{"id":560,"date":"2012-03-13T11:45:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T16:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hlsorgs.com\/bsa\/?page_id=560"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:23:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:23:31","slug":"semi-final-round-ames","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/ames-competition\/semi-final-round-ames\/","title":{"rendered":"Ames Semi-Final Round"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Ames Competition is one of the most prestigious competitions for appellate brief writing and advocacy in the country. The students participating in the Semi-Final Round started the competition in fall of this school year, and rose to the final four spots through their strong research abilities and excellent written and oral advocacy.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Semi-Final Round oral arguments will be held in the Ames Courtroom at 7:00pm on March 10th and 11th. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teams competing in the Semi-Final Round are below, as well as the briefs submitted for the Semi-Final Round.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">***<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Spring 2026 Semi-Final Round<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>March 10th, 7:00pm &#8211; <em><strong>United States v. July<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Defendant Magnus July, who lives in Ames City, which is in the Western District of Ames, is the parent of a young child named Liam.&nbsp; Liam\u2019s mother, who lives in Springfield, which is in the Eastern District of Ames, has sole legal and physical custody of Liam pursuant to a state court order in Springfield.&nbsp; During one of the weekends in which Liam was visiting July, July purchased two airline tickets, crossed into the neighboring state, and flew with Liam to Canada.&nbsp; After a significant manhunt by authorities throughout Ames, which included assistance from the federal government and law enforcement in Canada, July was apprehended in Montreal.&nbsp; He and Liam were brought back to Ames City.&nbsp; July was arrested and charged in the Eastern District of Ames with international parental kidnapping.&nbsp; After he was arrested, July was interviewed by a state official for the Department of Children and Families concerning the well-being and custodial placement of Liam.&nbsp; July was not Mirandized during this interview, and he made incriminating statements during it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>July moved to dismiss for improper venue in the Eastern District of Ames and to suppress the statements he made to the social worker.&nbsp; He was then convicted after a conditional guilty plea.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The questions presented on appeal are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(1) Whether the district court erred in denying Defendant\u2019s motion to dismiss for improper venue in the Eastern District of Ames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(2) Whether the district court erred in denying the Defendant\u2019s motion to suppress statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1auhOSNGt26Y9NqdPntFUaVDigykDO4Bb\/view?usp=sharing\">Appellant Brief<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/13-0se8xKyuaYpT67s3d-0QXb5l-vWvTa\/view?usp=sharing\">Appellee Brief<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1nnGk8CLEwFyEZsaQ1qGRFzs-KNoSL0c2\/view?usp=sharing\">Appellant Reply Brief<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong>The Richard H. Fallon, Jr., Memorial Team<\/strong> <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard H. Fallon, Jr. (1952\u20132025), was a pillar of the Harvard Law School community for more than four decades. Over those years, he built a legacy as a groundbreaking scholar of constitutional law, a gifted teacher, and a generous colleague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A graduate of Yale College, the University of Oxford, and Yale Law School, Professor Fallon joined the Harvard faculty in 1982 following clerkships with Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. of the Supreme Court. He became a full professor in 1987 and was twice awarded the Sacks-Freund Teaching Award, in 2001 and 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Fallon wrote extensively on the nature of constitutional rights, the role of courts in a democratic society, and how legal institutions gain and lose legitimacy. His final book, <em>The Changing Constitution: Constitutional Law in the Trump-Era Supreme Court<\/em>, was posthumously published by Cambridge University Press last August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Fallon was the chief judge for two of our team members\u2019 1L Ames oral arguments, during which they got to witness his exceptional kindness and incisive intellect first-hand. As Professor Randall L. Kennedy put it, Professor Fallon \u201crepresented the best of Harvard Law School.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eric Krebs<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mira Kumar<\/span> (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Leila Malak<\/span> (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Demirkan Coker<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ceylan Milor<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Brennan Szabo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong>The Honorable Justice David H. Souter<\/strong><\/strong> Memorial Team<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>David H. Souter (1939\u20132025) served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1990 to 2009. