From left, First
Amendment Center Founder John Seigenthaler; winning law students Kirstin Norman
and Benjamin Smith from J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University;
Vanderbilt Law School Dean Edward L. Rubin.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The team from J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young
University, won the 19th Annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition
today at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. Winning team
members were Benjamin Smith and Kirstin Norman. (See audio slideshow featuring the winners.)
Runner-up in the two-day competition, sponsored by the First Amendment Center
and Vanderbilt University Law School, was the team from University of
Mississippi School of Law. Team members were Julianne Lofton and Spencer
Ritchie.
The competition problem involved the limits of free speech for public
employees. Teams of student advocates from 35 law schools argued both sides of
the case.
"The issue is very volatile right now, it’s very timely and it’s something
that everybody seems to have different opinions on," said Norman from the
winning Brigham Young University team. "It was just a pleasure and an honor to
be able to get to argue it here."
Said teammate Smith, "I thought it was a great problem. It involved, on both
sides, legal nuance and strong policy currents, and so it was a challenge. Also,
there was plenty of fodder from both the circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme
Court to prepare our brief and our arguments."
Final-round arguments, with University of
Mississippi School of Law team member Julianne Lofton facing the judges.
Recognized for "best brief" in the competition were Smith and Norman from
Brigham Young; and for "best oralist," Sarah McBride from University of
California – Davis School of Law.
Lofton of the runner-up University of Mississippi team said, "I thought it
was a great problem. It was very complex, and it took a lot of diligent work to
sort through everything. It was equally challenging to argue on both sides."
Ritchie, her colleague, said the competition “really hyped my interest in First
Amendment law."
A total of $5,000 in prizes was awarded to:
Winning team ($2,000): J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University
Runner-up ($1,000): University of Mississippi School of Law
Semi-finalists ($500 each): Brooklyn Law School and University of California
– Davis School of Law
Best brief ($500): Benjamin Smith and Kirstin Norman, J. Reuben Clark Law
School, Brigham Young University
Richard S. Arnold Best Oralist Award ($500): Sarah McBride, University of
California – Davis School of Law
Receiving competition gavels:
Runner-up best brief: Fergus Kaiser and Andrew Wellin, Brooklyn Law School
Runner-up best oralist: Nicholas Hantel, DePaul University College of Law
Recognized as one of the nation’s finest constitutional-law competitions, the
First Amendment Moot Court Competition attracts many of the nation’s top law
schools.
This year’s Moot Court problem examined one of the most contentious (and most
litigated) areas of First Amendment jurisprudence — the First Amendment rights
of public employees. It asks whether an assistant district attorney had a
free-speech right to speak to a blogger, make critical comments to his superior
and send a letter to the state attorney general criticizing his office’s
handling of a case. The student-advocates had to examine the contours of
public-employee jurisprudence to determine whether the assistant district
attorney engaged in protected citizen speech or unprotected employee speech.
"This year’s competition provides future lawyers an opportunity to explore a
growing issue: When do public employees surrender the right to speak
independently, with First Amendment protection?" said Gene Policinski, vice
president and executive director of the First Amendment Center. "The public
depends on those independent voices to speak out about issues such as waste,
corruption and incompetency, but recent court decisions may limit how much can
be said outside of approved channels."
At the close of the competition, First Amendment Center Founder John
Seigenthaler exhorted the law students “to use your First Amendment rights to
support and defend an independent judiciary.
"This country is so lucky because of the way it resolves disputes,"
Seigenthaler said. "It does [this] because of the integrity of the
judiciary."
Judge Julia Smith Gibbons of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said,
"Judging moot court competitions is always a wonderful thing. Because the
quality of the arguments is so high, it really restores your faith in the future
of the legal profession."
Tiffany Villager, director of First Amendment studies for the First Amendment
Center, said, "As they say in the opening of 'Law and Order,' our competition
hypotheticals are 'ripped from the headlines.' We look for cutting-edge First
Amendment issues that are newsworthy at competition time." Villager directs the
Moot Court program.
Competition began yesterday morning in rounds held both at the Vanderbilt
School of Law and at the John Seigenthaler Center on the Vanderbilt campus, home
to the Nashville offices of the First Amendment Center.
The best-oralist award for the highest oral-argument score in preliminary
rounds comes with an engraved gavel in honor of Richard S. Arnold, formerly a
judge on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Arnold, who died in 2004, was a
staunch advocate for better press-bar relations so that the public would be
better informed about the activities of the federal court system.
Semi-final and final-round judges in the competition included, from the
federal judiciary, Steven M. Colloton, 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Martha
Craig Daughtrey, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Bernice Donald, district
judge, Western District of Tennessee; Robert L. Echols, district judge, Middle
District of Tennessee; Sidney Fitzwater, chief judge, Northern District of
Texas; Julia Gibbons, 6th Circuit; Marian F. Harrison, bankruptcy judge, Middle
District of Tennessee; William J. Haynes Jr., district judge, Middle District of
Tennessee; Reggie B. Walton, district judge, District of Columbia; and Susan
Webber Wright, district judge, Eastern District of Arkansas. Joining them from
the state judiciary will be Cornelia A. Clark, Tennessee Supreme Court.
A two-person team from the University of Georgia School of Law won last
year’s competition. The demanding competition requires students to write an
appellate brief and to answer challenging legal questions from the judges. The
event requires a thorough understanding of First Amendment law, poise under
pressure and expertise in fielding complex legal questions.
The First Amendment Center works to preserve and protect First Amendment
freedoms through information and education. The center serves as a forum for the
study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, of
the press and of religion, the right to assemble and petition the
government.
The First Amendment Center is an operating program of the Freedom Forum and
is associated with the Newseum. The center has offices at Vanderbilt University
in Nashville and at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Its affiliation with
Vanderbilt University is through the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy
Studies.
Press contact:
Gene Policinski
615/727-1600