FAQs

What is moot court?

Moot court is a competitive simulation of Supreme Court arguments. Each year, the American Moot Court Association releases a fictional case that presents two constitutional issues.

In moot court, we study real Supreme Court precedent in the relevant areas of law to create arguments for both sides of the issues. Then, in competition, we present those arguments in front of a panel of judges who question us during our allotted time about the merits of our arguments. For an example, here’s a championship round from two seasons ago:

In the past, cases have concerned whether a wedding decorator can refuse service to a gay couple, whether the government can search a phone’s location data without a warrant, and the constitutionality of a federal vaccine mandate.

Moot court is one of the most popular extracurriculars in law school, and is an ideal activity for someone looking to get exposure to what being a law student and a real lawyer is like. Competitors get experience in legal research, reading precedent, and constructing legal arguments that can stand up to scrutiny.

When is the moot court season?

Each year, the moot court case for the next season comes out in early May. Qualifying tournaments happen in the month of November, so we do the bulk of our preparation over the summer and at the start of Fall Quarter. Submissions to the brief writing competition are due by mid-December. From there, the national tournament takes place in January and February which concludes the season.

What’s the time commitment like?

We typically prepare for each season’s moot court case from May until November, when qualifying tournaments take place. Over the summer, you can expect to attend (virtual) meetings twice a week for approximately 3 hours total per week. In addition, you’ll have to keep up with the case reading schedule which may take an additional few hours depending on the cases.

Once Fall Quarter begins in late September and we get closer to the first round of competition, you can expect the time commitment to pick up considerably as we scrimmage other schools, attend invitational tournaments, and refine our content in preparation for tournaments. You can think of moot court during this time as equivalent to a four-unit course.

We aren’t unreasonable people and our members have plenty of time to do schoolwork and participate in other activities. But we do expect our members to be committed and willing to put in the work to be a great competitor and teammate. If you’re unsure about whether the time commitment will work for you, feel free to shoot us an email and we’d be happy to answer any questions you have.

How can I join?

We’ll be recruiting for the 2025–26 season at the start of Spring 2025. We’ll be holding informational sessions in early April and tryouts shortly thereafter. Follow us on Instagram and fill out our interest form so you don’t miss any updates!