Competition winners
on Jul 1, 2014 at 11:18 am
The Supreme Court’s reversals last week in American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo and Riley v. California are sure to have ramifications for cable companies, TV watchers, police departments, and cellphone users, but we will only know the exact aftermath of those decisions in time. For the nearly fifty student teams competing in the 2014 Supreme Court Challenge (co-sponsored by SCOTUSblog and Bloomberg Law) for their share of up to $10,000, the consequences are obvious: the competition is over and prizes will soon be awarded.
Many congratulations to In Merit the Win from Capital University Law School, who triumphed among the student teams and came in second only to Tom, who picked for SCOTUSblog. Managing to stay at least in the top ten of the standings for the whole competition, the team jumped from eighth place to second to the top sport in the last two weeks of the Term. The full list of winners from this year’s competition is below and in the side panel; complete standings are available here.
First Place ($3,500 prize): In Merit the Win, Capital University Law School
Second Place ($1,500 prize): Please Dont Emanate in the Penumbras, Georgetown University Law Center
Third Place ($1,000 prize): The Federalists, St. John’s University School of Law
West ($200 prize): I Respectfully Dissent, University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law
Northeast ($200 prize): TheDoomfactoryAnnhilators, Cornell University Law School
South ($200 prize): The Blackmun Boys, Florida International College of Law
Midwest ($200): tortfeasors and crowd pleasers, Washburn University School of Law
Mid-Atlantic ($200): Team Maryam, University of North Carolina School of Law
Looking at the student predictions on average (which I did here), the wisdom of the crowds proved itself once again. Had a team followed the average predictions of all the teams together, it would have found itself solidly in the top ten of the final results.
In total, this year’s competition involved six cert. petitions and six merits cases to be considered or argued in April. The Court granted cert. in Heien v. North Carolina and denied review in Simmons v. Sabine River Authority of Louisiana, Drake v. Jerejian, Galloway v. Mississippi, James v. United States, and Morris v. George. The Court affirmed the lower court in Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital and reversed in Limelight Networks, Inc. v. Akamai Technologies, Inc., Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., and Riley v. California.
