The American Constitution Society for Law & Policy is proud to announce the dedication of its national moot court competition in constitutional law to the late Judge Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005). The competition is now named The American Constitution Society’s Constance Baker Motley National Moot Court Competition in Constitutional Law. According to Julian Bond, Chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors, “In a distinguished legal career, Judge Constance Baker Motley broke down barriers almost every day. She participated in the NAACP's most important cases. Her legal brilliance illuminated many dark courtrooms where justice was denied and let its light shine in." In this inaugural year, the competition's problem deals with the constitutionality of felony disfranchisement. The preliminary rounds of the competition will be held at Columbia Law School, March 4-5, 2006, in New York, NY. The final round of the competition will take place on June 15, 2006 at the ACS National Convention in Washington, DC.

Judge Motley, class of 1946, was a distinguished alumna of Columbia Law School. For many years, she was a prominent advocate with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. With her LDF colleagues, Judge Motley fought segregation throughout the South and won nine of the ten cases that she argued before the Supreme Court. Judge Motley was the first African-American woman to serve in the New York State Senate and the first woman elected President of the Borough of Manhattan. In 1966, Judge Motley became the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary when she joined the Southern District of New York at the behest of President Lyndon Johnson. In 1982, she became the first woman, and the first African-American woman, to serve as Chief Judge in the federal judiciary.

The 1962 case that won James Meredith admission to the University of Mississippi remains Judge Motley’s most famous; she was also involved in the desegregation of the Universities of Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Clemson College in South Carolina. Judge Motley wrote briefs for Brown v. Board of Education and argued cases involving the right to counsel in a capital case (Hamilton v. Alabama), the desegregation of public facilities (Turner v. City of Memphis, Watson v. City of Memphis), the rights of students who were sitting in to protest segregation (Gober v. City of Birmingham, Bouie v. City of Columbia), and many more. Professor Jack Greenberg, Columbia Law School, former Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1961-84) and Brown litigator, writes "The way she beat down southern segregationist assaults in case after case . . . reminds me of Grant at Vicksburg. She dug in and would not give an inch until the enemy surrendered no matter how long it took."

Judge Motley was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1921, where her father worked at the Skull and Bones club at Yale University. She graduated from New York University and then Columbia Law School. At Columbia, she met Thurgood Marshall, who hired her to work at the NAACP LDF while she was still a law student. Judge Motley married Joel Wilson Motley in 1949 and they had a son, Joel Wilson Motley III.

A fearless champion of justice, Judge Motley left us a vision of the Constitution that holds equality, liberty, and justice at its center. ACS is dedicated to continuing her work to make these constitutional ideals a reality. It is with enormous respect and appreciation of Judge Motley’s life, work and legacy that we dedicate our competition to her.

"Something which we think is impossible now, is not impossible in another decade."

—Judge Constance Baker Motley