We call ourselves the bard association. It tries to have lawyers do something more productive than what they do usually do to support the theater in all kinds of ways. As you know, the theater performance that we are using the stage for is based on the text of William Shakespeares 12 night. You have seen Ethan Mcsweeney do so many good performances. [applause] it, athave not seen least twice you will can sitter coming in. It is not about the time it reconciliationax to occur. After a shipwreck, or a plane incident stranded on the coast , the a lot and sebastian become separated. To become a page. With lotrio who is really the a but finds out that there is an identical sebastian who she can love just as much. Are you following all of this . Play is where identity, passion, and gender all threaten to become undone. Characters pretending to be people they are not. Saying things they do not mean. Plotting to advance themselves at the advance of other things. Way that others think of us in washington dc. The issue isd now, will music beat the food of love. Be enough to hold them in holy matrimony. At the conclusion of tonights argument, you will be asked as we always ask you to be the jury. To answer the following questions. Should of the via and sebastians marriage be annulled . Please voteve yes, with the blue token. If you believe the marriage , vote not be annulled with your red token. Now it is my extraordinary honor and pleasure to introduce the participants of the mark pryor. Marshalleme court pamela token. [applause] and counsel for the petitioner olivia. [applause] and counsel dan webb with matthew carter. [applause] calling to order the marshall we will welcome the bench for tonight. The Supreme Court will be chief judge merrick garland. Judgethomas griffins and cut time the brown jackson. [applause] they will be here in a minute. Please enjoy the trial. [gavel] all rise. Oh yeah a, oea, oh yeah a. The Supreme Court is now in session. Please be seated. [applause] thank you mr. Chief justice and may it please the court. Olivia or not to be leave olivia. That is the question. My client tell in love with one person. She was tricked into marrying another. When she realized that she had been married to a stranger she sought annulment. Thatower courts denied her relief. It is only available when one behavior has been duped. There is ample evidence that sebastians Deceptive Behavior induced olivia to marry him. First sets eyes on olivia, she called him her dears is reo. People do go by different names. For instance when she is kicking it with her homeys, justice by theer ginsburg goes notorious rbg. Tag, i as her graffiti dissent. Recordhing in this supports that sebastian ever went by the name cesario and yet he stayed silent. He thinks to himself that there is something in it disabled. He has a another chance to set things straight right before the the wedding. Olivia asked him point blank. My most jealous and ever. Oubtful soul may live at peace there is his opportunity break there. In the record to say look, this has been great. It is not you, its me. [laughter] because its not me. Its you are clearly in love with a different me. But he doesnt say any of that. Instead what he says is, having sworn truth i ever will be true. Not deceiveys i did her. I used my name during the wedding. Truth that north the olivia was highly distracted. She had arranged for a little neighboring the country of colorado to create a , highlyl, artistic wedding. E food for the the guy never showed up. Loyal servant her who is an ill tempered man prancing around the patio in yellow stockings. He brown hair and hazel eyes. [laughter] can i ask. I am a little worried about the implications of this argument for misrepresentation or miss understanding. You realize this is Twelfth Night which is 12 nights after christmas. Therefore winter is coming. [laughter] john snowmean that will not be able to marry dineros because, he is not his son . We could be in a lot of trouble. I am really upset about that spoiler alert. Like, have not watched that part. Thanks for that. [laughter] if we aree answer is talking about mistaken identities, we are talking about mistaken names. This is one of sebastians arguments. Because he used his real name at the wedding she was on notice that he was not who she thought he was. Commentator put it, that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. I want to be sure i understand the facts of this case. If the priest shows up in drag sebastian and apologizes for her haste, that according to contractt she makes a byeternal love to firm mutual joining of hands, attested by the holy coils of blips, strengthened by the interchanging of rings, during which sebastian declares i, sebastian, take the olivia as my wedded wife. You want us to believe that olivia did not know what you was getting into . [laughter] olivia may have been a tad impetuous in proposing the marriage. But to be very clear, olivia was not looking for love. Love found her. She had sworn off all suitors for seven years. She had deleted her profile from tender. She had stopped surfing farmers comy. At tim dn and not situation. [laughter] brief does not focus on olivia. It focuses on sebastian hearing you say sebastian engaged in deceit. That is too harsh. He identified himself why name in the ceremony. It just turned out to be different. He turned out to be different than olivia thought. How is that any different than a husband finding out after the is ang that his wife Justin Bieber fan . And that wouldnt be grounds for annulment. Well maybe that would. Right beepertally into the prenup. The difference is there is a difference between a different name and a different person. This is not if you imagine a situation where joe dimaggio is at the altar with Marilyn Monroe and she calls herself normal gene. He is not going to walk away because he knows he is still marrying Marilyn Monroe. This is like great Britains King Edward marrying bart simpson instead of wallis simpson. [laughter] of your brief, you argue that sebastian agreed to marry olivia to claim immigration benefits. Sebastian had no other rational reason to accept olivias proposal. Are you aware that the role of by tellingclaimed carter and michelle pfeiffer. No other rational reason . [laughter] maybe he just on for