Erin Lange, an advanced placement and honors government teacher at Arundel High School, will have some interesting perspectives to bring back to the classroom this fall. She was recently one of a handful of teachers selected to attend “Streetlaw,” the U.S. Supreme Court’s Summer Institute, held in June in Washington.

The six-day institute covered topics including the Supreme Court nomination process, how cases are selected, the limits of executive power, the role of interest groups and clerks, emergency stay requests for death penalty cases and other topics.

The event also included a meeting with Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

“The entire institute gave me ideas of how to utilize people and resources in our community to engage my students in authentic ways,” said Lange. “Having lunch with Lucas Walker, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s clerk, was fascinating. My Instagram was blowing up. I couldn’t stop Instagramming things.”

Lange learned the power of the clerks — each justice has four, who essentially filter information regarding cases that may be heard as well as current cases.

For example, clerks must read all the briefs filed by interest and advocacy groups who attempt to influence justices on which cases to hear, as well as how these groups would like the justices to vote. There can be hundreds of briefs per case.

Clerks have the responsibility of filtering briefs and giving the justices the pertinent information, as 90 percent of Supreme Court cases are chosen by the justices themselves.

Lange plans to bring to the classroom what she learned during the institute.

“It gave me a lot of anecdotes and the human story behind cases, including interactions between people,” Lange said.

Land said she networked “like crazy” and how has an entire portfolio of contacts she wants to use.

Meeting Sotomayor also had a profound effect on Lange.

“She is such a passionate woman,” said Lange. “I asked her if there was one thing I can take back to my students what is the message she would like them to hear? She answered: Identify the needs of your community, be informed about the ways and tools you have to affect change and be relentless in your pursuit of them.

“It was really inspiring,” Lange said

She said she hopes the summer experience will help with her biggest challenge as a teacher: engaging every student.

“Every student deserves to be inspired and engaged, but they all have different needs,” said Lange. “When you have 33 students in front of you it’s a big challenge.”

“I always hope to be innovating,” said Lange. “I want to keep growing. I think that’s the great thing about being a teacher; the students challenge me and often teach me more than I teach them.”

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