 Coaches Dr. Michael Farris (R) and Dr. Frank Guliuzza (L) with top team finishers (L to R): Brianna Edelblut, Joseph Alm, Aidan Grano, and Rachel Hef |
Patrick Henry College is turning into a legal debate powerhouse with teams dispatched to the American Collegiate Moot Court Association 2009 national championship taking first, second and third.
Eighteen teams from the Virginia school had qualified for the national competition, but rules allow each college to send only eight teams.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say that any of our eight teams could have advanced to the final round,” said Michael Farris, the chancellor of Patrick Henry College and a coach.
Moot court, or legal debate, puts competitors through an intensive gauntlet of appellate court proceedings, testing competitors’ abilities in demanding judicial disciplines – research, brief writing and debate – while arguing authentic legal cases before judges.
Patrick Henry College, a Christian classical liberal arts institution near Washington, was co-founded in 2000 by Farris “with the aim of recreating the original American collegiate ideal.”
It was the third time in five years the school has won the ACMA crown. The title this year went to PHC juniors Rachel Heflin and Aidan Grano, who argued successfully for the petitioner, or plaintiff, in a mock free-speech case involving disciplinary due process.
Second-place finishers were senior Joseph Alm and junior Brianna Edleblut, and third place went to juniors Robert Kelly and James Mieding. The third-place team tied with Allie Hallmark and Emily Owenby of the University of North Texas.
In fifth place were senior Rachel Blum and sophomore Noah Oberlander.
Competing colleges included last year’s national champion runner-up Wooster College as well as Holy Cross, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Drake University, Cal-State University and the University of Texas-Dallas. Sixty-four teams competed.
Patrick Henry College won back-to-back national titles in 2005 and 2006, a feat unmatched in the ACMA’s nine-year history. In that stretch PHC also defeated Oxford University in back-to-back competitions.
“The national championship is back where it belongs,” said Frank Guliuzza, the school’s other moot court coach. “We had two teams in the finals competing against one another, and we came within two ballots from closing out the competition in the semifinals (with four PHC teams almost making up the entire semifinal and final rounds).
“When I arrived (at PHC) in August, most of the teams were already ready to compete, and could have probably broken into the top rounds at nationals,” he said. “This team was really hungry to bring back the national trophy. I had 10 Top 10 finishes at Weber State, but I’ve never won a national championship. This is just a tremendous bunch of truly gifted, humble Christian students who have prepared themselves to serve God and be quite successful in their future endeavors.”
Serving as adjudicators for the finals were a federal district judge, two California court of appeals judges and two law school deans.
The school has posted a complete listing of its competitors on its website.
As WND reported, students at the school are hoping art will imitate life in their new project with Advent Film Group to create a feature film about arguments that one day could be used to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.
“Come What May” features Caleb, a Christian student attending Patrick Henry, who is caught in a moral tug-of-war as he challenges Roe v. Wade at the National Moot Court Championship. At the same time, the character’s mother, a feminist attorney, argues the case at the U.S. Supreme Court, but on the opposing side.
“Our intention is that people see the compelling arguments for overturning Roe v. Wade if there are the right Supreme Court justices on the bench,” said George Escobar of Advent Film Group.
