BYU Law students work on case to be argued at the U.S. Supreme Court

A group of second- and third-year law students at BYU are getting the rare opportunity to participate in litigation before the Supreme Court of the United States after their professor was appointed by the Court to be the attorney in a case to be argued this fall.

Professor RonNell Andersen Jones, who clerked at the Court for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, is co-counsel in the case of Kucana v. Holder.  The Court agreed to hear the case last spring, and Professor Jones has joined with Professor Amanda Leiter—another former Supreme Court clerk who is now at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.—to litigate the case.

“Because both of the attorneys acting as counsel in the case are legal academics, it presented the unique and exciting chance for law students to serve as the equivalent of junior associates in the matter,” Jones said. “It was an absolute win-win situation.  This is the sort of experience I would have loved to have had when I was a law student, so I felt like I was giving them something quite amazing.  But I also have been very lucky to have such high-quality students to help with the work. ”

Jones says that over the course of the last two months, a total of seven students have assisted her in preparing the merits brief that was just filed with the Court.

“These students were involved in every stage of the process,” Jones said. “They performed invaluable research, digging into the history of several legislative enactments, finding cases in support of arguments, and editing the brief for style and substance.  They were hard-working and incredibly dedicated to thinking through the issues and contributing meaningfully to the case.  There are arguments in this brief that are entirely attributable to the great work of BYU students.”

One student who worked on the project, Stephanie Barclay, found the research demanding, but was delighted to see how it all came together—her own contributions included. 

“The most rewarding part of the process was getting to read the finished product of the brief,” Barclay said.  “It was exciting to see every now and again a quote I had found or an argument I had helped with mixed in with the incredible work of Professor Jones and Professor Leiter.”

Jones said she was pleased to see the ways in which the work on the case overlapped with students’ educational experiences at law school.

“The issue in this case is one of statutory interpretation,” she said. “The Supreme Court is being asked to decide between two readings of a particular piece of legislative text.  Many of the students who have been serving as research assistants on the case are enrolled in my Legislation class this semester, and I think they are seeing the ways in which the legal principles that we are studying in class play out in the real world.  It’s very exciting as a teacher to be able to put meat on the bones of the doctrine in that way.”

Megan Grant, one of Professor Jones’s students and research assistants, said that doing research and coming up with arguments in this case gave her a better understanding of the judicial process and of the breadth of information courts take into consideration when deciding a case. 

“This really helped me understand better not only the legislative process itself,” Grant said, “but what courts take into account when they are faced with a statutory interpretation.”

This Friday, October 16, the students will join Professors Jones and Leiter for a moot court in preparation for the oral argument in the case. Nine former law clerks from the United States Supreme Court will play the roles of the nine Justices of the Court and offer feedback in a practice argument setting.  It will begin at 3pm in JRCB 303, and faculty and student ID will be required and will be checked at the door.  The argument itself will be in the second week of November, and Jones said a few of the students are making the trip to Washington, D.C. to watch as the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court hear the case on which they worked.

“I’m so proud of their accomplishments on this case,” Jones said. “They have done something few lawyers get to do in all their years of practice, and have done a splendid job of it.”