The Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America
2024 Judicial Clerkship Opinion Writing Conference
Rules
Excluding: 1) conferees who are current or former students at the Columbus School of Law; and
2) conferees who have participated in a previous year’s Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup First Amendment Moot Court Competition; each conferee is eligible for the CSL Prize in Judicial Clerkship Opinion Writing.
On the closing day of the conference, conferees will receive an email containing a hypothetical problem revolving around a discrete First Amendment issue. The problem will contain a basic set of facts and the outline of arguments that have been presented before the U.S. Supreme Court, on appeal from a fictional Federal Circuit Court. The arguments will reference the legal authority used for the court’s consideration. Conferees will submit an electronic copy of their Prize Entries in a PDF format by 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 3, 2024 to the following address: csl-clerkship@cua.edu
To preserve anonymity, submissions will be made by an assigned “Prize Entry Number.” The only identification will be the assigned “Prize Entry Number” at the top right corner of all pages in a running header.
The conference faculty will judge the winner of the competition on a blind-grading basis. The winner will be awarded $500. By entering the competition, conferees agree to any advertisement or press release regarding the conference or competition.
The position taken on the problem (i.e., siding with the Respondent or the Appellant) will not be part of the judges’ consideration. Conferees should write their opinions based upon the authority cited, the arguments made, and their considered perspectives on how the issue should be resolved. Matters of writing alone will be the subject of the judges’ considerations for the CSL Prize.
Contact with the judges in any form about the competition or obtaining help in any way from any source in the research or writing of the Prize Entry will result in automatic disqualification.
Formatting Requirements:
Page limit 7-10 pages; b) 12 pt. Times New Roman font; c) one-inch margins all around; d) double-spaced; e) paginated at top right corner; f) textual citations in bluebook format; g) entry number in top left corner of each page; h) in the interest of space, dispense with factual and procedural recitations; i) use only the authorities cited in the problem (and only the quoted/cited portions of those authorities).