Marianas High School students Jenny Zhang, Julia Taitano, Princes Habal and Yejin Son pose with judicial officials, CNMI judiciary and Public School System staff after the completion of the 2023 High School Moot Court Competition finals on Thursday at Guma Hustisia.
Competitors, justices, judgers judiciary and Public School System staff pose at the conclusion of the 2023 High School Moot Court Competition on Thursday at Guma Hustisia.
MARIANAS High School juniors Princes Habal and Julia Taitano won the 2023 High School Moot Court Competition by besting 16 other students from MHS, Saipan International School, and Dr. Rita Hocog Inos High School.
The competition was held at the Guma Hustisia in Susupe on Dec. 6-7.
The final round of competition saw Habal and Taitano going up against fellow MHS Dolphins Jenny Zhang and Yejin Son.
Unlike the mock trial competition, the moot court competition deals with appellate cases.
This year, moot court participants had to argue either as appellants or appellees in the case of Kenneth Sablan v Anatahan High School.
In the fictional case, Sablan is a high school student who was expelled from Anatahan High School after a school official discovered an antique fishing spear during a search of his truck without valid consent.
For the competition, students wrote legal briefs and then made oral arguments regarding two legal questions: whether or not the search violated the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and whether or not the spear was a deadly or dangerous weapon.
In the finals, Habal, Taitano, Zhang and Son took turns presenting their oral arguments to Chief Justice Alexandro C. Castro, Justice John A. Manglona, Justice Perry B. Inos, District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona, and Magistrate Judge Heather L. Kennedy.
The justices and judges asked the student competitors to clarify their reasoning and arguments. The justices and judges also sought further details based on information provided to them in the students’ legal briefs.
Habal said she and Taitano had spent 10 weeks preparing for their case. “We would meet on weekends, school days, during school lunches, after school — basically any chance we could get that could fit into our schedules so we could have extra practice time for this,” Habal told Variety. “It paid off.”
Habal said although the preliminary and semi-final rounds prepared her for the finals, the last round was “the most brutal…by far.”
Taitano agreed, saying the finals were intense.
“Today when I walked up there, they [the justices and judges] just bombarded me with questions, and I didn’t have a chance to look down [at my notes],” Taitano said. “The fact that I was able to present all that information — I was surprised with myself.”
Nathan Ford, a law clerk who helped organize the event with his colleagues Paige Lehman and Patrick Quimby, said Habal and Taitano have earned the right to represent the CNMI in the national moot court competition at UC Santa Barbara in 2024.
Ford said they already have the tournament case from the organizers in the states. Habal and Taitano will have around 400 pages of legal materials to read as they prepare for the competition, which is set for March.
Ford said he and others from the CNMI judiciary will help Habal and Taitano prepare.
