Noah Coco '26
Managing Editor
On Thursday, November 14, in Caplin Pavilion, Jake Flansburg ’25 and Malia Takei ’25 won the 96th William Minor Lile Moot Court Tournament. They bested Benjamin Baldwin ’25 and Nathaniel Glass ’25, who was awarded the Stephen Pierre Traynor Award for best oralist. The two teams competed before a panel of three judges: Michael Y. Scudder, judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; Kevin A. Ohlson ’85, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; and Trevor S. Cox, former Acting Solicitor General of Virginia and current litigation partner at Hunton Andrews Kurth in Richmond.
The problem argued by the teams concerned the retaliatory treatment of a federal inmate for the exercise of his First Amendment rights. While still in prison, the litigant filed a Section 1983 claim against the prison warden. When he was subsequently released from prison, he filed a supplemental complaint to reflect his new custodial status. The specific issues addressed in the finals were (1) whether the litigant’s suit was subject to the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) even though he was no longer incarcerated, and (2) assuming the PLRA governed the suit, whether the statute’s physical injury requirement applied in a case alleging deprivation of a constitutional right.
Each competitor had fifteen minutes to present their oral arguments before the judges. Takei was the first to present her argument for the appellant on the first issue, followed by Baldwin for the appellee. Flansburg then presented his argument on the second issue for the appellant, followed by Glass for the appellee. The competitors all displayed adept mastery of the issues and exemplary appellate advocacy. “Any of [them] would be welcome in the Seventh Circuit,” remarked Judge Scudder. Takei and Flansburg will be honored with a plaque to be hung in Slaughter Hall, joining the esteemed list of past winners.
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