Emily May '13 wins Hardt Cup

April 15, 2011Duke Law News

Emily May has won the Hardt Cup moot court competition for first year law students. May and co-finalist Elle Gilley argued a Fourth Amendment case before a three-judge panel on April 14.

The panel consisted of Chief Judge Louise W. Flanagan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Judge Richard Mark Gergel '75 of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, and Justice Paul Martin Newby, Associate Justice for the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The students argued a case in which the FBI placed a GPS monitoring device on a suspect’s vehicle during a narcotics investigation. Their arguments focused on whether or not drivers have a reasonable expectation of privacy on public roadways such that remote GPS monitoring and computerized aggregation of the collected data constitutes a search requiring a warrant under the Fourth Amendment.

The Hardt Cup involved 500 competitive rounds conducted over a three-week period; 242 students participated in Round 1 with 169 choosing to compete in the second and third rounds. The top eight argued in the quarterfinals, with four moving to the semifinal rounds. Faculty and practitioners, including a number of alumni, heard arguments in both rounds.

Students with the top 25 scores in the tournament were invited to join the Moot Court Board.
Emily May '13, winner of the Hardt Cup moot court competition, with co-finalist Elle Gilley '13.