More than 20,000 people have signed up for Hillsdale College’s new online course on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The ten-session course, which began Sept. 26, surveys the changing role of the federal court as it developed through American history, with each segment focusing on a different famous case, from Marbury v. Madison in 1803 to 2014’s Burwell v. Hobby Lobby.
In the first class, President Larry Arnn provided a primer on judicial review. The college will release new class each Monday until the final lecture, which covers the Supreme Court today, comes out Nov. 28.
“The Supreme Court, at least in recent times, has really started to play a larger role in interpreting the Constitution,” Director of Marketing Bill Gray said. “So understanding the Supreme Court, what its constitutional role was established to be, and then how that role has changed over time is something this course aims to help people understand.”
Gray said Hillsdale’s online courses help advance the college’s goal of the “diffusion of sound learning” talked about in Hillsdale’s Articles of Association.
“Most people who are signing up for our courses don’t have the time or the money to be a student for four years, or they might have already done that,” Gray said. “So this is a way to diffuse that knowledge to people and have them learn from great teachers like Dr. Arnn or Dr. Pestritto or Dr. Portteus.”
