First Monday in October Rulebook

The US Supreme Court — Rules of the Game

On the first Monday in October, the all-powerful Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gather each year in their "marble palace" to decide the fate of a nation. Each player represents a long-standing institution or school of thought attempting to gain renown by shaping the composition of the high court, taking sides in landmark cases throughout the history of the United States, and determining the governing laws of the land. Players will need to use their limited influence and actions wisely to manipulate the judicial philosophy of the Court and to prevail in as many cases as possible. The game revolves around the following four judicial philosophy tracks:

• Commerce Clause: This track represents the scope of Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the power to "regulate commerce" among the several states.
• Executive Power: This track represents the scope of Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which enumerates the powers of the executive branch, particularly the Office of the President.
• Free Speech: This track represents the provision in the 1st Amendment that Congress make no law abridging a person's freedom of speech and the scope of allowed restrictions on that freedom.
• Equality & Liberty: This track broadly represents the scope of individual equality and liberty, including but not limited to the 14th Amendment (e.g., equal protection, due process, and privacy rights).

Shifting each philosophy upward generally represents a more expansive Federalist interpretation of the above constitutional provisions that supports a stronger centralized federal government, whereas shifting each philosophy downward generally represents a more narrow Anti-Federalist application of these provisions that supports a more decentralized approach to government with less power concentrated at the federal level.

Components

• Boards
  • Bench & Docket Board
  • Candidate & Robing Room Board
  • Judicial Philosophy Board
• Cards (117 total)
  • Justices (59 cards)
  • Cases (24 cards, including 8 for each Era)
  • Goals (24 Philosophy Goal cards)
  • Solitaire Mode (10 cards)
• Player Pieces
  • Influence Cubes (56 cubes total, including 14 per player)
  • Clerks (56 meeples total, including 14 per player)
  • Action Lists (4 total, including 1 per player)
  • Standard Action Discs (8 total, including 2 per player)
  • Supreme Action Discs (4 total, including 1 per player)
  • Case Effect Action Discs (4 total, including 1 per player)
• Robing Room Markers (4 total, including 1 per player)
• Philosophy Track Markers (4 tokens to indicate current state of each judicial philosophy)
• Prevailing Party Markers (4 tokens to indicate the side of each case currently prevailing on the Docket)
• Start Player Gavel
• Aging Markers (35 black cubes | unlimited; use substitute if needed)
• Dissent Tokens (10 tokens | unlimited; use substitute if needed)

Card anatomy

Case Cards: Card Name; Prevailing Party Indicator; Case Effect; Historical information; Party Placement area for clerks supporting the Federalist party; Party Placement area for clerks supporting the Anti-Federalist party. (Example: Arizona v. Miranda, 1966, "Whether police must inform defendant of rights"; Case Effect: "Appeal all cases / Remand all cases".)

Philosophy Goals Cards: Card Name (e.g., Western Ranchers); Philosophy symbols; a reminder of end game scoring, which is the same for all goal cards ("+2 renown per matching philosophy (+3 instead for each landslide)").

Justice Cards: Retirement Die; Era and Candidate Name (e.g., III, Thurgood Marshall); Historical information; Philosophy symbols (these indicate which tracks the Justice impacts, including the number of spaces and direction of movement); Retirement Philosophy symbols (these indicate the track movement and direction when the Justice retires).

Game Overview

First Monday in October re-creates the history of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1789 to 2010 over the course of three eras. Era I represents the founding of the Court in 1789 through the Civil War in 1865. Era II represents the time period from 1866 until the seminal decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Era III represents the modern era from 1955 to 2010.

The game takes place over a series of rounds, with each round consisting of two phases: (1) the Action Phase; and (2) the Adjudication Phase. Players compete to score renown points by advocating for the winning side of cases decided by the Supreme Court and by shaping the judicial philosophy of the Court to align with their hidden goals. During each round, players can choose to place their clerks on what they hope to be the winning side of cases as they progress along the Docket track. In order to help their chosen side win, players can take actions to change the composition of the Court by retiring existing Justices or supporting judicial candidates. At the end of most rounds, one case will be scored and awarded to the player with the most clerks on the winning side.

