On May 1, 2025, the Harlan Institute held the championship round for the 13th Annual Virtual Supreme Court competition. The top two teams presented oral argument at the Georgetown Supreme Court Institute in the case of Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. Presiding were Judge Neomi Rao (U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit), Judge Royce Lamberth (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia), and Judge Matthew Solomson (U.S. Court of Federal Claims).
Noah Ha and Liam Aranda-Michel from Lake Oswego High School in Oregon represented the Petitioner. Lauren Hohlt & Caroline Ready from Creekview High School in Texas represented the Respondent. After a well-argued round, the judges selected the Respondents as the Champions, with Caroline Ready as best oralist.
You can watch the round here:
We are pleased to share these comments from our participants: