The Annual Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition brings together over 30 teams of Latino law students from the nation’s top law schools to argue a case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Please make sure to register by January 9, 2015 to compete against some of the brightest of students in the nation!

NOTE: Team writing assignments are being designated upon registration.

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MOOT COURT REGISTRATION

To register your school for the Moot Court Competition you can either sign up online or download form. Once you have completed this step, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with instructions on how to add team members to your school’s registration.

Moot Court registration deadline is January 9, 2015.

To register online, please click here and select Moot Court Team.

To download and print the Moot Court Team Registration Form, please click here.

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MOOT COURT MATERIALS

• 2015 Moot Court Problem
• 2015 Moot Court Cases Cited
• 2015 Moot Court Schedule
• 2015 Moot Court Rules and Procedures – updated on 03/16/15
• 2015 Moot Court Oral Argument Score Sheet
• 2015 Moot Court Brief Score Sheet

​UPDATES

• 12/8/14 – A request for clarification has been made by several teams as to whether Puente is properly designated as the Petitioner. Clarification: For this Moot Court competition, it has no bearing. The only thing to consider is that the cert petition lists Puente as the Petitioner and the U.S. as the Respondent. We have determined that teams will be assigned to argue the questions presented from the perspective of (A) Petitioner (Puente) or (B) Respondent (United States). The seeming error in the style of the case should be disregarded.
• 12/23/14 – A request for clarification has been made to Section D. Part 7-9, replace Puente v. U.S. with Elonis v. U.S.Clarification: All the noted prohibitions and restrictions apply to Elonis.
• 12/30/14 – A request for clarification has been made whether teams can cite to the Elonis opinions in their brief. Clarification: The answer is “No”, teams cannot cite to the Elonis opinions in their briefs.
• 1/05/15- A request for clarification has been made: “HNBA Rule 2 says “Briefs must comply with the Rules of the Supreme Court of the United States. Supreme Court Rule 33 applies only for preparation of brief covers. It states”The text of every booklet-format document, including any appendix thereto, shall be typeset in Century family.” But Rule 3 of the HNBA rules says you must use a “non-variable fixed width font such as Courier”. So should the brief itself be in Courier but the cover page should be in Century Schoolbook? Clarification: “The brief itself should be in Courier but the cover page should be in the Century Schoolbook.
• 1/05/15- A request for clarification has been made as to the links to the grading rubric for both the briefs and the grades. Clarification: The grading rubrics have been uploaded to the HNBA website.
• 1/09/15- A request for clarification has been made whether you can cite to any case in your team’s brief or just the ones included in the competition packet.” Clarification: It is acceptable to cite to cases other than the HNBA cases and to use secondary sources.

• 1/13/15- A request for clarification has been made regarding Puente’s conviction. The problem states he was convicted on four counts but it doesn’t specifically state which statement led to his conviction.”Clarification: It is up to each team to make a persuasive argument, one way or the other, based on their best reading of the facts as set forth for them in the record.

• 1/1415-A request for clarification: Should the case number be on the cover of the appellate brief or should the case number be omitted entirely since there are none in the given problem? Clarification: Rule 34. Document Preparation: General requirements is that every document, whether prepared under Rule 33.1 or Rule 33.2, shall comply with the following provisions: 1. Each document shall bear on its cover, in the order indicated, from the top of the page: the docket number of the case or, if there is none, a space for one;

• PLEASE NOTE: Students are responsible for checking our website for the most current information and rule updates. No changes will be made within 30 days of the competition.

Director of the Moot Court Competition:

• Honorable Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court

Members of the Moot Court Competition Dispute Settlement Body:

• Honorable Judge Peter M. Reyes, Jr., Minnesota Court of Appeals
• Honorable Municipal Judge Celeste Villareal, City of Austin
• Honorable Judge Javier Vargas, New York City Civil Court

Moot Court Competition Final Round Panel:

• Honorable Circuit Judge Jimmie V. Reyna, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• Honorable Circuit Judge Edward C. Prado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Honorable District Court Judge Marina G. Marmolejo, Southern District of Texas
• Honorable Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, Texas Supreme Court
• Honorable Judge Patricia O. Alvarez, Texas Fourth District Court of Appeals