The game ends when either the Cases deck or the Justices deck is exhausted. When this occurs, players finish the current round and then conduct final scoring. Players will score additional renown points at the end of the game for collecting sets of cases, having the most clerks on the Bench, having dissented the most, and satisfying their hidden goal. The player with the most renown points wins.

Setup

1. Board. Arrange the three boards as shown on the next page.

2. Gavel. The player who was most recently inside a courthouse receives the Start Player Gavel.

3. Player Pieces. Each player chooses a color and then:

4. Takes 6 influence cubes of their color in front of them, creating their starting Personal Supply of influence cubes, and leaves the remaining 8 influence cubes in a General Supply to the side of the board;

5. Takes all 14 clerks of their color;

6. Puts their Robing Room Marker onto the starting zero space of the track;

7. Takes an Action List, 1 Supreme Action Disc, and 2 Standard Action Discs of their color (leaving the Case Effect Action Disc in the box for now); and

8. Takes 5 renown points from the supply. Renown points are public information.

9. Cases Deck. Shuffle the Era I, II, and III parts of the Cases deck separately. Randomly discard 2 cards face-down from each Era out of the game. Stack Era II on top of Era III, and Era I on top of Era II (forming an 18-card Cases deck for the game).

10. Starting Docket. Deal the top three cards from the Cases deck face-up onto the first three spaces of the Docket track (i.e., Discovery, Trial, and Appeal).

Quick Game Variant (90 minutes): Remove all Era III cards from the game (Justices and Cases). Deal 2 Philosophy Goal cards to each player (instead of 3). The game end conditions and gameplay otherwise remain unchanged.

Adjusting Judicial Philosophy

Justice cards each depict philosophy symbols with numbers in silver or gold. Whenever a Justice is added to the Bench, adjust the corresponding Philosophy Track Markers upward for each silver symbol and downward for each gold symbol by the number of spaces shown in the symbol. Disregard any movement beyond the end of the track. Any card in the Chief Justice seat adjusts the corresponding Philosophy Track Markers by twice as many spaces.

First Judicial Philosophy Track Adjustment: The first time an adjustment is triggered on a track, take the corresponding Philosophy Track Marker(s). The player then places the marker a number of spaces equal to the number of relevant symbols on the activating card on the relevant track starting at the game start line.

Example: John Marshall is added to the Bench first during setup. Marshall moves the Executive Power marker down 3 spaces from the Start Line, and the Equality marker up 1 space from the Start Line. William Cushing is added to the Bench next. Cushing moves Executive Power up 3 spaces and Equality up 1 space. The Start Line is ignored for the rest of the game after each track's first movement.

Action Phase

Starting with the player holding the Start Player Gavel, players must perform 1 of the actions on the Action List below on each of their turns, proceeding clockwise around the table until all players have completed 3 total actions for the round. Players must perform 3 different actions each round, placing an Action Disc on their Action List to indicate each selected action.

Supreme Actions. All actions have a standard version and a supreme version. If a player chooses to use a Standard Action Disc, then they perform the standard version of the action. When a player chooses to use their Supreme Action Disc, then they may perform the supreme version instead. This means that players will generally perform 2 standard actions and 1 supreme action per round (in whatever order they choose).

Action List

Gather Influence

• Standard: Take 4 influence cubes of your color from the General Supply and place them in your Personal Supply. If there are not enough influence cubes available, then take as many as are available. Influence cubes will be used to perform the Advocate action below.
• Supreme: Take 7 influence cubes of your color from the General Supply instead.

Advocate

• Standard: Spend X influence cubes (by moving them from your Personal Supply back to the General Supply) to add 1 clerk to either side of any case on the Docket. You cannot perform the action if you do not have enough influence cubes to pay the cost.

  X = Docket level of the selected case (i.e., 0, 1, 2, or 4) + 2 for prevailing party (i.e., if that side of the case is currently prevailing based on the current state of the applicable judicial philosophy track) + 1 for co-counsel (i.e., if any other players have any clerks on that side of that case)

  For the Standard Advocate action, the results of this formula range from zero to seven (regardless of the number of players in the game).

  There is no limit to the number of different players or the total number of clerks that may be present on any side of any case. However, a given player may never have clerks on both sides of the same case.

• Supreme (X+2 influence, -1 renown): Add 2 clerks to the selected side of the selected case instead. The Supreme version of this action costs 2 additional influence and requires the player to spend 1 renown point. This is not permitted if the player has zero renown points.

