It's important for students to know and
for I think just everybody to know what
the court has said about different uh
different cases. Being able to do that
here at Auburn and having the type of
students that I have and their
engagement with the material and and
just how solid of students that they
are, it's really gratifying for me to be
able to to teach them. There's different
aspects of a professor's job. You know,
there's sometimes administrative
aspects, there's, you know, the
research, there's outreach, there's
other things, but for me, the teaching
is the best part. you know, I I lay out
all the requirements and some of them
are kind of demanding and uh and
watching how they respond to that has
just always been just amazing. It really
has. Between the the cases they've had
to memorize and the paper they had to
write and the moot court experience when
they get through, by and large, they
feel like they've accomplished something
pretty significant. the case law affects
their, you know, their thinking and and
how they look at the world daytoday now
and in the future because again there's
all these these different sources of of
information telling them what a right is
or what a a constitutional liberty is or
what the court has said and they can
push back at that say well actually you
know that's not what the court said you
know you're telling me the court said
this much but the court actually said
that much now we have a moot court
exercise where the kids have an
opportunity to roleplay a cases
currently before the Supreme Court and
so they end up often having to roleplay
a justice uh that they're not
ideologically compatible with. And
that's just a great thing. They're like,
I can't stand Thomas Thomas, but I had
to be him for this role, and now I can
kind of understand where he's coming
from. And I think that type of exercise
is always very important. I think the
media uh tries to push narrative that
we're all red or blue, but most people
are kind of purple. I personally believe
that we live in a world where the
tendency is to just, you know, close my
my ears and say, "I don't want to hear
your side." And that's never been a good
way to win an argument. I've told my
students before that the best way to win
an argument is to know your position
inside out and still be able to reject
it. So I think these students, they're
they're better. They don't necessarily
convert to one ideology or another, but
they understand the other side's views
and that makes them their own thoughts,
I think, a lot stronger because they can
understand and refute what the other
side is saying. But you can't do that
unless you have an opportunity to learn
what the other side is is thinking about
things. My name is Steven Brown. I hold
the Morris Savage Endowed Chair in the
Department of Political Science and I'm
a recipient of the Gerald and Emily
Leechuck Endowed Presidential Award for
Excellence in Teaching.