CAMDEN – When most high school students talk about what’s posted online, the U.S.
Constitution isn’t typically part of the conversation.
Sixteen area high school students, mentored by
second- and third-year law students at Rutgers School of Law–Camden, argued
their positions on a First Amendment blogging case during a moot court
competition earlier this month. Based on real challenges arising in courts all
over the country, the fictional case of Julie
Turner v. Jefferson High School
addressed the plaintiff’s posting nasty comments about her
principal on a school-sponsored blog and whether the school district had the
right to suspend her for disrupting the learning environment.
The Rutgers Law event served as qualifying
competition for the suit-clad 9th through 12th graders to
represent Camden at the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project
National Moot Court Competition in Washington, DC, during April 5-7.
Six high school students and two alternates from
LEAP Academy University Charter School, Brimm Medical Arts High School, and
Camden Catholic High School’s Community Scholars scholarship program will
represent Rutgers–Camden at the national competition.
National competitors and alternates include:
Cielymar Almonte (Camden Catholic), Jasmine Burgos (LEAP), Aja Feliciano
(LEAP), Elisabel Laluz (LEAP), Christina Roman (LEAP), Bryan Sorto (Brimm
Medical Arts), William Walker (Camden Catholic), and Indonesia Young (Camden
Catholic).
Last year, Rutgers competitor Byron Guevara, then a
senior in the Community Scholars Program at Camden Catholic, was awarded top
honors as the nation’s “best petitioner”; Camden’s MetEast student Jose Tavarez
reached the quarterfinals in national competition in 2009.
The Rutgers–Camden Moot Court Program is part of
the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, founded and based at the
American University Washington College of Law. At law school chapters all over
the country, the project trains law students to teach constitutional law in
high schools in urban and deprived communities.
Over 45 high school students have participated in
the Marshall-Brennan Moot Court Program at Rutgers since September, learning
oral advocacy techniques and communication skills in weekly after-school
classes at the law school. Participating students in this year’s program attend
Brimm, Community Scholars Program at Camden Catholic, LEAP, LEAP STEM, and
Urban Promise Academy.
Third-year law student Amanda Dalton, who taught constitutional
law at Camden High School last year, now serves as a teaching assistant and
director of the moot court program. “It has been exciting to help the students
not only learn about their constitutional rights, but also to teach them to
argue intelligently in support of those rights,” says Dalton.
The Rutgers Law qualifying competition, held on
Feb. 16, was judged by current and former Marshall-Brennan Fellows, including
Romil Amin, Cosmas Diamantis, Austin Edwards, Carrie Ford, Conrad Haber, Andrew
Keith, Leslie Teris, and Kathrin Weigel. Best Petitioner Bryan Sorto and Best
Respondent Christina Roman argued in a final exhibition round in the law school’s
Archer Greiner Moot Courtroom, before an audience of students, parents and
guardians, and Marshall-Brennan Fellows.
“This year we’ve had great synergies between
Marshall-Brennan and other organs of the law school and university,” notes Jill
Friedman, director of pro bono and public interest programs, of
collaborations with the school’s Lawyering Program; Black Law Students
Association; ALIANZA chapter; and Office of Civic Engagement.
Friedman with William McLaughlin, managing attorney
of the law school’s Federal Prisoner Reentry Project and teaching fellow
alumnus, teaches the yearlong seminar about the Bill of Rights for law students
and directs the Marshall-Brennan Project.
The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy
Project is one of several pipeline diversity/community legal education projects
at the law school, including the New Jersey State Bar Foundation-funded Street
Law Pro Bono Project; the Financial Literacy Pro Bono Project; the Summer Law
Institute; and the Law School Admission Council-funded Discoverlaw.org Prelaw
Undergraduate Scholars Program, a highly competitive residential immersion
program in law for undergraduate students from all over the United States.
For more information about Rutgers–Camden news stories, visit us at news.rutgers.edu/medrel
Media Contact: Cathy K. Donovan
856-225-6627
E-mail: catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu