Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court of the United States, Jennifer Walker Elrod of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and Susan L. Carney of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit presided over the 2018 Ames Moot Court Competition at Harvard Law School. Since the early 1900s, the Ames Competition has showcased Harvard Law School’s most talented oral advocates. Each year, two teams of 3Ls participate in the Final Round, having started the competition in the fall of their 2L year, and progressing to the Final Round on the strength of their research abilities and excellent written and oral advocacy.
At this year’s competition the judges heard the fictitious case, Groves v. Gallant, a constitutional dispute over the right of a convicted criminal to “keep and bear arms” and the right to publish instructions for 3D-printing guns on the Internet.
Justice Sotomayor, who previously judged the competition in 2011, said of the event: “Every time I come to one of these and I see the extraordinary performances of the students at these exercises, it fills me with hope about the future. It shows me that you are being trained to think and to respond in extraordinary, lawyerly, professional ways, and that you carry in your hands our future in a really good way.”
For more on the history of the Ames Moot Court Competition at Harvard Law School, including a case summaries and briefs, visit the Board of Student Advisers website.
Read more about this year’s competition here.