New Jersey Jewish News
New Jersey News Story

Groups launch alternative to high school competition

by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

They both objected when a national sponsor of a high school mock trial competition refused to accommodate the needs of Shabbat-observant participants.

Now lawyers’ associations in New Jersey and North Carolina have launched their own competition. The American Mock Trial Invitational will be held on the campus of the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill from Monday to Wednesday, May 15-17. It will include up to 16 teams and promises to accommodate team members’ religious needs.

AMTI was created and is cosponsored by the NJ State Bar Foundation and the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers as an alternative to the National High School Mock Trial Championship. New Jersey and North Carolina both withdrew from that competition when its board announced last fall that it would not allow schedule adjustments to accommodate religious observance.

“Obviously, the preferred outcome would have been if the National Mock Trial Association would have allowed adjustments for religious observance,” said Angela Scheck, NJ State Bar Association executive director. “But we always had in our minds that if we ended up pulling out, we would set up an alternative…. When North Carolina pulled out, we joined with them to create a whole new program.”

John J. Henschel, president of the NJ State Bar Foundation, and Richard M. Taylor, CEO of the NC Academy of Trial Lawyers, issued a joint letter inviting state finalists to participate in AMTI. The letter says that the scheduling policy of the National High School Mock Trial Championship “does not reflect the values of fairness and tolerance that educators and the legal profession wish to encourage among student competitors.”

So far, nine other states have expressed preliminary interest in participating.

“We didn’t have any expectations, but nine states interested this early on — we were really pleased,” said Scheck.

Forty teams have expressed interest in the National High School Mock Trial championship, according to its board chair, Jim Wheeler. That competition will be held this year May 11-13 in Oklahoma City.

Wheeler offered a bittersweet lauding of the creation of the alternative competition. “I hate that two states have dropped out, but I’m pleased they found another avenue for kids in New Jersey and North Carolina to participate. It’s unfortunate that it’s come to this, but…we are at an impasse.” Wheeler said he remains hopeful that a more “creative” solution will be found to resolve the dispute, although he could not say how. He added that every time the board meets, the issue comes up. “I’m still optimistic that we will be able to work this out and that we’ll welcome the kids [from New Jersey and North Carolina] to Dallas next year.”

When it served as host of the National Mock Trial Association competition last May, North Carolina made accommodations for a team from Torah Academy, a Bergen County yeshiva, which had been scheduled to compete on the Jewish Sabbath. The competition’s national board subsequently decided going forward it would not allow such accommodations again, citing issues of fair play and scheduling. That decision set off a dispute that resulted in the withdrawal of North Carolina and New Jersey.

Scheck pointed out that religious accommodations affect a variety of groups and is an issue that is not going away. Already this year, she said, the NJ bar offered accommodations in the regional competition for a winning team from a Middlesex County Muslim school (which, however, will not advance to national competition this year).

“This affects a lot of kids of different religions, and the issue will continue to exist,” said Scheck. “Unless a program like [AMTI] exists, those kids would not have an option [to compete].”

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