Chief Justice Ponders ‘Choose KKK’ License Plates in Moot Court Case
University of Florida law student Cary Aronovitz was only about a minute into his moot court argument when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. interrupted him with a question.
Aronovitz said he had anticipated the question, although it was a difficult one that he didn’t want to answer, FlaLaw Online reports. “I got it out of my mouth, I saw him nodding, and that was a big confidence booster,” he said.
Roberts helped judge the competition along with three judges from the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “The competition had the feel of a sporting event mixed with an upper-crust theater production,” the Gainesville Sun reported. Roberts’ appearance was the first time that a sitting chief justice had visited the university.
The students discussed First Amendment questions raised by “Choose Life” license plates. The justices posed “a dizzying array of questions,” the Sun story says. The issues included whether the license plates constituted government speech and whether a $25 charge for plates should be considered a tax, the Independent Florida Alligator reports.
Roberts spun a series of hypotheticals, asking if the state has to allow plates that say “Choose the KKK” or “The Surgeon General is wrong. Choose to smoke.”
At one point Roberts took a playful jab at his fellow moot court judges when Aronovitz was discussing appellate cases during his argument. “We’re not bound, of course, by what the circuit courts have to say,” Roberts said. “We don’t pay much attention to them.”
The winner of best overall participant was Ocala native Robert Davis. “It’s a great honor, but at this point, I’m just glad I didn’t fall over,” he told FlaLaw Online. Aronovitz won for the best brief and best oral argument.
Davis learned that he had made the moot court finals while drinking a milkshake at Steak ’n Shake, the Ocala Star Banner reports in a profile. He became interested in the law while interning for an Ocala congressman.
