SHARED BY DBHS MOCK TRIAL TEACHER / COACH LATITIA THOMAS
"The weekend of February 17 & 18, 2024, TEN MEMBERS of the DBHS Mock Trial team competed at the National American Moot Court Competition held at the University of Chicago. The 10 students competed all day Saturday, in teams of 2. Then, only the top 16 teams made it to the elimination rounds on Sunday. The Sunday rounds were single elimination, once a team lost, they were out.
The teams were:
1.Mia Artale (11), Ashley Cha (12)
2. Annie Kung (9),Doria Chen (9)
3. Jeremiah Jung (12), Hilary Hui (12)
4. Gloria Nien (12), Chloe Zhuo (11)
5. Sean Yu (11), Chloe Schaefer (12)
3 of the 5 teams made it to the Top 16 elimination rounds on Sunday. Only one DBHS team made it to the Top 8 Round: Gloria Nien and Chloe Zhuo. Additionally, the Top 10 individual speakers were recognized, Jeremiah Jung placed 6th.
The participating students have been practicing almost every day since the day they returned from Winter Break until they left on the red-eye Thursday night.
Moot Court is different from Mock Trial. Moot Court is meant to mimic an attorney making a constitutional argument in front of the Supreme Court. The two-man teams are such that each member of the team is arguing a different fictitious law that has violated the Constitution. This year, both issues were a First Amendment, Free Speech, issue. Both members of the team had to write a 10-minute argument both as the Petitioner (claiming that the law is unconstitutional) and as the Respondent (claiming that the law is constitutional). Each student had to learn approximately 15 court cases (actual precedent setting Supreme Court cases). Then, each student presented their 10-minute argument in front of a panel of judges who interrupted them throughout the presentation and the students had to answer whatever questions they were asked: about the fictitious law, any of the 15 court cases, hypothetical scenarios and more. The 10 students were truly remarkable.
The pride a coach feels when she walks the halls of the hotel at midnight and can hear her students practicing their presentations or when the team members crowd into her hotel room at 9 pm to have one final practice for 3 hours before the next morning’s elimination rounds, it can’t be measured. Of particular significance, Gloria and Chloe decided they would perform on Sunday with no notes…a small slip of bullet points is all they took to the podium. We all got to watch them in the top 8 round. They were amazing. They performed as the Petitioners, which is decided by coinflip. The Petitioners have the added burden of doing a 2-minute rebuttal based solely on the argument given by the respondents. Chloe Zhuo did the rebuttal. Gloria wrote the first minute of it because it pertained to her issue. Chloe wrote the second minute of it…all on the spot while the respondents were talking. Then, Chloe stood at the podium and gave her rebuttal with no notes at all and fielded additional questions. It was amazing!
There are 4 students still to compete in the upcoming weekends, some at UCSB and some at UCSD. More on those competitions to come. A special thanks to GLC Dave Desmond for agreeing to travel with us. Very helpful and supportive!"
"The weekend of February 17 & 18, 2024, TEN MEMBERS of the DBHS Mock Trial team competed at the National American Moot Court Competition held at the University of Chicago. The 10 students competed all day Saturday, in teams of 2. Then, only the top 16 teams made it to the elimination rounds on Sunday. The Sunday rounds were single elimination, once a team lost, they were out.
The teams were:
1.Mia Artale (11), Ashley Cha (12)
2. Annie Kung (9),Doria Chen (9)
3. Jeremiah Jung (12), Hilary Hui (12)
4. Gloria Nien (12), Chloe Zhuo (11)
5. Sean Yu (11), Chloe Schaefer (12)
3 of the 5 teams made it to the Top 16 elimination rounds on Sunday. Only one DBHS team made it to the Top 8 Round: Gloria Nien and Chloe Zhuo. Additionally, the Top 10 individual speakers were recognized, Jeremiah Jung placed 6th.
The participating students have been practicing almost every day since the day they returned from Winter Break until they left on the red-eye Thursday night.
Moot Court is different from Mock Trial. Moot Court is meant to mimic an attorney making a constitutional argument in front of the Supreme Court. The two-man teams are such that each member of the team is arguing a different fictitious law that has violated the Constitution. This year, both issues were a First Amendment, Free Speech, issue. Both members of the team had to write a 10-minute argument both as the Petitioner (claiming that the law is unconstitutional) and as the Respondent (claiming that the law is constitutional). Each student had to learn approximately 15 court cases (actual precedent setting Supreme Court cases). Then, each student presented their 10-minute argument in front of a panel of judges who interrupted them throughout the presentation and the students had to answer whatever questions they were asked: about the fictitious law, any of the 15 court cases, hypothetical scenarios and more. The 10 students were truly remarkable.
The pride a coach feels when she walks the halls of the hotel at midnight and can hear her students practicing their presentations or when the team members crowd into her hotel room at 9 pm to have one final practice for 3 hours before the next morning’s elimination rounds, it can’t be measured. Of particular significance, Gloria and Chloe decided they would perform on Sunday with no notes…a small slip of bullet points is all they took to the podium. We all got to watch them in the top 8 round. They were amazing. They performed as the Petitioners, which is decided by coinflip. The Petitioners have the added burden of doing a 2-minute rebuttal based solely on the argument given by the respondents. Chloe Zhuo did the rebuttal. Gloria wrote the first minute of it because it pertained to her issue. Chloe wrote the second minute of it…all on the spot while the respondents were talking. Then, Chloe stood at the podium and gave her rebuttal with no notes at all and fielded additional questions. It was amazing!
There are 4 students still to compete in the upcoming weekends, some at UCSB and some at UCSD. More on those competitions to come. A special thanks to GLC Dave Desmond for agreeing to travel with us. Very helpful and supportive!"