Notre Dame College undergraduate prelaw students will present a case based in the U.S. Constitution in front of professional attorneys to remind students and community members of their protected human rights.
Students on the College’s nationally recognized Moot Court team will argue this year’s American Moot Court Association’s hypothetical appellate court case in a special campus demonstration on Monday, October 10, at 7 p.m. in the Great Room on the third floor of the Administration Building on the College campus. The event marks the federal observance of U.S. Constitution and Citizenship Day.
The program is free and open to the public. Enter campus at 1857 S. Green Road in South Euclid.
This year moot court team members will discuss whether the warrantless use of a drone equipped with optical sensors violates the search and seizure safeguards in the Fourth Amendment and whether the sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole only after the first fifty years for a non-homicide offense infringes on the Eighth Amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
The students serving as petitioners for overturning the decision of the lower circuit court will be Lillian McConnell and Devin Crosby. Student respondents to the petition will be Carli Derda and Mya Wright.
Once again serving as chief justice for the Notre Dame moot court demonstration is Geoff Ritts, J.D., senior partner at Jones Day, who is recognized by the American Bar Association as one of the country’s outstanding litigators. Ritts also is a member of the Notre Dame Board of Trustees.
Notre Dame’s moot court team will compete in a national scrimmage, hosted by the College, on October 21, with the U.S. Air Force Academy, Loyola University of Chicago and University of Texas-Austin, among others, in the draw.
This is the fifth annual Constitution Night to feature the Notre Dame cocurricular moot court program and the fourth in front of a live audience. The exposition in 2020 was conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Constitution Day and Citizenship Day commemorates the signing of the United States Constitution. Since 2004, all institutions that receive federal funding have been required to provide educational programming related to the history of the U.S. Constitution on or around the day.
Notre Dame’s Constitution Night is an opportunity for moot court students to practice in a formal setting with a live “bench” of Constitutional scholars. The team also simulates the mechanisms of legal proceedings as an educational experience for students, faculty and staff at the College.
Moot court is a method of teaching law and legal skills by requiring students to analyze and argue both sides of a hypothetical legal issue using state and federal appellate court procedures.
Established in 2011, Notre Dame’s moot court program has qualified for national competitions in five of its first eight years. The team competes in multiple scrimmages and qualifying tournaments throughout the country each fall.
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