steve Shapiro, American Civil Liberties Union; Hon. J. Harvie Wilkinson III, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Moderator: Thomas Merrill, Yale Law School.

Right: Benjamin Taibleson, Jeffrey Lee, Kathleen Claussen, Brantley Webb, Leslie Pope (Yale Law Journal Board, '10) with Linda Greenhouse.