Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings and Announcing the 2022 StudentCam Competition Winners

March 20, 2022

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Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings Begin THIS WEEK

This week, C-SPAN’s cameras will capture another historic moment, as the U.S. Senate considers the nomination of the first Black woman to be seated on the nation's highest court. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is a Harvard Law graduate, clerked for retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, and currently serves as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing will begin Monday, March 21. C-SPAN will provide live coverage of the hearing across all platforms, including via the free C-SPAN Now video app.

Confirmation Hearing Resources

Have your students explore the purpose of confirmation hearings with these educational resources from C-SPAN Classroom:

• Bell Ringer: The Senate and the History of Confirming Judicial Nominations (6:18)

• Lesson: Checks and Balances (10 Clips)

• Constitution Clips: "Judges of the supreme Court" (4 Clips)

• Constitution Clips: "By and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate" (7 Clips)

• Deliberation: What is the Role of the U.S. Senate During the Supreme Court Confirmation Process? (16 Clips)

Public Perceptions of the Supreme Court Since 2009, C-SPAN has released a survey on public opinion regarding the Supreme Court whenever there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court. The most recent survey from this month offers the following insights:

• 84% of Voters Say Supreme Court Decisions Affect Their Lives

• 61% Closely Following News About President Biden's Nominee

• 29% Say Supreme Court is Transparent About How Justices Decide Cases

• 65% Support TV Cameras in the Court

• 70% Say Allowing Cameras in the Court Would Build Trust

*NEW* Lesson: Public Perceptions of the Supreme Court (1 Clip) Guide your students through an analysis and reflection of the full survey results with our new lesson! In this lesson, students will complete a portion of the survey themselves, analyze the findings of the 2022 Supreme Court survey and compare them to previous surveys conducted in 2018, and 2017, and 2015, and use charts and data to examine public perceptions of the Supreme Court and draw conclusions about current trends. The lesson also includes several culminating writing prompts and three optional learning extensions for teachers to utilize.

Announcing the 2022 StudentCam Documentary Competition Winners

The C-SPAN Education Team is proud to announce the winners of this year's StudentCam documentary competition, in which more than 3,000 students from across the country participated! The competition, now in its 18th year, asked students to address the theme: "How does the federal government impact your life?"

The most popular topics were:

• Environment & Pollution

• Health Care & Mental Health

• COVID-19 & Recovery

• Immigration

• The 2nd Amendment & Firearm Legislation

In addition to the grand prize and first prize winners below, C-SPAN awards prizes to a total of 150 student-produced short documentaries. The StudentCam competition has awarded over $1.2 million in prizes since 2004, including $100,000 this year.

Each winning video is available to view at www.studentcam.org. We encourage you to stay tuned for our announcement of the 2023 StudentCam competition theme later this summer and hope that you will consider having your students participate!

Questions about the competition? Please email us anytime at Educate@C-SPAN.org.

The 2022 grand prize winners are siblings Tyler and Dermott Foley, students at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Foleys will receive $5,000 for the documentary, "What Happened to Gibson Grove?" about highways, racial injustice and the fight to save America's Black cemeteries. This documentary will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 21. Jason Boudreaux, Jaleaha Joseph and Shontenaisha Manuel, students at College Street Vocational Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana, will receive $3,000 as first prize winners in the Central region for the documentary, "FEMA's Impact on Our Lives in Southwest Louisiana." This documentary will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 20. Evelyn Shue and Ida Chen, Maryland students at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville and Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, will receive $3,000 as first prize winners in the East region for the documentary, "Something in the Water," about the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. This documentary will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 19. Kimber Koteskey and Zoe Gliko, students at Foothills Community Christian School in Great Falls, Montana will receive $3,000 as first prize winners in the West region for the documentary, "American Rescue Plan: Economic Boost or Bust?" This documentary will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 18. Aria Rani Sindledecker, a student at Isaac Newton Graham Middle School in Mountain View, California, is a national first prize winner in the middle school division and will receive $3,000 for the documentary, “Stigma-Free Nation: Pathway to Parity,” about the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. This documentary will air on C-SPAN at 6:50 a.m. ET and throughout the day April 17.

Warm regards,

Craig McAndrew, Pam McGorry and Zach Lowe C-SPAN's Education Team