The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing.
2025 Brown Award Winners
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Dennis J. Wieboldt III | First Place
School: Notre Dame Law School
Essay: (Strict) Scrutinizing Regulatory Exemptions: The Dormant Commerce Clause’s Lessons for Litigating Our “Most Favored Right
Sponsored by: Richard W. Garnett, Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corp. Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School
Award: $15,000, also $5,000 to the scholarship fund selected by the Dean of Notre Dame Law School
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Courtney C. Douglas | Second Place
School: University of Virginia School of Law
Essay: First Amendment Independent Appellate Review’s Overlooked Origin Story
Sponsored by: Leslie Kendrik, Dean and Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Award: $7,500
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Elliot A. Mermel | Third Place
School: Washington University in St. Louis Law School
Essay: The Evolution of Standing and the Need for Foundational Realism: A Historical Inquiry from Hayburn to Harvard
Sponsored by: Russell K. Osgood, Professor, Washington University in St. Louis Law School
Award: $5,000
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Bradesha Carter | Finalist
School: Southern University Law Center
Essay: The Future of Law: Navigating Constitutional Interpretation, Corporate Power, and Emerging Technologies in a Rapidly Changing World
Sponsored by: Murphy Bell, Professor, Southern University Law Center
Award: $2,500
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Max Kuhelj Bugaric | Finalist
School: Harvard Law School
Essay: Raphael Fulgosius on Just War: Papal Adjudication of Conflicts and War as Judgment
Sponsored by: Bruce H. Mann, Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Award: $2,500
2024 Brown Award Winners
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Jack Ferguson | First Place
School: Notre Dame Law School
Essay: The Ciceronian Origins of American Law and Constitutionalism
Sponsored by: Jeffrey A. Pojanowski, Biolchini Family Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Award: $15,000, plus a donation of $5,000 to the Scholarship Fund selected by the Dean of the Law School
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Drake Broussard | Second Place
School: Penn State Law
Essay: Streaming, It’s in the Game: Why Fair Use Should Protect Video Game Live-Streamers Using Copyrighted or Trademarked Content
Sponsored by: Geoffrey Scott, Professor of Law, Pennsylvania State University Law School
Award: $7,500
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George Sakkopoulos | Third Place
School: Georgetown Law
Essay: Section 2 of the Sherman Act: Unconstitutional Vagueness and What to Do About It
Sponsored by: Linda Jeng, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center
Award: $5,000
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Seumas Macneil | Finalist
School: Yale Law School
Essay: The Vertical Nondelegation Paradigm
Sponsored by: Nicholas Parrillo, William K. Townsend Professor of Law, Yale University Law School
Award: $2,500
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Evan Long-Quian | Finalist
School: University of Texas School of Law
Essay: The Conflict Between the Flag State Principle and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and how the DC Circuit Got It Wrong
Sponsored by: Michael F. Sturley, Fannie Coplin Regents Chair, University of Texas Law School
Award: $2,500
2023 Brown Award Winners
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Elodie Currier | First Place
School: Vanderbilt University Law School
Essay: The Myth of Anonymity: De-Identified Data as Legal Fiction
Recommended by: Lisa Schultz Bressman, Associate Dean, Vanderbilt Law School
Award: $15,000, plus a donation of $5,000 to the Scholarship Fund selected by the Dean of Vanderbilt Law School
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Matthew Wurst | Second Place
School: University of Texas School of Law
Essay: Collapsing Admiralty’s Jurisdictional and Choice of Law Tests
Recommended by: Michael Sturley, Professor, University of Texas Law School
Award: $7,500
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Jack Ferguson | Third Place
School: Notre Dame Law School
Essay: Severability and Standing Puzzles in the Law of Removal Power
Recommended by: William K. Kelley, Professor, Notre Dame Law School
Award: $5,000
