The 2020 Harlan Institute-Ashbrook Virtual Supreme Court Elite 8 Round

The top 8 teams argued Torres v. Madrid.

Last month, we hosted the semifinal rounds for the Harlan Institute-Ashbrook Virtual Supreme Court competition. And this past weekend, we hosted the Elite 8 Round. These higher-schoolers are remarkable. They could compete, and win, a law school moot court competition. And they could out-argue most attorneys before the courts of appeals.

I am deeply grateful to our stellar roster of judges. Presiding over the first match was Deputy Solicitor General Rebecca Taibleson, who argued Torres, and prevailed. Chris Riano, the President of the Center for Civic Education, presided over the third and fourth matches. And we had a cadre of five law professors rounding out the benches. I judged, along with my colleagues from the South Texas College of Law Houston, Geoff Corn and Amanda Peters. And we were lucky to have Professor Josh Kastenberg from the University of New Mexico and Rachel VanLandingham from Southwestern. All of these judges (present company excluded) were former prosecutors/and or defense attorneys. They brought their considerable experience to the tournament. And the students faced red-hot benches.

We had four matches. And as fate would have it, the Petitioner and Respondent teams from Match #1 have both advanced to the championship round. And these teams also faced off against each other in the semifinal round. In total, they will compete against each other three times. Congratulations to Senou Kounouho and Ayaan Siddiqui from BASIS Peoria in Arizona and Anita Ashok and Kashish Bastola from Frisco CTE Center in Texas. We will have more details about the final match shortly.

Here are the videos from the rounds.

Match #1

Petitioner: Team 7872 School: BASIS Peoria Students: Senou Kounouho and Ayaan Siddiqui Location: Peoria, Arizona Petitioner Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Respondent: Team 7852 School: Frisco CTE Center Students: Anita Ashok and Kashish Bastola Location: Frisco, Texas Respondent Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Match #2

Petitioner: Team 7857 School: Creekview High School Students: Brandon Fantine and Elizaveta Frolova Location: Carrolton, Texas Petitioner Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Respondent: Team 7976 School: Joel Barlow High School Students: Catherine Gutowski and Leighton Schur Location: Redding, Connecticut Respondent Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Match #3

Petitioner: Team 7859 School: Creekview High School Students: Makaylia Askew and Elizabeth Adeoye Location: Carrolton, Texas Petitioner Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Respondent: Team 8022 School: Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet Students: Avery Rose and Brooke Sanchez Location: Dallas, Texas Respondent Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Match #4

Petitioner: Team 7974 School: Homeschool Students: Campbell Collins and Gabriella Lovins Location: Austin, Texas Petitioner Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Respondent: Team 7988 School: Greenwich High School Students: Steven Blank and Benjamin Shi Location: Greenwich, Connecticut Respondent Brief Preliminary Round Semifinal Round

Congratulations to all of the teams. They all have such bright futures.