Links
Read “Justices appear wary of striking down domestic-violence gun restriction” on the SCOTUS blog below!
Empire’s World Championship program features trials on November 4th and 5th at 9:00 AM and 2:15 PM.
Please consider registering and/or spreading the word to your friends/colleagues.
We are thrilled to announce that the trials for this weekend’s Windy City Challenge have moved just one block away… to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
This is the first time since 2019 that the #EmpireFamily is hosting a competition in a courthouse.
The final week of Shooting Star Sunday before our Windy City Challenge can be read below, alongside a podcast from the National Constitution Center to continue our discussion on the Second Amendment.
We hope you enjoy this week’s #ShootingStarSunday!
What happens when a state’s desire to protect women from domestic violence leads to a law which, its detractors argue, violates the Second Amendment?
On our final #ShootingStarSunday before the Windy City Challenge, we see the impact of the Bruen decision and some of the confusion it has caused: states and citizens alike are re-assessing the constitutionality of laws that have been on the books, sometimes for decades, that placed restrictions on gun ownership.
In U.S. v. Rahimi, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down as unconstitutional a decades-old law barring people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms. This case feels particularly real to us, as #EmpireMockTrial’s own Sania Khan was the victim of domestic gun violence last year.
This decision was published, as we were working on this year’s case. Learn more about U.S. v. Rahimi here from the National Constitution Center (also available on Apple podcasts and Spo
tify).
This week’s Shooting Star Sunday can be read below, alongside a Rosen podcast to continue our discussion on the Second Amendment.
We hope you enjoy this week’s #ShootingStarSunday!
On our inaugural #ShootingStarSunday, we shared the More Perfect podcast, which walked us through the text of the Second Amendment, its history as a forgotten Amendment, the reasons it became debated again in the mid to late 20th century, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to finally take a Second Amendment case in 2008 w/ U.S. v. Heller.
That sets the stage for today’s podcast: the Supreme Court’s 2012 opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, which is at the center of this year’s Pre-Trial Oral Argument.
Listen to how Jeffery Rosen and the National Constitution Center (a non-partisan organization chartered by Congress to promote an understanding of the Constitution) discuss the issues.
Did anything surprise you? Did you learn anything that can be applied to this year’s case? We hope you enjoy!
This week’s Shooting Star Sunday can be read below, alongside a More Perfect Podcast to introduce the Second Amendment.
We hope you enjoy this week’s #ShootingStarSunday!
What happens when you combine an unspeakable human tragedy with a fiercely debated constitutional right? You get the backdrop of the #2023Empire Case.
Since 2016, Empire has written original cases for students to litigate. From mass incarceration to defamation, we ask students to contemplate issues that often dominate our public discourse and are incredibly difficult to resolve. These issues extend well beyond the students’ closing arguments.
#ShootingStarSunday is Empire’s latest effort to enhance our students’ #EmpireExperience by providing engaging content to supplement the 2023 Empire case. This will come in the form of podcasts, articles, and even guest speakers. Throughout it all, we want to hear #YourVoice—what questions do you have about the issues that underlie the fact pattern? What would you like to learn more about?
It is no secret why we selected this year’s case topic, which is a lawsuit against a gun store. As we think about gun violence and what makes it so shocking - we realize that it is that it’s such a uniquely American problem. As a result, we chose this year’s case because it spotlights a lawsuit against a gun store. “In 2019, the number of US deaths from gun violence was about 4 per 100,000 people. That’s 18 times the average rate in other developed countries. Multiple studies show access to guns contributes to higher firearm-related homicide rates.” Ref: Read this article from BBC.
With these metrics in mind, we chose to pursue a case that explores the Second Amendment. Not only is gun violence responsible for so many (senseless) deaths in the United States each year (there have already been 472 mass shootings this year according to the Gun Violence Archive), but the reaction after these tragic incidents is typically the same: one part of the population fervently demands gun regulation, while another opposes any restriction as an infringement on an individual’s Second Amendment rights.
I’m sure this makes many of you feel sad, confused, and maybe even powerless at times—asking yourself why this keeps happening in a developed nation, like the U.S.
Understanding the history and current state of the Second Amendment is crucial to beginning to make sense of the tension between gun rights and gun regulation in the U.S.
On our first #ShootingStarSunday, we’re introducing you to the Second Amendment with the More Perfect podcast, produced by WNYC Studios. This week’s podcast discusses the Amendment's evolution from the Founding through the U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 decision in Heller. This foundation will help us dive deeper into U.S. v. Bruen next week, the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that established the current history and tradition test for determining whether laws regulating firearms are Constitutional under the Second Amendment.
As you listen to this podcast, what’s one thing you learned? What’s one thing that surprised you?
We hope you enjoy this week’s #ShootingStarSunday!
“Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Empire Mock Trial. This material is being disseminated for education purposes and to provide additional history and viewpoints for the arguments presented in this year’s mock trial case.
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The 2023 Empire Case is Here!
An Introduction from the Case Committee Chairs
The Digital Courtroom is Back!
We’re Looking for Social Media Content Creators!
Empire’s Jason Stanford Receives Northwestern Outstanding Educator Award
Priority Application Deadline for 2023 Empire Season is June 23
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