Changes in the makeup and skill sets of members of the Supreme Court, combined with changes in the makeup and skill sets of the lawyers who appear before the Court, against a backdrop of greater complexity for many fields of law (especially constitutional law) in which increasingly important disputes find their way to the Court, have created a vacuum of expertise in the presentation of issues to the Court — a vacuum that in theory could be helpfully filled by academic amici curiae, or Friends of the Court. Unfortunately, however, even as changes to the Court and to the private and public Supreme Court bars, alongside the Court’s professed commitment to principled originalism, theoretically provide more space for skilled academicians to help honestly educate the Court, there are problems both at the Court and within the academy itself that must be addressed if this role is to be faithfully discharged.