John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, will head the prestigious panel of judges presiding over the finals of the School of Law’s Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Competition on February 6 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall.
The other four members of the panel are Karen Nelson Moore, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit; law school alumna Catherine D. Perry, judge on the United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri; David R. Herndon, judge on the United States District Court, Southern District of Illinois; and Richard J. Lazarus, professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Two student teams will present oral arguments in the final round of the 140th annual intramural law school competition. The teams were selected during last fall’s preliminary rounds in which close to 100 second- and third-year students participated. On Feb. 6, third-year students James Frazier and Daniel Rhoads will compete against second-year students Samir Kaushik and Renee Waters.
The problem for the competition is fictitious and was adapted from a New York University School of Law Moot Court Casebook. Based on characters from the movie, “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton,” it focuses on the criminal appeal of a contest winner’s boyfriend who allegedly threatened a celebrity.
The competition finals on are closed to the public. Limited seating will be available for the Washington University community to view a simulcast of the student arguments. Space in the overflow rooms in Anheuser-Busch Hall will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The arguments begin at 3:30 p.m. Announcements of several specialty awards and the winners of the competition finals will be at 4:45 p.m.
In addition to judging the finals, Chief Justice Roberts also will teach a constitutional law class, composed of both Washington University and Saint Louis University law students.
Each year, the Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Competition board invites respected jurists to judge its final round. The last time a Supreme Court justice participated was in 1998, when Justice Antonin Scalia was a member of the panel. Law school alumnus Kevin Lipson was instrumental in helping to arrange Chief Justice Roberts’ visit to the law school for this year’s competition. The competition is named in honor of Justice Rutledge, who served on the Supreme Court of the United States after a five-year tenure as dean of the law school.