News Releases
2008 Swygert Moot Court Competition to be held Nov. 5
Friday, October 17, 2008
The 20th Annual Luther M. Swygert Memorial Moot Court Competition will be held at 3pm on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 in the Duesenberg Recital Hall at Valparaiso University Center for the Arts.
The Swygert Family Endowment sponsors this competition to showcase current First Amendment jurisprudential inquiries. This year, the Swygert Supreme Court will decide for the first time whether the First Amendment protection of academic freedom encompasses the ability of a professor to assign grades. Additionally, the Court will consider arguments to resolve whether a professor’s blog entry is a matter of public concern and therefore constitutionally protected employee speech.
Members of the Moot Court Society compete in this competition each year by preparing briefs for their assigned party. The Moot Court Society Executive Board exclusively developed the issue of concern for this year’s competition. The competition begins with each member competing in two preliminary rounds of oral arguments, after which the field is narrowed to sixteen competitors, down to eight, and finally to only four, who compete in front of a live audience and before three distinguished judges.
About 2008 Swygert Competition Justices
Justice Elizabeth Lacy of the Supreme Court of Virginia
The first woman to be named a Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy is a graduate of St. Mary's College at Notre Dame and the University of Texas Law School. She also received an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Justice Lacy was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1988. The Library of Virginia honored her as one of the eight Virginia Women in History for 2008.
Justice Debra Todd of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Debra Todd received a B.A. from Chatham College, a J.D. from University of Pittsburgh School of Law, and a LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law. After serving as Judge of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, Justice Todd was elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 2007.
Judge John Tinder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
John Tinder is a native Hoosier, and went to Indiana University where he received both a B.S. and J.D. Judge Tinder served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana from 1974 through 1977. In 1984, Judge Tinder became the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. Judge Tinder was nominated to the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Indiana in1987. After twenty years of service as a district judge, Judge Tinder was elected in 2007 to serve on the Seventh Circuit bench.
About the Competition and the Honorable Luther M Swygert
In memory of the late Judge Luther M. Swygert, Mrs. Gertrude Swygert, his wife, and Professor Michael I. Swygert, his son, established an endowment at the School of Law for the creation of the Judge Luther M. Swygert Memorial Moot Court Competition.
A 1927 graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, Luther M. Swygert became an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana in 1934. President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated him District Judge for the Northern District of Indiana in 1943, and he was the first Democrat to be appointed to the federal bench from Indiana since the Civil War. He served as Chief District Judge until 1961, when President John F. Kennedy nominated him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Swygert served as the Seventh Circuit's Chief Judge from 1970 to 1975. He became Senior Circuit Judge in July 1981, but continued to serve the Seventh Circuit as well as other courts of appeals until 1987.
Judge Swygert had a special relationship with Valparaiso University. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree during the dedication ceremony for the first Wesemann Hall School of Law in 1963. He was the first Jurist-in-Residence at the School of Law, and in 1984 taught an innovative seminar at the law school entitled "Language and the Law." In addition, his son, Michael, graduated from the Law School in 1967 and was a member of the board which inaugurated the Valparaiso University Law Review.
Throughout his years as a federal jurist, Judge Swygert maintained a special interest in legal education. In particular, he took an interest in moot court programs, acting as judge for student moot court competitions at Valparaiso, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Indiana University, New York University, Wisconsin, Illinois, DePaul, Northwestern, Chicago, and Yale law schools. In light of this special interest of Judge Swygert, the Judge Luther M. Swygert Memorial Moot Court Competition was created in 1989.
The program involves an annual law student moot court competition to be held at Valparaiso University. The competition is designed to include at least one judge from the Seventh Circuit as a final round judge, and it will offer a cash award to the team of advocates adjudged to exhibit the best skills in the annual competition.
The School of Law benefited enormously from the relationship with Judge Luther M. Swygert and is grateful for this generous opportunity to honor him. In addition, the students and faculty of Valparaiso University School of Law wish to thank Mrs. Swygert for her continual support and interest in the students participating in the Luther M. Swygert competition.
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