A crowd gathered outside the U.S. District Court courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, one Saturday night in late January to await word of a decision on President Donald Trump s hastily implemented ban on refugees and immigrants coming from predominantly Muslim countries.

Among the masses were professors from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. They had come as interested observers and avid political news consumers, eager to take in the citizen activism popping up around the administrations controversial policy. But as the scene unfolded in front of them with a blend of reporters, impassioned New Yorkers and vocal protestors a bit of academic inspiration crept in. Why not turn that moment into a class?

Friends of mine in front of the courthouse were peppering me with questions, recalled Michelle Adams, a faculty member at the law school. I woke up the next morning and realized that we would come in and students would have dozens and dozens of questions and we didnt have a framework or forum to discuss those legal questions.

Adams and other Cardozo professors moved swiftly. By Sunday night, they had mapped out the format the class would take: a 10-week, not-for-credit course that touched on various constitutional, legal and political issues stemming from the presidents tumultuous first 100 days. There was the travel ban , a Supreme Court appointment , regulatory law and executive powers . They brought the idea to the registrar the next day. Within two more days they had a course description posted online. And within 90 minutes, enrollment had filled. The school placed the course in its largest classroom to accommodate 125 students.

It was a perfect moment. I have all these students having strong reactions, on both sides really, to what was happening, said Melanie Leslie, the dean of the law school. It was a way to take this incredible moment filled with energy and anxiety and channel it for the students into something that would make them better lawyers and thinkers.