Congratulations to Dawn Connelly, overall winner in the Seventh Annual Ilana Diamond Rovner Appellate Advocacy Competition. Congratulations also to Tracy Billows, finalist in that competition and winner of the Fay Clayton Award for Outstanding Oralist, as well as to Susan Hausman, winner of the Ralph Brill Award for Best Brief.

Judges for the final round were Judges Ilana Diamond Rovner and Diane Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Illinois Appellate Court Judge Anne Burke.

This year’s problem involved a Fourth Amendment challenge to the warrantless use of a thermal imaging device to detect indoor marijuana-growing operations. The judges also considered whether a defendant who has pled guilty nevertheless retains a Fifth Amendment privilege throughout sentencing, an issue soon to be considered by the Supreme Court.