Myerowitz Competition

38th Annual Morris Brown Myerowitz Moot Court Competition (2007)

The final round of the 38th ANNUAL Morris B. Myerowitz Moot Court Competition was held on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 12:00pm in the Ceremonial Courtroom. The Morris B. Myerowitz Moot Court Competition is a prestigious event, consisting of four rounds of appellate argument. This year's final round was judged by several distinguished members of both the state and federal judiciary:

The Honorable Clayton Greene Jr. of the Maryland Court of Appeals;
The Honorable James R. Eyler of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals; and
The Honorable Mary Ellen Barbera of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.

This year's problem was based on Frederick v. Morse, a First Amendment case argued before the Supreme Court in March, 2007. In Frederick, as in the competition problem, a high school student brought a § 1983 action against the principal and school board, alleging that they violated his First Amendment rights when he received a ten-day suspension for waving a banner that read "Bong Hits for Jesus" at an off-campus, school-approved event.

This case raised important questions about the freedom-of-speech rights of students, the permissible measures that school officials may take to regulate such speech, and the extent to which school officials have qualified immunity when their actions exceed what is permissible.

Petitioner's Brief in Frederick v. Morse.
Respondent's Brief
Petitioner's Reply Brief.
The Supreme Court's decision.

Competition finalists advanced through several rounds of oral argument and each submitted an excellent brief. This year's finalists are:

Jennifer Katz
Viktoriya Mikityanskaya
Thaila Sundaresan
Alicia Welch

The overall winner of the competition was Alicia Welch. Thaila Sundaresan finished runner-up in the overall competition, Jennifer Katz won the award for Best Brief, and John Stinson finished runner-up for Best Brief.

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