The Twelfth Annual Virgin Islands High School Appellate Moot Court Competition was held on May 4, 2006, on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. This year's competition centered on the constitutionality of the discussion of Intelligent Design in an elective philosophy class at the Cyril E. King High School (”CEK”), St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The case of Tammy Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, 400 F.Supp.2d 707 (3d Cir. 2005), provided the backdrop for this year's competition.

For the competition, the students were required to study a factual background which included evidence from a hypothetical case in the Virgin Islands. In the hypothetical factual background, an Intelligent Design was discussed as part of a unit of study in an elective philosophy class available to juniors and seniors attending CEK.

Some of the parents, whose children enrolled in the elective philosophy class at CEK, objected to the inclusion of the discussion centered on Intelligent Design and filed suit in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands attacking the constitutionality of the discussion of Intelligent Design in the elective philosophy class. Each student on the high school appellate moot court team was required to represent, and to argue on behalf of, either Mr. Jackson or the McDonalds, as Appellants, or Cyril E. King High School and the Virgin Islands Board of Education, as Appellees. On appeal, the Appellants presented their position that the discussion of Intelligent Design in an elective philosophy class is unconstitutional. The Appellees argued that the discussion of Intelligent Design in an elective philosophy class is not unconstitutional. The students focused on the following three major points:

  • Whether or not the discussion of Intelligent Design in the elective philosophy class at Cyril E. King High School has a non-secular purpose that advances or inhibits religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
  • Whether or not the discussion of Intelligent Design in the elective philosophy class at Cyril E. King High School constitutes an endorsement of religion, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
  • Whether or not the discussion of Intelligent Design in the elective philosophy class at Cyril E. King High School amounts to coercion of students to participate in religious exercise, in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.