Using the Law for What Matters: Education and Empowerment

It all started in August 2018: thirteen fellows from the University of New Mexico School of Law’s Chapter of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project descended on local public high schools that serve underrepresented youth with two goals in mind: teach weekly classes centered on civic education and constitutional rights, and train students to argue a moot court problem centered on the First and Fourth Amendments. By November, twenty-eight of these high school students poured into the law school with family, friends, and classroom teachers to compete against one another in the regional moot court competition. After four rounds of arguments before law professors, local judges, and attorneys, four finalists were selected to represent UNM’s chapter at the national competition in Washington, DC: Astrea Baca of DATA High School, and Andy Padilla, Naomi Perez and José Ronquillo Tena, each of South Valley Academy.