01/13/2025

High School Students Head to Court, Tackle First Amendment Rights in Mock Trial Competition

COLUMBUS (January 13, 2025) - Over 2,000 Ohio high school students will take their place in courtrooms across the state for the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education’s (OCLRE) 42^nd Annual Ohio Mock Trial Competition on Friday, January 17. Students will compete for a chance to move on to the regional competition, which will take place on Friday, February 7.  

The 2025 Ohio Mock Trial case examines the intersection of the First Amendment, defamation and the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This case specifically looks at what happens when the public interest in parody and political commentary bumps against the new capabilities for realistic deepfakes in a political campaign.  Denver Saidi, a candidate for the local city council and principal of Trillium High School, was giving a speech at the school’s Snow Ball Dance when they accidentally mispronounced a name. Instead of just laughing it off, Trillium student Wyatt Latu used a generative AI app to create a deepfake video of Saidi making jokes about fleeing from the cops after a night of drinking. Pretty soon, everyone in town had seen the video, and many believed it was real. Saidi filed a lawsuit for defamation and sought a preliminary injunction to have the video taken down. Students will participate in the hearing to consider the preliminary injunction, weighing the legal factors that pit free speech against the damage to a person's reputation and campaign. 

According to Program Coordinator Jenna Lewis, the 2025 Mock Trial case gives students the opportunity to explore an area of the law that does not have a lot of set precedent. “The use of AI in entertainment, education and politics is a relatively new concept.” Lewis said. “As generative AI becomes more prevalent (and more convincing), the law will need to evolve to determine how to draw the line between free expression and accountability.” 

Each Ohio Mock Trial team consists of five to twelve students who assume the roles of attorneys and witnesses to present both sides of an original, unscripted case based on an important constitutional issue. At the district and regional levels of competition, each team competes in two trials against opposing teams. Teams must win both trials, or the majority of their judges’ ballots, to advance to the next level of competition. More than 1,000 legal professionals serve as volunteer judges, competition coordinators and team advisors. Ohio Mock Trial is Ohio’s largest high school academic competition and among the largest high school mock trial programs in the nation. 

The Ohio Mock Trial District Competition is hosted in 23 counties throughout Ohio. OCLRE’s website has a complete list of teams participating in the competition along with the location of each competition site. The website will be updated after the competition with a list of teams qualifying for the regional competition.  

OCLRE is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to improve society by developing citizens empowered with an understanding of our democratic system. OCLRE is sponsored by the Supreme Court of Ohio, Ohio Attorney General, Ohio State Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation. The Ohio Mock Trial program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Ohio State Bar Foundation. For more information about OCLRE and its programs, visit www.oclre.org.  

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