By Alexa Lopez

The UC Santa Barbara Moot Court team has become the first in recent Moot Court history to have won the National Tournament for Brief-Writing three years in a row, most recently in mid-January. To top it off, UCSB’s is a student-run team—not common within the national Moot Court Association.

Moot Court, an independent student group, simulates Supreme Court hearings as participants create arguments for constitutional issues presented in a fictional case.

Each year, the UCSB Moot Court team presents its oral arguments for both sides of a new case at a national competition. Written versions of these arguments are also submitted for the brief-writing section. The UCSB team was among just a handful of student-run teams to qualify and attend the Moot Court National Tournament this past January.

“We’ve been inserting ourselves into the Moot Court circuit, which previously was mostly run by faculty-led universities on the East Coast and the Midwest,” said Joshua Cenzano, UCSB Moot Court’s president and a third-year Slavic Studies and History student. “We like the fact that we are student-run. We think it keeps us more transient, more adaptable and we intend to continue to be student-run.”

UCSB’s moot court team was founded in 2019 and has been competing since then within the American Moot Court Association (AMCA). The team is made up of approximately 20 undergraduate students with majors that include political science, biology, history, and more. They use their different backgrounds to work together and produce innovative and compelling arguments to present at the Nationals.

In sub-teams of two, six UCSB Moot Court pairs qualified for the national tournament at Louisiana State University. Cenzano and Faiz Surani, a fourth-year computer science major, won the national title in Brief-Writing. Gina Kim, a third-year history of public policy and law major, and Sean Ignatuk, a third-year political science major, also placed 3rd in Oral Argument —a new record for UCSB. With only a few other pairs placing in the national rankings, UCSB’s Moot Court team was ranked in the top 16% of competitors across the nation.

Although the team has a faculty advisor, Writing Program faculty member Gina Genova, the students in Moot Court manage all daily activities such as establishing meetings, preparing members for competitions, and handling finances, making it a student-run program. UCSB is one of the few successful student-run moot court organizations in the country.

In prior years, cases have addressed whether a wedding decorator can deny service to a gay couple, whether the government can examine phone location data without a warrant, and if a federal vaccine mandate is allowed according to the Constitution.

Members of UCSB Moot Court’s team with awards they won at the National Tournament located at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, January 2023. Photo by Delaney Moss.

This year, the two cases concerend whether a juvenile who was convicted of second-degree attempted murder could receive a sentence of life with the possibility of parole after 50 years, and whether the police could use a high-tech flying drone to surveil a household for criminal activity.

When preparing for the 2023 Nationals, UCSB Moot Court’s co-captain Sean Ignatuk’s job was to facilitate discussions and generate topics to address at each meeting.

“We are not here to just win awards, but we are here to grow, develop, and learn, and I think that helps us win,” he said. “It fosters an environment that allows for more creativity and winning.”

UCSB’s Moot Court team starts preparing for Nationals in the summer by reviewing Supreme Court cases. With a workload similar to a four-unit class, students dedicate many hours to create arguments for the controversial fictional cases they are presented with. During the school year the team meets twice a week to participate in discussions and prepare for their oral arguments and brief-writing submissions.

In preparation for the National Tournament in 2024, UCSB Moot Court is recruiting new members this upcoming spring quarter 2023. The team is looking for hard-working undergraduate students of all majors to add onto the successful team and continue their legacy.

“Any major, any interest. Public-speaking, arguing, intelligent conversation— this is what we are,” Cenzano said.

Alexa Lopez is a fourth-year psychological and brain sciences major at UC Santa Barbara. She wrote this article for her Writing Program course, Digital Journalism.