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Supreme Court of Ohio Justice Maureen O’Connor will serve as Chief Justice on a three-judge panel during the final round of the 16th annual Herman Appellate Advocacy Moot Court Competition. The event is Saturday, Feb. 23, and will begin at 11 a.m. in the first-floor courtroom of Judge George C. Smith in Joseph P. Kinneary U.S. Courthouse.
“Training the next generation of attorneys is crucial to maintaining our democracy founded on the rule of law,” said Justice O’Connor. “Moot court competitions offer a great learning experience for those just starting out their legal careers to properly prepare an appellate brief and to succinctly argue a case.”
Through the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law’s annual appellate advocacy competition, four second-year law school finalists vie for spots on traveling teams to compete in national interscholastic moot court competitions during their third year of law school.
The topic of this year’s competition is DC v. Heller, where six plaintiffs challenged a District of Columbia law restricting their ability to own or carry handguns, arguing that the rules were an unconstitutional abridgment of their Second Amendment rights.
Acting as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, Justice O’Connor will question Petitioner and Respondent as the court would. Each participant will have 15 minutes to argue during the two rounds of appellate-style argument. At the conclusion of both arguments, the justices will grade competitors and provide them with constructive feedback.
Justice O’Connor was elected in 2002 as the 148th Justice on the Supreme Court of Ohio and the seventh woman to serve on the Court. She has experience as a practicing attorney, magistrate, common pleas judge, and prosecuting attorney. In 1998, she was elected as lieutenant governor and was the governor's chief advisor on criminal justice issues, serving as director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, and as chair of Ohio’s Security Task Force and the State Building Security Review Committee.