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1966, Justice Souter began a career in public service, acting as Attorney General of New Hampshire, Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court and the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit\u2014all before his appointment to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Beloved for his humility and candor, Justice Souter has been hailed as one of the Court\u2019s great common law judges. His approach to judging was careful and incremental, with attention to lived realities. Indeed, in an age where many criticized the increased partisanship of the Court, Justice Souter repeatedly demonstrated a commitment to principled reasoning, an appreciation for the law\u2019s inherent complexity, and an emphasis on judicial restraint. Above all, Justice Souter held a human-centered understanding of the law. At his confirmation hearing, Justice Souter remarked: \u201cSome human life is going to be changed in some way by what we do . . . And so we had better use every power of our minds and our hearts and our beings to get those rulings right.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After retiring from the Court in 2009, Justice Souter returned to New Hampshire. He participated in civic education reform, heard cases on the First Circuit, and returned no less than six times to Harvard Law School to preside over the Ames Moot Court Competition, in which he had participated in 1966. Judge Kevin Newsom of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit remembered of Justice Souter, for whom he clerked: \u201cBut if ever there were someone built to live forever\u2014eating his yogurts and cores-and-all apples, running his country roads, and hiking his beloved White Mountains\u2014it was David Souter. The man had a lot of virtue and not much vice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Rachel Yan<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kaveh Badrei (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Amanda Kaplan (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Olivia Hinch<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hannah Pouler<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Luisina Kemanian Leites<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>***<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>March 11th,&nbsp; 7:00pm &#8211; <em>United States v. Davis<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This case concerns events that took place in a longstanding encampment on public land, one that has existed in Ames City for many years and was the location of many unhoused individuals who lived in tents and similar structures along streets and sidewalks spanning several city blocks.&nbsp; The Defendant Brittain Davis was living in a tent in this encampment when police received a report that some people had been fighting nearby.&nbsp; Police arrived after the fight had dispersed, but one officer proceeded to knock on Davis\u2019s tent.&nbsp; Davis, who was asleep inside, did not answer.&nbsp; Instead, the officer unzipped the tent and ordered Davis out.&nbsp; Davis complied.&nbsp; The officer stuck his head into the tent and discovered a gun in Davis\u2019s sleeping back.&nbsp; Davis was charged as being a felon in possession of a firearm because Davis had previously been convicted of conspiracy to commit assault and battery in state court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Davis moved to suppress the gun evidence, arguing that it was improperly seized \u2013 even though his tent was on city land.&nbsp; The Court denied this motion to suppress.&nbsp; After a conditional guilty plea, the Court applied a sentence enhancement under the Sentencing Guidelines because of a comment to the one of the guidelines that clarified that inchoate offenses, like conspiracy, could serve as the basis for an enhancement as a \u201ccrime of violence.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The questions presented on appeal are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(1) Whether the district court erred in denying the motion to suppress the evidence seized from a tent on public land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(2) Whether the district court erred in applying the sentencing enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. \u00a7 4B1.2(a) (2021) for a prior crime of violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/12tyC4sJk-DkWYuGxon3zJ8p69BXmlPpc\/view?usp=sharing\">Appellant Brief<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1mh2yOuuAMXrEydFcT3mT9Wv964Zy9S1-\/view?usp=sharing\">Appellee Brief<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1TUtLyuISUc3uB426nagMOBE0dGd2VWzq\/view?usp=sharing\">Appellant Reply Brief<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong>The Justice Byron White Memorial Team<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Justice Byron White (1917\u20132002) was an All-American college football player, two-time NFL rushing leader, Rhodes Scholar, decorated naval officer, and associate justice of the Supreme Court. White was born in 1917 on a farm in rural Colorado. He graduated with the highest grades in his high school\u2019s history and attended the University of Colorado. There, he was an All-American halfback for the Colorado Buffaloes, leading the team to an undefeated season his senior year. He was the runner-up for the 1937 Heisman Trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1938, White won the Rhodes Scholarship and was a first-round NFL draft pick. Deferring his studies at Oxford, White became the highest-paid player in the league and led the NFL in rushing yards during his rookie year with the Pittsburgh Pirates. After a year of football, White took up his Rhodes Scholarship. Because he was a year behind, he was reputed to work 14 hours a day to catch&nbsp; up. White\u2019s roommate at Oxford remarked that he \u201cstudied the rest of us into the ground.