Submissions for our 2025 high school essay contest are now open! Essays must explore this year’s theme, which centers on presidential power, broadly conceived, under the United States Constitution. Possible topics include, but are certainly not limited to: presidential immunity, the scope and reach of the President’s removal power, the President’s war powers, the pardon power, the administrative state, the major questions doctrine, presidential authority in times of national emergency, and the “take care” clause. This prompt is purposely broad in scope in order to give participants space to delve into an area of the law that uniquely interests them.

The competition is open to all current high school students graduating in or after May 2025. International students are welcome to participate. Each individual may submit only one piece. Submissions must be a personal piece of work, containing proper citations if applicable (Chicago or Bluebook is acceptable).

To ensure anonymized review, please do not include any identifying information, including name, class year, or institution, in your essay’s body or metadata. Failure to anonymize your essay may disqualify it from consideration by the Selection Committee.

A Selection Committee will consider all submissions anonymously. Winners will be announced in late May 2025. Authors who submit winning essays commit to publication in the Princeton Legal Journal and agree to participate in our full editing process. This process involves both structural and substantive suggestions, as well as source citing for content.

Please direct any questions concerning the competition to ec3928@princeton.edu and nv9344@princeton.edu.

We look forward to reading your submissions