Play FantasySCOTUS With The ATL Editors

There's $10,000 in it for you if you're good....

Do you want to prove that you know more about the Supreme Court than anybody else? Do you just like money? Do you want to humiliate Above the Law editors?

If your answer to any of these questions was yes — and I suspect your answer to ALL of these questions was yes — then sign up at FantasySCOTUS and play against us predicting all the outcomes of the October 2014 Term.

There’s $10,000 in it for you if you’re good….

The game is simple. Go over to FantasySCOTUS and create an entry. Then go through the Supreme Court’s docket and make predictions using their simple drag-and-drop interface yanking the headshots of the justices into “Affirm” and “Reverse” piles. Correctly picking a justice’s vote earns 10 points, and correctly picking the outcome earns an additional 10 points — making each case worth a possible 100 points. Then watch the Term unfold and find out if you’re right.

To compete directly against ATL Editors (and other readers), join the “Above the Law” custom league we’ve set up. Gauge your success against us. We’ll throw in a T-shirt to the participant in our custom league with the highest overall score at the end of the Term. It’s going to be like The League, except for nerds. Who will be our Taco?

But there are bigger trophies to gain than bragging rights and an ATL T-shirt. The FantasySCOTUS competition is sponsored by Thompson Reuters, a company that has graciously put up some serious prize money for the event. If you pick every case before the Court this term, here’s what you stand to win.

Sponsored

Elect League Grand Prize – $10,000 – 1 prize will be awarded to the participant with the highest number of points
Elect League 1st Prize – $5,000 – 1 prize will be awarded to the participant with the highest number of points after the Grand Prize winner
Elect League 2nd Prize – $2,000 – 1 prize will be awarded to the participant with the highest number of points after the 1st Prize winner
Elect League 3rd Prize – $1,000 – 1 prize will be awarded to the participant with the highest number of points after the 2nd Prize winner
Elect League Honorable Mention Prizes – $500 – 3 prizes will be awarded to the 3 participants with the highest number of points after the 3rd Prize winner

Not a bad haul. There are also Amazon gift cards up for grabs for another 150 entrants. There are also digital badges for unlocking a variety of accomplishments.

If you’re in law school, there’s another way to win:

Law School League Grand Prize – 1 prize will be awarded to the individual participant with the highest number of points — one BarBri Course (estimated retail value $3,500.00)

Law School League Prizes – the law school participants with the 10 next highest points will each win one West Academic Publishing 9 month – online study aid subscription – estimated retail value: $150.00. Prizes are not redeemable or exchangeable for cash. No reimbursement if winner has already paid for or put down a pre-payment for BarBri Course.

But beyond having fun, there’s a serious academic element to this competition. Earlier this year, the brains behind FantasySCOTUS — Professor Josh Blackman, Daniel Martin Katz (Go Ducks!), and Michael J. Bommarito II — trumpeted a new algorithm that accurately predicted Supreme Court votes 71 percent of the time. They call it {Marshall}+. With FantasySCOTUS, they are putting their algorithm up against the people. As Professor Blackman described it yesterday, this is a “Watson” human vs. machine moment. Now is the time to stand up against our robot overlords!

Sponsored

Anyway, join the game. Try to beat us. Should be fun.

FantasySCOTUS [LexPredict]
The Next Evolution of SCOTUS Predictions: Predicting 7,000 Cases Over 60 Years with 71% Accuracy [Josh Blackman’s Blog]
FantasySCOTUS is Back! Win Cash Prizes, Beat {Marshall}+, and Unlock SCOTUS Badges [Josh Blackman’s Blog]