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George Sakkopoulos | Finalist
School: Georgetown University Law Center
Essay: The Right to Refuse to Deal, the Essential Facilities Doctrine, and the Digital Economy
Recommended by: Linda Jeng, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, Senior Lecturing Fellow, Duke Law School
Award: $2,500
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E. Reed Ferguson | Finalist
School: University of Georgia School of Law
Essay: “Traditional Notions” in the Modern Age: Reassessing Keeton Through a Post-Bristol-Myers Lens
Recommended by: Dean Peter B. Rutledge, University of Georgia School of Law
Award: $2,500
2022 Brown Award Winners
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Samantha Thompson | First Place
School: Duquesne University School of Law
Essay: Arbitration Prime: Amazon's Utility Patient Evaluation Process and Its Influence on the Private Resolution of Patent Disputes
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Christopher Baldacci | Second Place
School: University of Virginia School of Law
Essay: The Common Law of Interpretation
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Kirsten Williams | Third Place
School: University of Houston Law Center
Essay: The Impact of Foresight: Reframing Discriminatory Intent to Properly Remedy Environmental Racism
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Jessica Wollum | Finalist
School: Wake Forest University Law School
Essay: Pluralism Boundaries When Rights Clash in the Culture Wars
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Gabriel J. Rudin | Finalist
School: University of Colorado School of Law
Essay: Walling Off Privacy: Apple's NeuralHash Controversy, the ECPA, the Fourth Amendment, and Encryption
2021 Brown Award Winners
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Zachary B. Pohlman | First Place
School: Notre Dame Law School
Sponsored by: Jeffrey Pojanowski, Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School
Essay: State Statutory Interpretation and Horizontal Choice of Law
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Gavriel A. Schreiber | Second Place
School: Harvard Law School
Essay: Recent Case: Colorado Department of Labor & Employment v. Dami Hospitality, LLC
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Patrick Warczak, Jr. | Third Place
School: University of Akron School of Law
Essay: The War on Bribes: The FCPA and the Global Battle to End Corruption
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Madeeha Dean | Finalist
School: UC Berkeley School of Law
Essay: An Environmental FOIA: Balancing Trade Secrecy with the Public’s Right to Know
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Zachary R. Carstens | Finalist
School: Pepperdine University School of Law
Essay: The Right to Conscience vs. The Right to Die: Physician-Assisted Suicide, Catholic Hospitals, and the Rising Threat to Institutional Free Exercise in Healthcare
2020 Brown Award Winners
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Justin W. Aimonetti | First Place
School: University of Virginia School of Law
Sponsored by: Professor Caleb Nelson, University of Virginia School of Law
Essay: Confining Custody
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Ben Miller-Gootnick | Second Place
School: Harvard Law School
Sponsored by: Professor Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School
Essay: How the House Sues
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Ashley Mullen | Third Place
School: Cornell University Law School
Sponsored by: Professor Muna Ndulo, Cornell Law School
Essay: International Cultural Heritage Law: The Link Between Cultural Nationalism, Internationalism, and the Concept of Cultural Genocide
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Zachary B. Pohlman | Finalist
School: Notre Dame Law School
Sponsored by: Professor Elizabeth White Dietz, Notre Dame Law School
Essay: Stare Decisis and the Supreme Court(s): What States Can Learn from Gamble
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Tyler B. Lindley | Finalist
School: University of Chicago Law School
Sponsored by: Professor Aziz Huq, The University of Chicago Law School
Essay: Clarifying and Reframing the “Ministerial Exception” by Tyler B. Lindley
2019 Brown Award Winners
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Mary Jane “MJ” Egan | First Place
School: George Mason University (Scalia) Law School
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Mary Kate Nicholson | Second Place
