Moot Court Round 2

Well moot court is mercifully over for me. I'll do a full write up of today's moot court round when I finish Monday's reading.

UPDATE: This is how second round went: First up was Peters, and he did fine. He didn't do as well as he did last week though. He didn't know his intro quite as well and when he asked the court whether he should give a recitation of the facts I think he was tripped up a little when the C.J. said, "It's up to you counselor. We know the facts." So it began. The justices were a little tougher on him this time around. It was a hot bench and he, like all of us there, were constantly interrupted and constantly challenged on everything we asserted. Peters' voice cracked a couple of times but it wasn't too noticeable - maybe I'm just used to it. He was no where near as persuasive with his arguments this time around as well. Also, at the end when he asked if he could conclude, the C.J. said, "You may, but briefly, in one or two sentences." Of course, Peters went on for about five sentences. As a last note on Peters' performance, he forgot to reserve time for rebuttal but in his defense - I can't believe I'm defending the guy - he wasn't reminded about it by the bailiff as opposing counsel was last week. But overall not a bad performance considering it was a very challenging court.

Next up was myself and it was bad. I mean bad. I really should have prepared more. So I stumble through my intro and sensing that I was having some trouble the court jumped in. All I remember is that I grilled on due process and I wasn't giving an ok, let alone a good, response to any of the questions. I think the C.J. was a bit annoyed with me especially when I couldn't tell him where the due process clause as it applied to the states was found in the amendments. It was very tough and I got some sympathy from one of the justices who tried to toss me a softball but I missed that one as well. This is how BS the whole thing is though. At the end, I was told that I started off great and was answering their questions well and were surprised when I said, "I'm done" when the five minute card came up.... That's right I tried to conclude halfway through. But not even conclude because I didn't say anything to the effect of, "So in conclusion..." or "For the foregoing reasons..." rather I just said, "I'm done." Of course, as I was about to walk away, much to everyone's dismay, I was told by the C.J. that I wasn't done by a "No, no you're not." So I stayed up there for five more minutes getting my ass handed to me. As I was saying though, it's all BS because, as they encourage everyone, I too was encouraged to go on. I expressed my disinterest at continuing with repeated 'I'm dones.' and was repeatedly encouraged to go on. Whatever.

The opposing counsel of Yumna and Halil did a fine job. They too were attacked repeatedly by the court and at times were caught off guard but they handled it well. Yumna was pressed on police misconduct and Halil was caught on due process like I was. Not too much detail on them because I wasn't paying too close attention seeing that I wasn't going to rebut.

Anyway, it's all over for me. Of the four of us in the room, I think Peters and Halil are going on to the third round. Yumna is going to be up north visiting her sister during third round. Yours truly, will be trying frantically to catch up on his studies.