Example: The Dred Scott v. Sandford case is in the Supreme Court so it will be decided later in the turn. The orange player wants to add 2 clerks to Dred Scott. The Orange player still has their Supreme Action so they choose to use it now to take the Supreme version of the Advocate Action. The Orange player would have to return 7 influence and 1 renown point: 4 influence cubes for the Docket Level, 1 for co-counsel and 2 for the extra cost of using the Supreme version of the Advocate.

Support Candidate

• Standard: Add 1 clerk to any Justice in the Candidate pool (not on the Bench).
• Supreme: Add 2 clerks to the selected Justice in the Candidate pool instead (not on the Bench).

Law Review Article

• Standard: Adjust any judicial philosophy by 1 space in either direction.
• Supreme: Adjust the selected judicial philosophy by 3 spaces instead.

Persuasive Writing. If one player has more total clerks on Justices on the Bench than any other player, then he or she may move the selected philosophy 1 additional space any time they perform this action (i.e., 2 total spaces for standard and 4 total spaces for supreme). If one player has fewer total clerks on Justices on the Bench than any other player, then he or she is prohibited from performing this action altogether. If players are tied for the most then they do not have this benefit, and if players are tied for the fewest then they do not suffer this prohibition (including at the start of the game).

Retirement

• Standard: Add 1 Aging Marker to any Justice on the Bench, and then roll the Retirement Die corresponding to that Justice (depicted in the upper-right corner of the Justice card). If the die result is equal to or lower than the number of Aging Markers on that Justice, then remove the Justice from the game and immediately apply his or her retirement effect to the judicial philosophy track(s). The retirement effect of the Chief Justice is doubled. If the target Justice is not removed, then the Aging Marker remains on the Justice. See Retirement & Elevate Example p11
• Supreme: Add 3 Aging Markers to the selected Justice instead, and then roll the applicable Retirement Die.

Retirement Dice. While most Justices use the Standard Retirement Die, a few Justices use the red Short-Serving or the green Long-Serving Retirement Die instead. The applicable retirement die is indicated by a color-coded icon at the top right-hand corner of the card.

Minimum Bench. The Retirement action is prohibited whenever there are 4 or more vacancies on the Bench.

Rest

• Standard: Advance your Robing Room Marker 1 space on the Robing Room track. Immediately resolve the effect of the space entered. The effect of each Robing Room space is explained in the "Detailed Definitions" section below.
• Supreme: Advance 2 spaces instead, resolving both spaces in order.

After all players have performed 3 actions, the Action Phase ends and play proceeds to the Adjudication Phase. During the Adjudication Phase, perform the steps below in order.

Adjudication Phase

1. Elevate: If there are no vacancies on the Bench then skip the Elevate step for this round. If there is 1 vacancy on the Bench then move the Justice from the Candidate pool with the most total clerks to the Bench, immediately applying his or her effects to the judicial philosophy tracks (doubled for any new Chief Justice). The clerk pieces remain on the newly elevated Justice card. The Candidate with the fewest clerks is then removed from the game (returning any clerks on that Candidate to the players). The Candidate with the second-most clerks remains where he or she is without any change. Afterwards, refill the Candidate pool from the Justices deck.

   If there are multiple vacancies on the Bench, then resolve the same as above, except also move the Candidate with the second-most clerks to the Bench. If the Chief Justice seat is vacant, then fill that seat with the Candidate that has the most clerks. The Candidate with the fewest clerks is still removed from the game, so no more than 2 new Justices are added to the Bench each round, which may leave empty seats for several rounds.

   All ties during the Elevate step are resolved with the Candidate located higher up in the Candidate pool winning the tie.

   Retirement Example: Peter (Purple) chooses the Standard Retirement action. He places a cube on John Jay raising the number of cubes from 2 to 3 and rolls the yellow Retirement Die. Peter rolls a 2 which is less than the three cubes so John Jay retires and his card is removed. Peter then resolves Retirement Philosophy Effect by moving Equality two spaces toward the gold end of the track.