School: Washington & Lee University Law School
Essay: Left with No Name: How Government Action in Intra-Church Trademark Disputes Violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment
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Matthew A. Brown | Third Place
School: University of Akron School of Law
Sponsored by: Christopher J. (C.J.) Peters, Dean of UA School of Law
Essay: Masterpiece Cakeshop: A Formula for Legislative Accommodations of Religion
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Adam J. Kuegler | Finalist
School: University of Connecticut School of Law
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Kristin Kluding | Finalist
School: University of Houston Law Center
Sponsored by: Professor of Practice Denney Wright, UH Law Center
Essay: Oil-Rich and Out of Options: Venezuela’s International Arbitration Saga of Expropriation, Enforcement and Settlement
2018 Brown Award Winners
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Nicole K. Chipi | First Place
School: University of Miami School of Law
Essay: Eat Your Vitamins and Say Your Prayers: Bollea v. Gawker, Revenge Litigation Funding, and the Fate of the Fourth Estate
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Andrew G. Barna | Second Place
School: William & Mary University Law School
Essay: The Early Eight and the Future of Consumer Legal Activism to Fight Modern-Day Slavery in Corporate Supply Chains
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Christian F. Chessman | Third Place
School: UC Berkeley School of Law
Essay: A 'Source' of Error: Computer Code, Criminal Defendants, and the Confrontation Clause
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Andrew B.F. Carnabuci | Finalist
School: Quinnipiac University School of Law
Essay: Avoiding the Fate of Argos: The Duty of Pet Trust Protectors in Connecticut
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Alexander G. Andrews | Finalist
School: University of Connecticut School of Law
Essay: Lessons From Wynne: Why New York City's Internally Consistent Income Tax Nonetheless Violates the Dormant Commerce Clause
2017 Brown Award Winners
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Caroline Fish | First Place
School: St. John’s University School of Law
Sponsored by: Margaret E. McGuinness, St. John’s University School of Law
Essay: Extraterritorial Human Trafficking Prosecutions: Eliminating Zones of Impunity within the Limits of International Law and Due Process
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Alan M. Vester | Second Place
School: Washburn University School of Law
Sponsored by: David Rubenstein, Washburn University School of Law
Essay: Hybrid Immigration Preemption
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Christopher Michael Johnson | Third Place
School: University of Colorado School of Law
Sponsored by: Alexia Brunet Marks, University of Colorado Boulder
Essay: Ecotypes and Killer Whales: Adopting a Scientific Concept to Guide the Endangered Species Act’s “Distinct Population Segments
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David Berke | Finalist
School: Yale Law School
Sponsored by: Anne L. Alstott, Yale Law School
Essay: Reworking the Revolution: Treasury Rulemaking & Administrative Law
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Elisabeth Winston Lambert | Finalist
School: Marquette University Law School
Sponsored by: Michael O’Hear, Marquette University Law School
Essay: A Way Out of the “Rotten Social Background” Stalemate: “Scarcity” and Stephen Morse’s Proposed Generic Partial Excuse
2016 Brown Award Winners
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Nicholas D’Angelo | First Place
School: St. John’s University School of Law
Sponsored by: Professor Jane Scott
Essay: Emerging from Daimler’s Shadow: Regulation statutes as a Means to General Jurisdiction over Foreign Corporations
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Lindsey Lusk | Second Place
School: University of Illinois College of Law
Essay: The Poison of Propensity: How Character and Fitness Sacrifices the “Others” in the Name of “Protection”
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Yang Wang | Third Place
School: University of Houston Law Center
Essay: Incorporating the Third Branch of Government into U.S. National Security Review of Foreign Investment
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Crystal Etue | Finalist
School: Southern University Law Center
Essay: Johnson v. United States: A Breach in the Social Contract?
