OAD’s Seventeenth Annual First Monday in October
OAD’s seventeenth annual First Monday in October will take place on Monday, October 4, 2010, at 6:00 p.m. at New York University School of Law.
Since 1994, the Office of the Appellate Defender (OAD) has hosted the annual First Monday in October – both a vitally important fundraiser for OAD and a lively and informative legal argument. After a gala cocktail reception, two of the nation’s most acclaimed lawyers will argue a contemporary constitutional issue before our Mock United States Supreme Court.
This year, The Honorable Judith S. Kaye, former Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals and now with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, will take the bench again, as our Chief Justice. E. Joshua Rosenkranz, of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, and Herbert M. Wachtell, of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, this year’s recipients of OAD’s Gould Award, will be the evening’s Advocates.
OAD’s 2010 Mock Supreme Court will tackle the timely and provocative questions presented by Snyder v. Phelps, based on an actual case to be heard during the Supreme Court’s 2010 Term. Snyder pits the First Amendment rights of protestors against the rights of individuals to be free from unwanted demonstrations and defamatory remarks. The protestors at issue are members of a small Kansas church that conducts anti-gay protests at funerals of American soldiers. They were sued for defamation by the father of a soldier killed in action in 2006 when they demonstrated at the soldier’s funeral. The protestors, who assert that the deaths of American soldiers are “punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality,” demonstrated at the funeral with signs reading “God Hates the USA/Thank God for 9/11,” “Semper Fi Fags,” “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.”