law geek

For the first time since I began this adventure, something about law has really sparked my attention. Oh, don't get me wrong - I have plenty of mini-moments where I think, "Hm, really?" or "Oh, now I understand" or other baby steps on the road of legal understanding.

But this - oyez.org - simply rocked my world. I have to do an oral argument on my appellate brief this weekend, and the instructor told us the oyez.org site to listen to REAL-LIFE arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. And they are TOTALLY COOL. First, the Supreme Court Justices are sometimes really funny, sometimes really sharp - and I like it when they gang up against attorneys who are trying to buffalo them. Lots of laugh out loud moments, and I'm pleased to know that they're smart cookies (though, I didn't hear Thomas speak - and from what I've read of his dissents, I have little respect for him).

Second, there are a TON of cases about schools - including a case in Juneau, Alaska, where the kids went outside to see the Olympic winter torch and a senior had a sign "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" and the principal ripped it out of his hands and suspended him for five days - when he quoted freedom of speech and Thomas Jefferson, she doubled it to ten days. I'm sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear how their decision comes out - does he have the freedom of speech in that situation? Another is about a district's policy to do what New Orleans schools DON'T - which is to have a (healthy to my mind) racial balance. FASCINATING!

So, I wrote my Constitutional Law professor about my newfound obsession, and what I would need to do in my career path to someday argue before the Supreme Court -and he responded that "arguing a case before the Supreme Court is a little like getting struck by lightning." He's written briefs for the Supreme Court, as a number of my profs have, but never gotten to argue. Kenneth Starr does all the darn time, that hog.

The prof said he'd be happy to talk in-depth with me about courses I can take that relate to this new interest of mine ... which sort of determines things for me about the International Development masters with a no. There are so many law courses I want to take about so many different things, so why limit those courses and spend my energies in Int'l Dev (which, from the current students I hear is frustrating and they don't learn much).

And, I want to stay here this summer. I want a nice little job with some nice little law firm where I do grunt work and learn a ton from the bottom-up, spending my evenings reading through my bookshelves and my weekends exploring the South, and a week or two in Liberia.

There, for today I know what I want. Now I need to make it happen. (Unfortunately, most of we 1L's are relegated to unpaid opportunities because, well, we don't really know much that's helpful.)

Just like I need to make my studying happen. Unfortunately I didn't get much sleep last night - apparently one cup of fully caffeinated coffee at 8 am is too much for my system to handle.