\u201d At the outbreak of World War II, White returned to the United States to attend law school in Connecticut. He took a leave of absence to play two seasons of football for the Detroit Lions and again led the league in rushing. Following the 1942 NFL season, White was commissioned as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy and was awarded two Bronze Stars for his service. After serving his country, he returned to law school, graduated first in his class, clerked for Chief Justice Fred Vinson, and practiced law in Denver. In 1952, he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1961, President John F. Kennedy\u2014whom White had befriended while a Rhodes Scholar\u2014appointed White as deputy attorney general. A year later, President Kennedy nominated him to the Supreme Court. Justice White served from 1962\u20131993 and was respected for his nondoctrinaire jurisprudence and practical view of the Court\u2019s role. Despite a lifetime of accomplishments on the field and in the courtroom, White was renowned for his humility. A football teammate recalled that White was \u201cjust constitutionally incapable of tooting his own horn.\u201d In the words of his colleague Justice Lewis Powell, White \u201cserved in order to serve.\u201d For his legacy of excellence tempered by humility, he remains an inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Luke Seminara <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Katherine Wang (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Janson Requist (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pierce Sandlin<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Irene Loewenson<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Will Randolph<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><strong>The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Memorial Team<\/strong><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was a legal scholar, civil rights activist, and the first Black woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. Decades before the term \u201cintersectionality\u201d was coined, Murray labeled the dual layers of discrimination faced by Black women \u201cJane Crow.\u201d Denied admission to the University of North Carolina because of race and later to Harvard University because of gender, Murray dedicated a lifetime to dismantling the legal frameworks supporting segregation. Murray\u2019s early activism, including a 1940 arrest for refusing to sit in the back of a public bus, underscored a brave commitment to challenging injustice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Murray\u2019s contributions fundamentally reshaped American law. While a student at Howard University in 1944, Murray wrote a seminar paper arguing that \u201cseparate but equal\u201d arrangements were facially unconstitutional\u2014a radical stance that leading civil rights attorneys of the time initially dismissed as too risky for litigation. Ten years later, Murray\u2019s arguments undergirded the legal strategy in <em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em>. Thurgood Marshall famously referred to Murray\u2019s book, <em>States\u2019 Laws on Race and Color<\/em>, as the \u201cbible\u201d of the civil rights movement. Decades later, Ruth Bader Ginsburg honored Murray\u2019s work by including her as a co-author on a brief in <em>Reed v. Reed<\/em>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside of the legal academy, Murray\u2019s life was marked by self-reimagination. In 1977, at age 66, Murray became the first Black woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest. And throughout her life, Murray grappled with her own gender non-conformity in an era that&nbsp; lacked the language to describe it. Pauli Murray\u2019s legacy is a testament to the power of the dogged dissenter whose ideas, once deemed too radical for the mainstream, eventually become the bedrock of a more just society. As Murray put it, \u201cIn not a single one of these little campaigns was I victorious. In other words, in each case, I personally failed, but I have lived to see the thesis upon which I was operating vindicated. And what I very often say is that I\u2019ve lived to see my lost causes found.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Serena Zhou <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kathy Li (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Spencer Thieme (oralist)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Thomas Chang<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>David Col\u00f3n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alexander DiMeglio<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more information, please email <a href=\"mailto:ameshls@gmail.com\">ameshls@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ames Competition is one of the most prestigious competitions for appellate brief writing and advocacy in the country. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":893,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"template-fullwidth.php","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-560","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P5BJdO-92","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/560\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orgs.law.harvard.edu\/bsa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}