Lawyer Up

CB students engage in a spirited legal battle of wits.

What do our constitutional rights really mean? How can society interpret them in the context of real-life situations?

The Supreme Court has battled with these questions for decades, and now, a group of select CB students is doing the same.

Moot Court is a program in which high school students review key Supreme Court cases and apply them to a fictional case.  They must be able to argue the “moot” case from either point of view.

The program culminates in a regional competition with other high school students in April, where  students will argue their cases in a courtroom setting like real lawyers.

After a long hiatus, Moot Court has returned to our school, much to students’ delight. It offers a chance to gain an understanding of the legal profession.

“I’ve always been very interested in the law,” says Matt Reade (‘14).

The quick-witted senior comments that Moot Court is “a good way for me to kind of figure out if this is what I want to do”.

The members of the Moot Court team went through a competitive interview process to earn their spots. After being selected to the team, moderators Mr. Michael Hood, Mr. Vince Leporini, and Ms. Mary Jane D’Arcy ‘02 gave them a nearly 100-page packet of legal data with which to get familiar.

This was no problem for the team, however, because the process is fun.

“I enjoy, most of all, the controversy behind everything,” enthuses Sam Swanson (‘14), adding that he gets a kick out of “being able to dissect a law and debate it with my friends.”

This year, the Moot Court case is related to issues of free speech and what constitutes a reasonable search.

Sam points out that these issues are “applicable for us as students because a lot of these cases that we are reviewing are in a school context.” This helps the Moot Court team relate to and understand the issues all the more.

Students meet weekly with Sacramento-area lawyers to review cases and learn how to craft their arguments effectively.

The team has put a lot of effort into making sure they know the cases forwards and backwards, even meeting over weekends to prepare.  Though this is the first year in a long time that CB has competed, Matt has high hopes for our team.

“I don’t want to call it a win yet,” says Matt, “but I’m looking forward to getting pretty far in the competition.”

The pioneers of this exciting program will hopefully debate their way to success.