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Jean Phillip Shami | Finalist
School: University of Miami Law School
Essay: A Promise Realized? A Critical Review of Accountable Care Organizations since the Enactment of the Affordable Care Act
2015 Brown Award Winners
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Michael Clemente | First Place
School: Yale Law School
Essay: A Reassessment of Common Law Protections for ‘Idiots
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Daniel J. Hay | Second Place
School: Vanderbilt University Law School
Essay: Baptizing O'Brien: Towards Intermediate Protection of Religiously Motivated Expressive Conduct
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Alexander Bedrosyan | Third Place
School: University of Pennsylvania Law School
Essay: The Limitations of Tradition: How Modern Choice of Law Doctrine Can Help Courts Resolve Conflicts within the New York Convention and the Federal Arbitration Act
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Nicholas DiMarino | Finalist
School: St. John’s University School of Law
Essay: Cutting Out the Middleman: Why "Look and Feel" Should Be Ignored in Trade Dress Law
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Brynne C. Krause | Finalist
School: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
2014 Brown Award Winners
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Leanne Welds | First Place
School: Brooklyn Law School
Essay: Giving Local Municipalities the Power to Affect the National Securities Market: Why the Use of Eminent Domain to Take Mortgages Should Be Subject to Greater Regulation
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Stephen Mayer | Second Place
School: University of Michigan Law School
Essay: An Implausible Standard for Affirmative Defenses
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William Shotzbarger | Third Place
School: Syracuse University College of Law
Essay: Note, Business and Friendship Don’t Mix: The Government’s Expansion of Insider Trading Liability Under SEC Rule 10b5–2
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Smith Monson | Finalist
School: University of Utah College of Law
Essay: Treating the Blue Rash: Win-Win Solutions and Improving the Land Exchange Process
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Katherine M. Davis | Finalist
School: Emory University School of Law
Essay: I, Too, Sing America: Customary International Law for American State and Federal Courts’ Post-Kiobel Jurisprudence, Guided by Australian and Indian Experiences
2013 Brown Award Winners
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Marissa Doran | First Place
School: Yale Law School
Essay: Lawsuits as Information: Prisons, Courts, and a Troika Model of Petition Harms
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Anna Makowski | Second Place
School: University of Oregon School of Law
Essay: Beneath the Surface of the Clean Water Act: Exploring the Depth of the Act’s Jurisdictional Scope of Groundwater Pollution
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Jennifer Kent | Third Place
School: Boston College School of Law
Essay: Lien on Me: The Survival of Security Interests in Revenues from the Sale of an FCC License
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Kelsey B. Wilbanks | Finalist
School: George Mason University (Scalia) Law School
Essay: The Challenges of 3D Printing to the Repair-Reconstruction Doctrine in Patent Law
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Andrew Tutt | Finalist
School: Yale Law School
Essay: The Historical Foundations of Textual Treaty Interpretation
2012 Brown Award Winners
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Daniel S. Alterbaum | First Place
School: Yale Law School
Essay: Control Share Acts, Closed-End Funds, and the Battle for Corporate Control
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Katherine Mims Crocker | Second Place
School: University of Virginia School of Law
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Caitlin Young | Third Place
School: St. John’s University School of Law
Essay:
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William R. Gignilliat | Finalist
School: University of Georgia School of Law
Essay:
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Abdul Abdullahi | Finalist
School: University of Illinois College of Law
Essay:
2011 Brown Award Winners
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Briton Lucas | First Place
School: University of Virginia School of Law
Essay: Structural Exceptionalism and Comparative Constitutional Law
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Erin Shinneman | Second Place
School: Brooklyn School of Law
Essay: Owning Global Knowledge: The Rise of Open Innovation and the Future of Patent Law
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Amy D. Paul | Third Place
School: William & Mary University School of Law
Essay: Rethinking Oil Spill Compensation Schemes: The Causation Inquiry
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Elana A. Bertram | Finalist
School: Quinnipiac University School of Law
Essay: How Current Informed Consent Protocols Flunk the Sham Surgery Test: A New Frontier in Medicine and Ethics
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Andrew M. Reeves | Finalist
School: University of Arizona College of Law
Essay: Solar Energy's Cloudy Future
2010 Brown Award Winners
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James L. Lovsin | First Place
School: University of Illinois College of Law
Essay: A Constitutional Door Ajar: Applying the Ex Parte Young Doctrine to Declaratory Judgment Actions Seeking State Patent Invalidty
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David K. Roberts | Second Place
School: University of Illinois College of Law
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Nicholas R. Alioto | Third Place
School: St. John’s University School of Law
Essay: Unreasonable Differences: The Dispute Regarding the Application of Terry Stops to Completed Misdemeanor Crimes
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Rachel E. Green | Finalist
School: Brooklyn Law School
