Category: Civic Engagement

While most students are pleading for extra credit at the end of the semester, LEAP students were pleading their cases, literally, in moot court. Facing off against teams that came from eleven different universities across four states to compete in the South / Texas Regional American Moot Court Association tournament held in Fort Worth, with its rich history and home of Texas A&M University’s Law School. This tournament is one of sixteen regionals across the United States that will help select the top U.S. moot court team.

This was the first time in seven years that SHSU fielded a team. Olivia Discon and Maggie Betancourt stepped up this fall to engage in weekly meetings, much “homework,” and a lot of learning to serve as Bearkat mooters. They also received help from Dr. Diana Brown (COBA, SHSU), Dr. Gene Roberts (SLMS, SHSU), Victoria McClendon-Leggett, Stephanie Fors, and Maddie Cawthon–the latter serving as bailiff, and a potential mooter in future years.

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Day one of the contest was an all-day affair, a Saturday of three rounds. For Olivia and Maggie–team 419–this involved facing off, first, against Kathryn Dearing and Julia Daniel from the University of North Texas, one of the most active universities in the moot court universe over the past two decades, largely a result of the efforts of Dr. Kimi King. This year, King was on hand, along with Dr. Adam Whitten, both of whom served as coaches for their two UNT teams.

The SHSU team was designated as representing the petitioner, in this case a “William DeNolf,” who may, or may not, be responsible for recklessly goading a Ms. Bronner into suicide.

With the fate of DeNolf in their hands, Betancourt and Discon took turns arguing his case to two “Supreme Court Justices” (actually, law-school professors).

Tackling issue one (the 5th Amendment), Betancourt began, using her nine minutes to argue that the State violated DeNolf’s protection against self-incrimination when using biometric access to the contents of his phone.

Olivia Discon, meanwhile, argued the second issue (1st Amendment), making the case that the State violated DeNolf’s freedom of speech by criminalizing the case for suicide.

They were countered by Daniel and Dearing, who ably argued that the State was justified in their steps to access and regulate DeNolf’s speech.

Delving deep into the cases and the record, Daniel and Dearing demonstrated a strong grasp of the material, and they edged out the SHSU team, winning both ballots.

For their second round, the SHSU students faced Ethan Ellis and Amanda Parker-Chavez of Lamar University. With their first round jitters somewhat abated, the LEAP students performed better this time, winning both ballots.

The third round, then, would likely determine whether the LEAP/SHSU team would make it the “Sweet Sixteen,” a prospect that, no doubt, brought back some of those early jitters.

In this round, which featured the most aggressive of the judges and a “hot panel,” Discon and Betancourt split the ballots, finishing 3-3.

The outcome of this contest was, however, withheld until the Day-One reception and awards, hosted by TAMU Law. Following a discussion of the law-school’s many merits…

…the crowd eagerly awaited news on the leading orators and the teams moving on to day two of the competition.

The top orators were chosen first:

• Ashlyn Dodson (UNT)
• Quinn Kelly (UNT)
• Jordan Peterson (Berea College)
• Kylie Kinsella (TCU)
• Dominic Mendlik (TCU)
• Kaitlyn Allen (TCU)
• Landon Reffitt (Benedictine)
• Jeffrey Schremmer (Benedictine)
• Collin England (Benedictine)
• Jacob Hahn (Benedictine)

Following these congratulations, Ann Dutia read off the list of teams competing in the “playoffs,” the “Sweet Sixteen.” Reading in “no particular order,” Dutia listed team numbers…443…437…402…and, finally, after seven teams were announced, we heard “419.” The SHSU students made it to the second day of competition.

Maddie, who served as bailiff for the rounds, look bemused…

…Maggie beamed; and Olivia, in her way, looked equal parts ill and gratified.

With the results in hand and an unexpected day of competition ahead of us, we walked back to the hotel. Along the way, we ran into a reminder of Fort Worth’s rich history, statues of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the “Hole in the Wall” gang, a scene that prompted a selfie.

It also prompted a little gratitude. While we were anxious about the showdown looming the next day, at least we wouldn’t face the fate of Butch and Sundance–who were shot to death in Bolivia. It’s a small thing, we know, but it reminded us that Moot Court is a cause Worth taking, on a trip Worth making!