ae it was so royal to fall in love with a foreign actor . [applause] [laughter] issue prince harry may have an issue about this. Fair enough. Here is what i would say about that. To the point about sebastian not having a different reason for marrying her other than the fact that he needed to claim citizenship, i think that is exactly what was going on. You have a situation where olivia fell in love with someone completely different. Someone who will her and one her. Yada yada yada. The only thing sebastian said to her. The first thing hes dead is i will. This is not the person that she thought. It is very clear what his thought process was. Olivia,s ashore, sees she proposes marriage to him, and he says i am not throwing away my shots. I am not throwing away my shot. I swim to this country. Im young, soggy, and hungry. [laughter] that is what he is thinking. [applause] what i dont understand is your timing. Why would your client want to annul the marriage right now . I hear the tax benefits will be in or miss for two wealthy people getting married in 2018. She should just hang on, dont you think . Im not really sure how that whole thing is going to shake out. [laughter] with justroblem to get back to the immigration argument and the argument is that because sebastian was protected by the deferred action castawaysxiways act. He did not need to marry her hastily because he was protected by that. To, daca might not be able sebastian at all. He is the known associate of antonio. But i dont really understand why would anyone want to be a citizen of elyria. You have this guy running around with yellow stockings, people are drinking and quaffing. Sebastian says is everyone mad here . That sounds nice to me actually. So i want to ask you a hypothetical. This is a real hypothetical. [laughter] if judge Jackson Falls in love with judge griffiths yellow stockings and then she decides to marry the next strange stout smiling fellow who shows up in yellow stockings because he reminds her of judge griffiths, is judge griffiths really to blame if it doesnt work out . Maybe olivia just have a type . Judge griffiths can carry off the yellow much better than malvolio can. But the problem is she married a stranger. She thought she was in love with one person and thought to was marrying that person. I will tell you, this jurisdiction has had this issue before. N lady ricky spears duchess of fresno accidentally marry that guy at that drive. Hrough thing in las vegas this court permitted her to a note that union. Her only defense was groups, i did it again. Argument seems to be look what you made me do. [laughter] but, miss stetson he did identify himself as sebastian. Said, whoucho marx are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes . But i think that gets back to the rose point. The idea that he identifies himself as sebastian only put her on notice that this person that she loves also went by the name sebastian. Its kind of a potato potato thing. I prefer tomato tomato. My mistake i will correct the record. The issue here is not that she was marrying someone with a different name. This is not the Marilyn Monroe situation. This is the art simpson situation. That is the very different situation. Isnt our standard much higher than that. Givingt go around annulments like oprahs favorite things. You get an annulment and you get an annulment. [applause] [laughter] thats a fair point. I will promise that i wont be here again asking for another annulment on behalf of anyone else for a very long time am i hope. But let me make one other point. This is a textual point. He makes the point that you leery and statutes use the word procure and because he did not affirmatively go get anything, therefore he could not have obtained the marriage by fraud. Law is based on the shakespearean constitution, uniteds similar to the states constitution but with ological in it. It simply means achieve. Three times in taming of the shrew. Once in othello. N if you that a serious research. We dont do that here. [laughter] it is interesting to me that abandon anemed to argument on the troubling issue of the fact that he identified himself as sebastian during the wedding ceremony. Relied on an, you article in psychology today remember this . Thatderline the fact olivia heard him identify himself as sebastian. We are not interested in andological gobble the duke we are not interested in gook. Logical gobledy now i am. Before i abandoned it altogether. If you could just wrap this up. You are slightly over time. Let me end with this then. I would ask you simply in the words of sir mitch mcconnell. To of the ucky of kent, say yes i believe the woman. [applause] i hope you have a good comeback. Is dan webb. I would like to thank the mock trial fact committee. This is the first time a chicago trial lawyer has actually been given facts that can establish innocence. We have never had that happen. [laughter] by the way, i think there are i am given three minutes before you interrupt me, is that right . Im counting. So first of all, two reasons why you cannot annul this marriage under the law. There is aelyria statute we are dealing with. Re inside the beltway . Says a person who procures a marriage and then uses fraud in that procurement, a marriage could be annulled. I use the word procure because if you just think about it for one minute, what is the evidence that my client procured the marriage. Procured meaning i definition that he actually instituted a out and get a certain result from her. Walkings are, my guys down the street and olivia. Up by chicago en against. Chicago hooligans. Olivia shows up and says to him you must come to my house. She says it twice. Here is this beautiful, gorgeous, woman with this charming personality who says you must come to my house. Of course he comes to her house at that point in time. She walks in with a priest and says if your intentions are honorable, marry me. He says well, i fell in love with you because love at first sight and you are beautiful. She brings a priest into her room and they get married. Where does the word procure mean that my client did anything to procure that marriage. Therefore, if you follow the statute, you dont need to get , becauseissue of fraud my client didnt even procure a marriage under any circumstance. So we went under