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Richard W. Barrett | Finalist
School: Valparaiso University Law School
Essay: Elephant in the Boardroom?: Counting the Vote in Corporate Elections
2009 Brown Award Winners
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Dalie Jimenez | First Place
School: Harvard Law School
Essay: The Distribution of Assets in Consumer Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Cases
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Michael L. Brooks | Second Place
School: University of Illinois College of Law
Essay: Uncharted Waters: The Supreme Court Plots the Court to a Constitutional Bright‑Line Restriction on Punitive Awards in Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker
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Adam Gustafson | Third Place
School: Yale Law School
Essay: Presidential Inability and Subjective Meaning
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Matthew J. Cochran | Finalist
School: Campbell University Law School
Essay: A Fighting Chance for Outlaws: Strict Scrutiny of North Carolina's Felony Firearms Act (UNSURE)
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Jamie L. Wershbale | Finalist
School: Florida Coastal School of Law
2008 Brown Award Winners
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Patrick J. Charles | First Place
School: Cleveland-Marshall State University College of Law
Essay: 'Arms for Their Defence?': An Historical, Legal, and Textual Analysis of the English Right to Have Arms and Whether the Second Amendment should Be Incorporated in McDonald v. City of Chicago
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Christopher C. Anderson | Second Place
School: University of Illinois College of Law
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Margaret Ryznar | Third Place
School: Notre Dame Law School
Essay: Adult Rights as the Achilles’ Heel of the Best Interests Standard: Lessons in Family Law from Across the Pond
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Alexander B. Smith | Finalist
School: Arizona State University College of Law
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Evan Zucker | Finalist
School: St. John’s University School of Law
2007 Brown Award Winners
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James F. McDonough III | First Place
School: Emory University School of Law
Essay: The Myth of the Patent Troll: An Alternative View of the Function of Patent Dealers in an Idea Economy
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Yaakov M. Roth | Second Place
School: Harvard Law School
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Lani A. Perlman | Third Place
School: Fordham University School of Law
Essay: Guarding the Government’s Coffers: The Need for Competition Requirements to Safeguard Federal Government Procurement
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Travis M. Wheeler | Finalist
School: University of Arizona College of Law
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Scott A. Keller | Finalist
School: University of Texas School of Law
2006 Brown Award Winners
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Leslie Kendrick | First Place
School: University of Virginia School of Law
Essay: A Test for Criminally Instructional Speech
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Geoffrey Painter | Second Place
School: UC Berkeley School of Law
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Lucy C. Ferguson | Third Place
School: American University Washington College of Law
Essay: The Implications of Developmental Cognitive Research on "Evolving Standards of Decency" and the Imposition of the Death Penalty on Juveniles
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Jocelyn Simonson | Finalist
School: Harvard Law School
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Natalie Prescott | Finalist
School: Duke University Law School
2005 Brown Award Winners
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Ariel Lavinbuk | First Place
School: Yale Law School
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Laura K. Donohue | Second Place
School: Stanford University Law School
Essay: Terrorist Speech and the Future of Free Expression
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Sylvia Shaz Shweder | Third Place
School: Fordham University School of Law
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Jessica C. Kaiser | Finalist
School: Chicago Kent College of Law
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Teresa J. Lechner-Fish | Finalist
School: University of Houston Law Center
2004 Brown Award Winners
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Theis Boesling | First Place
School: California Western School of Law
Essay: Securing Trademark Protection in a Global Economy – The United States’ Accession to the Madrid Protocol
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Angela N. Petrucci | Second Place
School: Notre Dame Law School
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William C. Brooks | Third Place
School: University of Texas School of Law
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Jessica Owley, Ph.D. | Finalist
School: UC Berkeley Law School
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Susan Turcotte | Finalist
School: University of Houston Law Center
2003 Brown Award Winners
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B. J. Huey | First Place
School: Texas Tech University School of Law
Essay: Undue Hardship or Undue Burden: Has the Time Finally Arrived for Congress to Discharge Section 523 (a)(8) of the Bankruptcy Code
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Alexandra G. White | Second Place
School: Louisiana State University Law Center
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Raj S. Dave | Third Place
School: George Washington University School of Law
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Andrew E. Goldsmith | Finalist
School: Harvard Law School
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Jon L. Lambiras | Finalist
School: Pepperdine University School of Law
Essay: White-Collar Crime: Why The Sentencing Disparity Despite Uniform Guidelines?
