First Amendment rights and commercial speech in tobacco advertising are under fire in a national debate, sponsored by the SIU School of Law, this weekend.

We thought, with the tobacco symposium last month [at SIUC], this is a topic that we could build upon throughout the year, said W. Eugene Basanta, associate dean of the SIU School of Law.

The constitutionality of a hypothetical city ordinance restricting cigarette and tobacco product advertising is the focus of the 1997-98 National Health Law Moot Court Competition.

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The event allows second- and third-year law students interested in health law to hone their skills in oral and written arguments.

The debate is set up the same way as an argument before the Supreme Court would be, said Ileana Domiguez-Urban, SIU professor of the School of Law and coach for the SIU team.

SIU’s team is consists of Katy Fair, third-year law student from Carbondale; Brad Hart, third-year law student from Hillsboro; Brian Gulden, second-year law student from Hickory, N.C.; Veiling Tsai, second-year medical student from San Lorenzo, Calif.; Linda Warwick second-year law student from Rock Island; and Josephine Evola, second-year law student from Peoria.

The competition, sponsored by the School of Law, the SIU School of Medicine, the Department of Medical Humanities and the American College of Legal Medicine, will be made up of 32 teams from 24 law schools around the country.

This is the sixth year the School of Law has sponsored the competition. Last year, the SIU School of Law Moot Court Team came in third place out of the 21 colleges that competed.

Elimination rounds will take place Friday. Eight teams will advance on to the finals, which will take place Saturday. The competition will be in the courtroom of the Lesar Law Building and is open to the public.

The final rounds will be judged by Federal Judge Phil Frazier of the Southern District of Illinois, Judge Carol E. Jackson of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis and Martin B. Flamm, president of the American College of Legal Medicine.

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Tobacco is a timely topic right now with a wide-ranging interest from the public, Basanta said.

Factoid:Elimination rounds will begin at 12:15 p.m. Friday and will last until 8 p.m. The final round of the competition will be at 10 a.m. Saturday. The event will take place in the courtroom of the Lesar Law Building both days.