the statute. [laughter] we do. If you follow that law but we dont have to if you dont want to. If you want to follow that statute, then my client prevails in this case. I say that to you as jurors. Think about that when you deliberate. [laughter] heres what i dont understand. I have never understood this case in this sense. Olivias theory now i am entitled to interrupt you. [laughter] this is the part i dont understand about your argument. Why did sebastian want to stay married to someone who doesnt love him . Since we are quoting songs, if you love her, let her go. That song does not apply to someone in sebastians Financial Condition in life. [laughter] when he is about to marry a beautiful woman, she brought to her house this gorgeous, wonderful house. By the way, one of the fallacies sebastian clearly knew Something Weird was going on here. He knew Something Weird was going on. But he did not know what they claim in this case. They claim that because olivia was actually in love with my clientherefore should have straightened out this whole mess in her mind. When fact, my client did not know who cesario was and did not know anything about her behavior pattern over time as far as how she was dressed and deceiving other people. He knew nothing about that. How could my client have straightened out olivias misconception when he himself did not even possess the facts. How could your client have married her . Who in their right mind agrees to be married after only 20 lines in a shakespeare play . Thats a good question, your honor. It,ough, if you think about according to the facts, men fall in love with this woman continually. At the drop of the hat. For no reason whatsoever. My client has testified that that happen to him. Love at first sight. Admittedly, he found out she was wealthy and had a station in life that might make him better off if he will that plan. But that is not fraud. Youre not going to annul a marriage because my client actually saw that he was getting some benefit out of this arrangement. There is no basis to annul the marriage. Webb, i have a question about our jurisdiction . Im a trial lawyer. [laughter] [applause] you still have to answer my question. [laughter] so your client claims he is a and a savingnd influence on olivias life. But to me, sorting out this marital dispute sounds like a political question. Possiblycan the courts develop a judicially manageable family for successful marriage. You see the woman over there with the beautiful white hair . She and i have been happily trying to figure that out for 53 years and we still dont have an answer. I dont have an answer. [applause] your honor, i dont actually have any way to answer that question. Thever, since that is not law that we are supposed to follow in this case, since were supposed to be following this pesky little statute here i was asking you a jurisdictional question. That ichief judge said as a trial lawyer do not have to address that. Can you at least produce the long for marriage license . [laughter] i cannot produce that, your honor. One thing that is interesting about this case is that if this high court in elyria is concerned about whether there is any equity or lack of equity in this case, if you think about it, both sides to this bargain actually got the benefit they were seeking. Number one, there is no question that olivia wanted to end up viola the male version of which happened to be sebastian who was her brother. She got exactly what you wanted in this bargain. Its interesting that you should talk about gender. Im trying to figure out what it has to do with this. Record is clear that the Lower Court Judges who ruled in your clients favor work quote all mail. Lower, weinstein, so what do we take away from that . We did like the choice of the trial judges. We were very pleased with that although we are confident that this panel here by the way i dont know, i tried to resist myself several times over. I dont know what the role of gender has to do with this case. Im very confused about that. By the way, did my client get some benefit out of this bargain . In facts say well, he fell love with her, it was love at first sight, yes but he got a benefit. In his station of life, through a rash decision, when you could judge and say why would anybody judge and make a decision in 30 minutes to marry anybody . Have you seen the bachelor . Yes. , he actuallyhe way had a motive to increase his station in life by marrying a beautiful woman, a magnetic personality, very wealthy, does that mean he committed fraud just because he wanted that that fell into his lap that they . And by the way, under the facts of the case, he felt confused that night. He actually count confused. He had no idea that there was anything in her mind that he could straighten out. He did not know about these facts. Under fraud, under the law of fraud so he thought that she just liked him at first sight to . To ont he testified seriously . In the play itself it says he is confused. He wasnt quite sure why she was proposing. We saw the video tape about two weeks ago in this very area. This guy is no ryan gosling. Anyonekes him think that would fall in love with him . Lets just assume thats correct. Your honor, that is correct. She would have had no reason to believe a woman with that station in life would have anything to do with him. Where is the fraud . He announced himself as named sebastian. No way. As aaron burr would say, none of us were in the room when it happened. [laughter] the transcript by mr. Shakespeare does not include that fact. Have beennd you provided that but since we are not on the wire, we do not actually know what was said. Why should we believe that he actually had sebastian . Because your group year gave me those facts and told me that i was sworn under duty to follow those facts. Mr. Webb, i hate to do this but i have a serious question for you. Maybe i will never get invited back, but heres my serious question. You say that sebastian is not in the marriage for money, nobility, or favorable immigration status. So why in the world does he want to remain in the marriage . And more important, wouldnt there be some serious constitutional question if we compelled olivia to stay in a marriage against her will . No. [laughter] that isnt unfair answer that is an unfair answ