I'm Elizabeth Lattery and I'm Tiffany Bates. And welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government. This week we're talking about amicus briefs, upcoming cases, and we'll interview Adam Liptack from the New York Times. Welcome to season two of SCOTUS 101. The leaves are starting to turn. Kids are back in

school and store shelves are brimming with pumpkin spice products. That can only mean one thing. The

Supreme Court will be back in session. October 2nd is the first day of oral argument.

The court has already agreed to hear 33 cases so far and it will add more after it holds its

long conference on September 25th. This will be Justice Gorsuch's first long conference, where he will take over the duties of the junior justice, such as answering the door, to get forgotten items or coffee. This is good news for Justice Kagan, who's had the job since 2010. It's a little bit of hazing over the Supreme Court. So here are a few of the cases that they've already agreed to hear this term. There's Gil v. Whitford. This is a challenge to political gerrymandering in Wisconsin. The travel ban case, which has gone back and forth between the lower courts and SCOTUS, a few times since they granted the case in June. Then there's Houston v. the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which is Ohio's voter cleanup challenge.

MasterPie Cake Shop, which is a baker's refusal to make a custom cake for a gay wedding.

And NAM v. DoD, which has, it's a jurisdictional challenge that will decide what court has jurisdiction to hear a challenge to the waters of the United States. And then there's Carpenter v. United States. This involves police seizure of cell phone location records, and there are many more. But we're pleased to have with us today, Adam Liptack. He covers the Supreme Court for the New York Times and also writes sidebar, which is a column on legal developments. Adam, welcome to SCOTUS 101. Oh, it's so nice to be here. So tell us,

how do you typically prepare for the start of a new term? There's really no better way to prepare

than to read the briefs. People focus on oral arguments. They talk to experts. They go to conferences.

But the quality of the written advocacy at the Supreme Court is really where the bulk of the work

gets done. The justices

will tell you that, and I'll tell you the same thing. And these days, although there are lots of

amicus briefs and sometimes they're instructive, the main briefs, the party briefs and the

Solicitor General briefs, if you read them with care, you will be in good shape to start writing

about the court. So how did you get such a primo spot in the press section of the court? And is it a sign

seating? It's generally not a sign seating. There may be 25 of us who have so-called hard

passes, which allow us into those front two church pews to the left side of the court as you

face the court. And basically, everybody who gets there gets a seat and we sort of arrange among ourselves where to sit. On very big cases, and this

term, there will be quite a few of them. We do have assigned seats and we have assigned seats

in the first sitting on October 3rd in the political jurymandering case, Gilligan's Whitford,

and on October 10th in the travel ban case. So there we are told where to sit and the court has been generally nice enough to put me sort of in the front and the middle. So you spend a lot of time inside the courtroom watching the justices. Have there been any cases where you've been surprised by the court's decision based on what you observed during oral argument? Would you say you can typically tell how a case is going to turn out?

So let me answer the second question first.

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