The event took place before an audience at the American Constitution Society's annual convention. Unlike many moot court competitions that simulate a trial, this one was intended to simulate an appellate argument. "We had to argue a case on behalf of the government, a fictitious case on national security, on what rights do detainees have who are captured in the war on terror and what authority does the president have to detain individuals captured in the United States in the war on terror," Shpeen said. "Josh and I had to argue one side, and the other team argued the other side, and three judges were asking questions," he said.
South Africa RPCV Adam Shpeen and Josh Picker were the winning duo at the fifth annual Constance Baker Motley National Moot Court Competition in Washington
This legal victory not a moot point
By CAROL DeMARE, Staff writer
First published in print: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Two Columbia Law School students from the Capital Region argued their way into a national championship moot court competition, bringing home a trophy for their school.
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Adam Shpeen of Bethlehem and Josh Picker of Guilderland were the winning duo at the fifth annual Constance Baker Motley National Moot Court Competition last Thursday in Washington, D.C. As the East Coast champions they were pitted against Thomas Sprankling and Sylvia Duran, the West Coast champions. Coincidentally, Sprankling and Duran are also Columbia Law School students, and all four just completed their first year.
The event took place before an audience at the American Constitution Society's annual convention. Unlike many moot court competitions that simulate a trial, this one was intended to simulate an appellate argument.
"We had to argue a case on behalf of the government, a fictitious case on national security, on what rights do detainees have who are captured in the war on terror and what authority does the president have to detain individuals captured in the United States in the war on terror," Shpeen said.
"Josh and I had to argue one side, and the other team argued the other side, and three judges were asking questions," he said.
Judges at the competition included Judge Stephen Reinhardt, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Inez Smith Reid, District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Judge William Sands, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Shpeen, 24, a 2007 Dartmouth College graduate, and Picker, 28, a 2004 Yale University graduate, got to the finals by taking the East Coast championship at Suffolk Law School in Boston in March. Sprankling and Duran won the West Coast championship at Stanford Law School a month earlier.
In all, 58 two-member teams from 34 law schools competed.
The event, which started in 2006, was founded by law school students the year after the death of Constance Baker Motley, an influential figure in the civil rights movement. While still a student at Columbia Law School, Motley met Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP's legal director, who offered her a job as a law clerk in the organization's New York office. After graduating, Motley joined the NAACP's legal staff full-time. Marshall became a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Shpeen, the son of Rabbi Scott Shpeen and the late Susan Shpeen of Albany's Congregation Beth Emeth, served in the Peace Corps in South Africa for two years, helping the villagers of Tlhakgameng, a community of 5,000, before entering law school.
