Students Visit Supreme Court for Oral Arguments, Meet with US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli '83
New York, April 5, 2016—Columbia Law students in the “Religious Minorities in Supreme Court Litigation” seminar taught by Professor Nathan Lewin travelled to Washington, D.C. on March 28 to hear oral arguments at the Supreme Court, and meet privately with U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli ’83.
The class attended the oral argument in CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which considers whether the EEOC owes nearly $4.7 million in attorney’s fees to the defendant because of its failure to fulfill pre-suit obligations, resulting in the dismissal of a Title VII case against CRST. Students met with Verrilli for a half-hour conversation in his office at the Department of Justice, after they had a discussion of the day’s oral argument with Assistant Solicitor General Brian Fletcher, who presented the case for the EEOC.
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| Seminar students gather for a photo in the office of U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli ’83 (center right), on a visit to D.C. with Professor Nathan Lewin (center left). |
The D.C. visit is an annual trip for Lewin’s seminar. In past years, students also met with the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who had been scheduled to meet with the class again this year.
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Professor Lewin stands with his seminar class outside the Supreme Court, following oral arguments in the case CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. |
Lewin is an adjunct professor and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School, where he has been teaching this seminar for 20 years. Lewin has argued a total of 28 cases before the Supreme Court; 12 as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Department of Justice under Solicitors General Archibald Cox and Thurgood Marshall, and another 16 after entering private practice.