Obergefell v. Hodges—and the Use of Oral Argument and Storytelling to Reinforce Competencies in the Legal Writing Classroom

Legal writing professors struggle with trying to balance learning skills with the bigger picture of learning that law is ultimately about having the power to change lives. Often, learning the skills becomes completely separated from the human aspect of the law. Although we all work toward unifying the two concepts, it is not always done by having discussions about the bigger issues, or even having the students look at more traditional sources such as briefs or even law review articles. Oyez and the oral tradition of storytelling presented by radio (or other similar resources) have the potential of more fully connecting students to their passion while also enabling them to see the bigger picture of legal structure and legal argument. The case of Jim Obergefell in particular provides the opportunity to access resources that help students understand how the various aspects of what we teach in Legal Writing connect together