Moot Court Competition 2015
February 2, 2015, 3:30 p.m.
UC Irvine Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium
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Final Results
- Aaron Benmark for the Petitioner; Jackie Shepherd for the Respondent
- Best Oral Argument: Aaron Benmark
- Best Brief: Yashina Burns and David Rutan
Runners-Up (two teams): Coral Lopez and Christine A. Robles; Ronald Park and Jacqueline Shepherd
Judges
- Hon. Carlos F. Lucero, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- Hon. Allyson K. Duncan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- Hon. Susan Graber, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Questions Presented
In June 2013, Edward Snowden publicly disclosed Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders exposing the Government’s bulk telephony metadata collection program. In the wake of this disclosure, numerous lawsuits were filed across the nation challenging the legality of this program on statutory and constitutional grounds.
In two such challenges—Klayman v. Obama and American Civil Liberties Union v. Clapper—Petitioners (plaintiffs below) brought separate claims for declaratory and injunctive relief, alleging that the metadata program violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. The district courts reached opposite conclusions as to the Petitioners’ claims. In Klayman, the district court held that Petitioners had demonstrated a likelihood of succeeding on the merits that the program violated the Fourth Amendment and thus it was unnecessary to reach the First Amendment question. Meanwhile, the district court in ACLU held that plaintiffs had not sufficiently shown that the program violated the Fourth Amendment and, moreover, that plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue their First Amendment claim.
This moot court problem hypothesizes that while these cases were pending appeal, the ACLU plaintiffs petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a Writ of Certiorari Before the Judgment of a Federal Court of Appeals. This unusual procedure is granted “only upon a showing that the case is of such imperative public importance as to justify deviation from normal appellate practice and to require immediate determination in this Court.” Sup. Ct. R. 11. The Supreme Court granted Petitioners’ request and consolidated the above cases to resolve the following three issues:
- I. Whether Petitioners have standing to pursue a First Amendment challenge to the metadata program;
- II. Whether the metadata program violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution; and
- III. Whether the metadata program violates the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Scenes from Moot Court Spring 2015
Dates and Deadlines
- Brief Due: October 27, 2014, 3 p.m.
- Optional Practice Rounds: November 1–2, 2014
- Preliminary Round I: November 12–15, 2014
- Preliminary Round II: November 17–22, 2014
- Advancing Competitors Announced: December 18, 2014
- Top 16 Elimination Round: January 12–16, 2015
- Nefi Acosta
- Aaron Adams
- Ava Badiee
- Aaron Benmark
- Yashina Burns
- Kristen Burzynski
- C. Ryan Fisher
- Colby Johnson
- Dylan Kornbluth
- Coral Lopez
- Kelly Ng-McCullough
- Ronald Park
- Christine Robles
- David Rutan
- Jackie Shepherd
- Elizabeth Tissot
- Quarter Finals: January 20–24, 2015
- Nefi Acosta
- Aaron Benmark
- Yashina Burns
- Dylan Kornbluth
- Ronald Park
- David Rutan
- Jackie Shepherd
- Elizabeth Tissot
- Semi Finals: January 26, 2015
- Aaron Benmark
- Yashina Burns
- Ronald Park
- Jackie Shepherd
- Final Round: February 2, 2015
- Aaron Benmark and Jackie Shepherd
Competitors
- Aaron Adams
- Aaron Benmark
- Aglaia Ovtchinnikova
- Alisha Ansari
- Almario Giancarlo Javier
- Anna Rea
- Ava Badiee
- Bryan Rowe
- C. Ryan Fisher
- Christine A. Robles
- Christyn Richardson
- Citlalli Ochoa
- Colby Johnson
- Coral Lopez
- Cyrus Moslemi
- David Rutan
- Donna Woo
- Dylan Kornbluth
- Elizabeth Tissot
- Eric Vera
- Francis Yao
- Gillian Kuhlmann
- Greg Kaplan
- Hayley Penan
- Imran Khundkar
- Jacqueline Shepherd
- James Miller
- Jean Ahn
- Jeremy Cowan
- Joel Madero
- Josh Ji
- Judy Chin
- Kate Neal
- Kellye Ng-McCullough
- Kelsey Schreiberg
- Kristen Burzynski
- Lawrence Liu
- Leigh Dickey
- Mark Stamper
- Matthew Bradbury
- Melissa Bell
- Michael Olson
- Nefi Acosta
- Nicholas James
- Peter Lee
- Rahul Sajnani
- Ricardo Lopez
- Ronald Park
- Ryan Campos
- Ryan Ueda
- Samantha Rodriguez
- Stephanie Johnson
- Taylor Henderson
- Tilman Heyer
- Tim Alamsjah
- Vishwanath Mohan
- Wei Deng
- Yashina Burns