   Elevate Example: After Peter (Purple) retires John Jay there is a seat on the Supreme Court. Filling that seat is the first thing to do in the Adjudication Phase. Robert Grier has the most Clerks so he is elevated to the open seat. Peter moves the Equality marker two spaces toward the gold end of the track and Executive Power two spaces toward the Silver end. The lowest clerked Candidate is Roger Taney and is removed. Candidate Spaces A and B are filled directly from the Candidate deck.

2. Appeal: Advance all cases on the Docket to the right one space, and add one new case from the top of the Cases deck to the first empty space on the Docket.

   • a. If playing with only two players, then roll the Standard Retirement Die. If the result is odd, then add a neutral clerk from one of the player colors not being used to the Federalist (silver) side of the new case just drawn from the Cases deck. If the result is even, then add a neutral clerk to the Anti-Federalist (gold) side of the new case. The neutral litigant clerk acts as a third player and can win the case or force a tie when the case is scored.

End Game Scoring

After the Game End is triggered as described above, conduct end game scoring as follows:

1. Final Cases. Score and award the cases in the Appeal and Supreme Court spaces on the Docket, but do not resolve the case effects of these final two cases. Players are not permitted to "write opinions" or "write dissents" for these final two cases.
2. Case Breadth. If any player has collected a complete set (or sets) of cases belonging to all four different judicial philosophies in front of them then that player (or players) receive 5 renown points per complete set.
3. Case Depth. Evaluate each philosophy, giving 2 renown points to the player that has collected the most cases for that philosophy in front of them. If multiple players are tied for the most cases of a philosophy, then each scores 1 renown point. The same case card can count toward both Case Breadth and Case Depth scoring.
4. Bench Influence. Give 5 renown points to the player with the most total clerks on the Bench, 3 renown points to the player with the second-most, and 1 renown point to the player with the third-most. All players involved in a tie receive points for the next lower position, so for instance a tie for first scores 3 renown points.
5. Dissents. Give 4 renown points to the player that has the most Dissent Tokens, and 2 renown points to the player (if any) that has the second-most. All players involved in a tie receive points for the next lower position, so for instance a tie for second scores zero renown points.
6. Philosophy Goal. Each player reveals and scores their one remaining Philosophy Goal card based on the final state of the judicial philosophy tracks. Players score 3 renown points for each philosophy track that matches their goal card in the darker colored "landslide" position and 2 renown points for each philosophy track that matches their goal card in the lighter colored "moderate" position.

The winner is the player with the most renown points. If two or more players are tied with the most renown points, then the winner is the tied player that collected the most total case cards. If still tied, then the winner is the tied player with the most clerks on the Bench at the end of the game. If still tied, then the winner is the tied player with the most influence cubes in his or her Personal Supply at the end of the game. If still tied, then the tied players rejoice in a remarkable shared victory!

Detailed Definitions

a. Robing Room

The Robing Room track spaces, in order from 1 to 10 as printed on the board:

1. Judicial Clerkship: Add one clerk to any Justice currently on the Bench.
2. Rehearing (Ongoing Ability): May repeat the same action once per round. This ability may be used every round once the player has reached this space, but the ability is disabled for all players as soon as a second player reaches or passes this space in the Robing Room.
3. Certiorari Pool: Draw the top 3 cards from either the Justices or the Cases deck. The player may remove any 1 of those cards face-down from the game, and then put the remaining cards back on top of the deck in any order (except never with a card from a later Era on top of a card from an earlier Era).
4. Amicus Brief (Ongoing Ability): Gain 1 extra influence any time the player performs the Gather Influence action. This ability may be used every round once the player has reached this space, but the ability is disabled for all players as soon as a second player reaches or passes this space in the Robing Room.
5. Emergency Remand: Shift any one case back to the left one space on the Docket track, swapping places with the case behind it on the Docket track. All clerks stay on their case cards when the case cards are moved.
6. Targeted Retirement (Ongoing Ability): During the "Age" step of the Adjudication Phase, the player may pre-determine the result for one of the Natural Aging dice rather than rolling it (before any dice are rolled). This ability may be used every round once the player has reached this space, but the ability is disabled for all players as soon as a second player reaches or passes this space in the Robing Room.
7. Per Curiam Decision: Rearrange up to three clerks on the Bench to any Justice cards of your choice. These clerks may belong to any player or players.
8. Borked: Immediately remove one card in the Candidate pool from the game, returning any clerks on that card to the players. Do not refill the Candidate pool until the subsequent Adjudication Phase.

