The Judge Learned Hand Society | Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation

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In-Depth Judge Training

Unhurried training sessions on how to judge in the Coolidge style. These cover all the important details, instill confidence in judges, and articulate the deep significance of their work.

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Community Building Dinners

Special events to foster community among judges and thank them for their dedication to the program. These generally take place on the evenings before selected national series tournaments, the Presidents’ Cup, and the Coolidge Cup.

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Live Demonstration Debates

Live demonstration debates featuring Coolidge 1890 Society members to familiarize the judges with the debate topic. These also provide them the opportunity to practice evaluating a round, ask questions, and receive feedback.

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Reforming Debate Through Trained Citizen Judging

We continue to advance President Coolidge’s values through our debate program. Volunteer citizen judges are key to the entire program. It is the citizen judges—rather than specialized debate insiders—who serve as the ultimate bulwark against the undesirable practices all too common in high school debate today. Citizen judges value clarity, civility, sound logic, and common-sense evidence. We observe that when students know the expectations and cultures of the judges, they immediately adjust to meet them. They want to win!

While volunteer citizen judges anchor Coolidge debates to the real world, they also introduce challenges. The inexperience of our judges can lead them to lack confidence and feel overwhelmed by technical responsibilities, such as timing rounds or taking notes. No doubt, citizen judges sometimes default to judging based purely on the eloquence of debaters’ delivery. Other times, they are hobbled by concerns over the evidence presented by debaters.

Our goal is to build a supportive community of recurring volunteer judges. It is important that the judges feel valued and understand they are the key element in Coolidge debate. Another goal is to deliver more predictable and consistent judging. To achieve this, we now provide judges with more thorough training so they can feel confident when they sit before the debaters through our new judge honor and service society named for Judge Learned Hand.

The Coolidge Connection

Our new judge honor and service society is named for Judge Learned Hand, who was one of the most respected jurists in American history. It was President Coolidge who elevated Judge Hand to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1924. Over his fifty years on the bench, Judge Hand became the “Judge’s Judge”—famed for his judicial restraint, legal reasoning, and opinion writing.

“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”