2002 Brown Award Winners
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Randall Baldwin Clark, Ph.D. | First Place
School: University of Virginia School of Law
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Christopher T. Leahy | Second Place
School: University of Pennsylvania Law School
Essay: The First Amendment Gone Awry: City of Erie v. Pap's A.M., Secondary Effects, and the Runaway Suppression
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Benjamin A. Bednark | Third Place
School: University of Minnesota Law School
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Kerstin Sjoberg-Witt | Finalist
School: Harvard Law School
2001 Brown Award Winners
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A. Benjamin Spencer | First Place
School: Harvard Law School
Essay: Antitrust and the Information Age: Section 2 Monopolization Analyses in the New Economy
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Michael L. Skoglund | Second Place
School: University of Minnesota Law School
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Corey Elisabeth Burnham | Third Place
School: University of Connecticut School of Law
2000 Brown Award Winner
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Amy Sandefer | First Place
School: University of Minnesota Law School
1999 Brown Award Winner
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Brian D. Wassom | First Place
School: Case Western Reserve University School of Law
1998 Brown Award Winners
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Mitchell Wong | First Place
School: Cornell University Law School
Essay: The Aesthetic Functionality Doctrine and the Law of Trade Dress Infringement
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Christine Peaslee | Second Place
School: Western New England Law School
Essay: Constitutional Law - Action for Children's Television v. FCC: Indecency Fines and the Broadcast Medium - When Subsequent Punishments Become Prior Restraints; A Subsequent Restraint Review
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Jennifer Gladieux | Third Place
School: George Mason University (Scalia) Law School
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Edward B. Miller | Finalist
School: University of Virginia School of Law
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Edward Albert Torpoco | Finalist
School: Harvard Law School
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Victor Wright | Finalist
School: University of Houston Law Center
1997 Brown Award Winners
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Joseph A. Kuiper | First Place
School: University of Illinois College of Law
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Jill R. Horwitz | Second Place
School: Harvard Law School
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John K. Edwards | Third Place
School: University of Houston Law Center
Essay: A Prisoner’s Threshold for Procedural Due Process After Sandin v. Connor: Conservative Activism or Legitimate Compromise?
1996 Brown Award Winners
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Katherine P. Blakey | First Place
School: Notre Dame Law School
Essay: The Indefinite Civil Commitment of Dangerous Sex Offenders Is an Appropriate Legal Compromise Between "Mad" and "Bad'---A Study of Minnesota's Sexual Psychopathic Personality Statute
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William Kummel | Second Place
School: Georgetown University Law Center
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Kenneth Regensburg | Third Place
School: Cornell University Law School
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Stephen Knight | Finalist
School: UC Law San Francisco (Hastings)
Essay: Proposition 187 and International Human Rights Law: Illegal Discrimination in the Right to Education
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Jay Michaelson | Finalist
School: Yale Law School
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Stephen H. McClain | Finalist
School: Notre Dame Law School
1995 Brown Award Winners
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Thomas C. Goldstein | First Place
School: American University Washington College of Law
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Mark I. Koffsky | Second Place
School: Columbia University Law School
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Doug Waymire | Third Place
School: Toledo University College of Law
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J. David Rowe | Finalist
School: University of Texas School of Law
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Steven Siegel | Finalist
School: New York University School of Law
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Gregg F. LoCascio | Finalist
School: Notre Dame Law School
1994 Brown Award Winner
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Michael R. Phillips | First Place
School: University of Michigan Law School
Essay: Constitutionality of Employer Accessible Child Abuse Registries