b. Case Effects (alphabetical by era)

Era I

• Brown v. USA: All players either take the required number of influence cubes from the General Supply to their Personal Supply or return influence cubes from their Personal Supply to the General Supply. If a player does not have enough influence to gain or lose the required amount, then they gain or lose as much as possible.
• Cooley v. Board of Wardens: Adjust the Commerce Clause judicial philosophy track upward or downward by two spaces.
• Dred Scott v. Sandford: Adjust the Equality & Liberty judicial philosophy track either downward by two spaces if Sandford wins or move the track marker all the way to the top silver space on the track if Dred Scott wins (which will result in the "Moderate" step of the "Adjudication" phase occurring shortly thereafter).
• Gibbons v. Ogden: If Ogden prevails, then each player in turn order may add 1 clerk for free to any case in the Discovery or Trial space of the Docket.
• Lyon v. USA: All players either advance forward or backward one space in the Robing Room, without applying any immediate effects related to the spaces entered (but do give or remove any ongoing abilities as necessary based on the resulting positions). This may cause a player to regain an ongoing ability if everyone else is moved further back in the Robing Room.
• Madison v. Marbury: Adjust the Executive Power judicial philosophy track either downward by two spaces if Marbury wins or move the track marker all the way to the top silver space on the track if Madison wins (which will result in the "Moderate" step of the "Adjudication" phase occurring shortly thereafter).
• McCulloch v. Maryland: All players either have 4 or 2 actions during the Action Phase of the subsequent round (keeping in mind that this is a case effect for all players, regardless of which players advocated on this case). If 4 actions then give each player the Case Effect Action Disc from the box for one round; if 2 actions then each player returns a Standard Action Disc to the box for one round.

Era II

• Abrams v. USA: All players either advance forward or backward two spaces in the Robing Room, without applying any immediate effects related to the spaces entered (but do give or remove any ongoing abilities as necessary based on the resulting positions). This may cause a player to regain an ongoing ability if everyone else is moved further back in the Robing Room.
• Brown v. Board of Education: Adjust the Equality & Liberty judicial philosophy track either upward by two spaces if Brown wins or move the track marker all the way to the bottom gold space on the track if Board of Education wins (which will result in the "Moderate" step of the "Adjudication" phase occurring shortly thereafter).
• Hammer v. Dagenhart: If Hammer prevails, then no player may perform any Supreme actions during the subsequent round (so the Supreme Action Disc functions as a Standard Action Disc). If Dagenhart prevails, then all actions of all players may be Supreme in the next Action Phase (so all Standard Action Discs may be treated as Supreme Action Discs, but players may elect to trigger standard actions, such as to spend less influence to Advocate).
• NLRB v. Jones: If Jones prevails, then each player draws an extra Philosophy Goal card, and then each player immediately discards one Philosophy Goal card facedown out of the game.
• Plessy v. Ferguson: If Plessy prevails, then remove all of the Justices in the Candidate pool from the game, and immediately refill the Candidate pool from the Justices deck. If Ferguson prevails, then remove the Chief Justice from the game, immediately applying his or her retirement effect, and leaving the seat vacant until the next "Elevate" step.
• Rosen v. USA: All players either take the required number of influence cubes from the General Supply to their Personal Supply or return influence cubes from their Personal Supply to the General Supply. If a player does not have enough influence to gain or lose the required amount, then they gain or lose as much as possible.
• USA v. Korematsu: Adjust the Executive Power judicial philosophy track either upward by two spaces if USA wins or move the track marker all the way to the bottom gold space on the track if Korematsu wins (which will result in the "Moderate" step of the "Adjudication" phase occurring shortly thereafter).

