Associate Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch speaks during a civics program showcase at the 2017 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in San Francisco, Monday, July 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, Pool)

SAN FRANCISCO U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch got a preview of arguments he's likely to hear next term at the high court at a forum on civics education at the Ninth Circuit's judicial conference Monday afternoon.

Gorsuch participated in a ceremony recognizing high school students who won the Ninth Circuit Civics Contest, which this year focused on legal lessons learned from the Japanese internment during World War II. Both the winning essayist and video makers, whose winning entries were presented in full, made parallels between the executive order leading to Japanese internment with President Donald Trump's travel ban executive order, which will be under review by Gorsuch and his colleagues at the U.S. Supreme Court next term.

Gorsuch congratulated both students with handshakes before making some brief public comments.

Moments like these are really heartening for me, said Gorsuch of the student presentations. It's like a shot in the arm a vitamin B shot, he said.

Monday's award ceremony followed panel discussion, billed as Civics Education in the Ninth Circuit and Beyond: A Forum for Sharing New Ideas and Best Practices, featuring Gorsuch and group of lower court judges including Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Sidney Thomas. The judges discussed efforts, like the contest, that the federal courts and their partners are making to educate the public about the workings of the government.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication, kicked off the panel by ticking off a number of basic civics questions that the majority of Americans cannot answer correctly, including naming the three branches of the federal government.

Gorsuch opened his remarks by musing briefly about a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin around the time of the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.

When taking a break from the proceedings, Franklin was reportedly asked what sort of government the Constitutional Congress was cooking up.

A republic if we can keep it, the popular quote goes.

Gorsuch told a crowd gathered at the judicial conference of the Ninth Circuit that regardless of its historical accuracy the quote holds true.

Self-government, he said, is not self-executing or self-perpetuating.