Brown v. Board of Education: Moot Court

The United States Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education was a monumental case in American history for citizens of this country. In todays class, two teams presented their cases on behalf of Brown and on behalf of the Topeka Board of Education, reenacting this historical case in todays 2016 classroom.

The first arguments were presented by the side or Brown. The team presented five arguments mainly focused on legal grounds, siting the 1875 Civil Rights Act, the Fourteenth Amendment, more specifically the Equal Protection Clause present in the Fourteenth Amendment, and two of the four prior court cases that dealt with the same subject, these cases were Briggs v. Elliott and Gebhart v. Belton.

Ms. Ouayoro presents her arguments for team Board of Education

The second team presented arguments that supported the prior ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson which established to idea of "separate but equal". Instead of focusing on legal arguments, the team representing the Board of Education focused more on moral and ethical views of the situation. They argued for the safety of African-American students, which might be more intently persecuted by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan or by the white population of the newly integrated schools. The team also argued that instead of achieving integration as soon as possible, the government should "go slow" and focus on improving the conditions of black schools so that they may be up to par with the white schools. The team stated in their reasoning that if black students were integrated into white schools they would fall behind due to their prior education being less intellectual than the education received
by white students.  They also argued a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality, saying that the educational system is fine how it is. The one legal argument presented by the Board of Education team pertained to the Equal Protection Clause, claiming that equal protection is only applicable to people as a whole, individuals will never truly be equal, that is the circumstance of life.

In all, both teams presented well thought out arguments. However, due to this being a court case, emotion and opinion based arguments fall to legal facts, resulting in the win going to the team representing Brown.