Inside the judicial branch: National civics program returns to UTC to explore the federal court system

A student wearing glasses listens attentively during a session, seated among high school participants in a wood-paneled room.

UTC student Dylan Castellanos is a mentor to high school students who participated in Supreme Court in My Hometown. Photo by Angela Foster.

For two weeks in June, local high school students spent part of their summer break at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga learning how the federal court system works.

Twenty-five high schoolers participated in “The Supreme Court in My Hometown,” a national civics education program sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and the Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Government at UTC, Dr. Michelle D. Deardorff.

Participants heard presentations from judges, attorneys and professors, worked with UTC student mentors and visited the local courthouse, exploring the federal court system.

“A lot of this is for students to feel much more comfortable about the courts, understanding what’s happening, being able to better interpret the news and understand the world,” Deardorff said.

The program, hosted on UTC’s campus for the second time, is part of a national effort to connect students with the judicial branch through significant Supreme Court cases rooted in their own communities.

UTC political science professor Michelle Deardorff speaks with a student during a small-group discussion near a window in the Guerry Center.

Dr. Michelle Deardorff is an Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Government.

In Chattanooga, that is the U.S. v. Shipp case, a landmark 1909 Supreme Court case that stemmed from the 1906 lynching of Ed Johnson on the Walnut Street Bridge.

“This is often listed as the most important Supreme Court decision no one has ever heard of,” Deardorff said. “It’s an earlier case that has long-term implications in terms of understanding the protections states have to provide in criminal cases.”

Senior Judge Curtis Collier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, who presented to the students several times throughout the program, said it comes at a time when civic education is especially important.

“One of the big national problems that we have in our country right now is a fundamental lack of civics education,” Collier said. “This gives students a chance to really look deeply into a particular case, the social environment and the legal environment that spawned it and see how the case went from the streets of Chattanooga all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”

The high school students worked alongside four UTC political science students, who served as an approachable link between participants and the judges and faculty members.

“We’re just taking on a role in trying to make sure that students are engaged,” said Dylan Castellanos, a UTC senior from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “We’re asking engaging questions that students might not have thought of to keep the conversations going.”

Lucas Akers, a senior from Nashville, said that each mentor worked with a group of students to “provide some of our insight and knowledge.”

He first heard about the opportunity in Deardorff’s class.

“I thought it’d be a great opportunity to expand my professional circle and get more involved on campus,” Akers said. “I also wanted to learn more about the law, which I think is my passion.”

Recent UTC graduates Olivia Campbell and Alizah Tafiti also served as mentors.

Campbell, who is from Fort Worth, Texas, said the experience showed how valuable early exposure to government and civics can be for young people.

“If I had this program when I was their age, I would have a totally different angle for looking at all of this and have a foundation built already,” Campbell said.

Tafiti, who grew up in American Samoa, said that she arrived at college with little knowledge of the court system, a reality she believes many students share as they begin their studies at UTC.

“When I went to college, I knew nothing about the Supreme Court,” Tafiti said. “I didn’t even know there was an appellate court.”

Mackenzie Gula, who is not a student at UTC, attended Supreme Court in My Hometown as a Chattanooga Christian School student in 2024. She returned this summer as a mentor.

“When I first did this, it changed my perspective completely,” Gula said. “It really set me up to walk into those history classes or AP Government with an entirely different perspective of the justice system.”

A UTC student mentor gestures while speaking with a high school participant during a discussion session as other students work in groups in the background.

Olivia Campbell, a UTC student mentor.

The experience culminated with students creating a public driving tour focused on the Ed Johnson case and its connection to Chattanooga history. The tour includes historical entries, locations connected to the case and audio content created by students.

“They’re not just learning history,” Deardorff said. “They’re helping to create the public history. They’re helping to define how people are going to experience and understand this history in the future.”

Nicole Maffei, director of civics education for the Supreme Court Historical Society, said the partnership with UTC is a model for other communities hosting Supreme Court in My Hometown.

“We are attempting to bring the judicial branch down to earth,” Maffei said. “It matters that this thing that made it all the way up to the Supreme Court started where they live.”

Collier said seeing the students learn about the federal court system was the most rewarding part of the program.

“These students are engaged, they’re energetic and their minds are wide open,” Collier said. “I’m just so happy whenever I see them engaging.”