Third Annual George Washington Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition

The student chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society at George Washington University worked with the law school in 2007 to inaugurate the National GW Religious Freedom Moot Court. The competition takes place at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. and consists of two preliminary rounds, a semifinal round, and the championship round. The preliminary rounds are to be held on the afternoon of Friday, February 6, 2009. The semi-final and championship rounds will be held on Saturday afternoon, after which there will be a reception for the participants and judges.

While many moot court competitions involve questions of constitutional law or focus on various aspects of the First Amendment, the National Religious Freedom Moot Court is the first to our knowledge that is specifically dedicated to the issue of religious freedom.

Professors Ira C. Lupu and Robert W. Tuttle, Co-Directors of the Project on Law and Religious Institutions, oversee the drafting of the Moot Court problem. Teams will be assigned to brief one side of the competition problem, but must come prepared to argue both sides.

The competition is open to 24 two-member teams and is limited to 2L, 3L and 4L students from ABA-accredited law schools. In the event that more than 24 team register to compete, teams will be asked to submit resumes and any other information they feel may bear upon their commitment to the competition and their ability to perform (e.g., their team selection process). Teams will then be selected based on the quality of their members and the teams’ commitment to the competition.

For Those Interested

Contact Ronnie Slaven at rslaven@gmu.edu or Allan Robertson at arobertb@gmu.edu.

Go to 2009 George Washington Religious Freedom Moot Court for more information.

JRCLS 2008 Elections

Congratulations to the executive board for 2008-2009. The election results are:

President: Kasey Kimball
Vice-president: Brett Barrus
Treasurer: Andrew Cardon
Secretary: Vacant

Lots of thanks to the outgoing board members. It's been a great year, and we look forward to an even better year to come.

Woodward and Robertson Advance to the Quarterfinals in the GW Religious Freedom Moot Court

Donna Woodward and Allan Robertson represented our student chapter of JRCLS and GMUSL at the 2nd Annual George Washington National Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition over the weekend. They faced stiff competition from some very talented competitors and difficult questions from giants in the field acting as judges. A number of the judges were extremely experienced appellate advocates and counsel on recent First Amendment cases vital to the arguments. Donna and Allan forged ahead intimidated neither by hostile panels nor the competition but were eliminated in the quarterfinal round. Eighteen teams from GMU, GW, BYU, Duke, Cornell, Boston College, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, Florida State, University of Richmond, Valparaiso, University of Baltimore, and Liberty participated in the event. A team from Duke won; a team from BYU took runner-up; a team from Florida State won best brief.

Other JRCLS members competing in moot court competitions this year include: Alex Morris, will compete in the Mid-Atlantic Round of the 49th Annual Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition at GWU Feb. 28-Mar. 2; Kasey Kimball, will compete in The 20th Annual Domenick L. Gabrielli National Family Law Moot Court Competition Mar. 6-9 in Albany, NY.

Mid-Atlantic Chapter Annual Dinner

Several GMU student-members of the JRCLS attended the local attorneys' chapter annual dinner, and then watched Justice O'Connor's speech to the JRCLS national convention over satellite broadcast.

The Mid-Atlantic chapter fed us well, and encouraged the attorneys and students to meet each other and find networking opportunities.

Justice O'Connor's speech was an extended discourse into attorney ethics, and the imperative to affirmatively do good, and not simply avoid doing bad.