Era III

• Arizona v. Miranda: If Miranda prevails, then remove the case in the Discovery space of the Docket track from the game (returning any clerks on that case to the players), and shift all other cases to the left one space. As a result, no case will score in the subsequent round. If Arizona prevails, then immediately score the case in the Supreme Court space of the Docket track, and shift all other cases to the right one space, then add a new case from the top of the deck to the first position of the Docket track.
• Katzenbach v. McClung: If Katzenbach prevails, then no player may perform any Supreme actions during the subsequent round (so the Supreme Action Disc functions as a Standard Action Disc). If McClung prevails, then all actions of all players may be Supreme in the next Action Phase (so all Standard Action Discs may be treated as Supreme Action Discs, but players may elect to trigger standard actions, such as to spend less influence to Advocate).
• Loving v. Virginia: If Loving prevails, then remove all aging markers from all Justices on the Bench. If Virginia prevails, add two aging markers to all Justices on the Bench (but do not remove any Justices).
• Nixon v. USA: All players either have 4 or 2 actions during the Action Phase of the subsequent round (keeping in mind that this is a case effect, regardless of which players advocated on this case). If 4 actions then give each player the Case Effect Action Disc from the box for one round; if 2 actions then each player returns a Standard Action Disc to the box for one round.
• NY Times v. Sullivan: All players either gain all of their influence from the General Supply into their Personal Supply (NY Times), or return all of their influence from their Personal Supply to the General Supply (Sullivan).
• Printz v. USA: Either all players gain 3 influence cubes or immediately retire a random Justice using one ten-sided die (no Justice is removed if a zero or vacant seat is rolled).
• Roe v. Wade: Adjust the Equality judicial philosophy track upward or downward by four spaces.

Solitaire Mode

Setup the game as usual, picking any player color to represent the Solo Bot opponent, then:

1. Give the Solo Bot 20 renown points to start (but no Philosophy Goal cards).
   • Intro Mode: Give the Solo Bot 5 points instead.
   • Supreme Mode: Give the Solo Bot 30 points instead, plus a clerk on each Justice on the Bench that has no Aging Markers at the end of setup.
2. Place 2 of the Solo Bot clerks on the starting Chief Justice.
3. Place 1 Solo Bot clerk on the prevailing party of each case on the Docket.
4. Shuffle the 10 Solo Bot cards facedown.

The Solo Bot will go first in every round and conduct all 3 of its actions in a row, after which you will perform your 3 actions. On the Solo Bot's turn, flip over the top 3 cards from the Solo Bot deck one at a time, resolving each card as described below. When there is only 1 card remaining in the Solo Bot deck, then immediately shuffle the discarded cards back into the deck.

The Solo Rules are the same as the standard rules with the following exception: During the Decision step of the Adjudication phase, skip the Opinions & Dissents step and the Case Effect step. The case card is still awarded to the winning player for end game scoring as usual.

Solo Bot Cards

• Advocate (4 cards: Discovery, Trial, Appeal, Supreme Court): When the Solo Bot draws an Advocate card, place a clerk on the currently prevailing party of the corresponding case (i.e., the Discovery, Trial, Appeal, or Supreme Court step of the Docket). The Solo Bot does not use any influence cubes to Advocate. Note that the Advocate card for the Discovery case places 2 clerks instead.

  The Solo Bot may not have clerks on both sides of the same case. If an Advocate card would cause this to happen, then instead add the new clerk to the same side as any preexisting Solo Bot clerks on that case card.

• Retirement (2 cards): Add 3 aging markers to the Target Justice on the Bench then roll the applicable retirement die.

  Target Justice = The Justice with the most judicial philosophy impact that aligns with the case furthest advanced on the Docket where the Solo Bot has the most clerks. In the event of ties, target the Chief Justice, followed by the Justice in the lowest seat number. If no Justices have any matching retirement symbols, then move to the next most advanced case on the Docket. If no Justices align with any cases where the Solo Bot has the most clerks, then ignore the effect of this card.

• Rest (1 card): Advance the Solo Bot forward 1 space on the Robing Room track. The Solo Bot does not gain any benefits from the Robing Room, but can disable your Ongoing Abilities as usual.

• Support Candidate (2 cards): Add 2 clerks to the Target Candidate.

  Target Candidate = Select based on matching symbols through the same process as for Retirement above, but break ties in favor of the Justice located higher up in the Candidate pool. If no Candidates have relevant symbols, then add 2 clerks to the Candidate in the top "A" position regardless of its symbols.

• Law Review Article (1 card): Shift one judicial philosophy track marker 3 spaces in the direction aligned with the Solo Bot's clerks. Select the philosophy that matches the case furthest advanced on the Docket where the Solo Bot has the majority of clerks on either party. If there is no such case, then ignore the effect of this card.