O'Connor retires... A blow to justice for all...

Okay, that's a bit melodramatic, but it really could be a dark day for the Supreme Court.

I hadn't expected Justice O'Connor to retire now actually. I'd heard rumors that she was planning to stay on to see if she could get named as the first female Chief Justice. Not that it was her sole motivation, but I thought she'd planned on staying on a while longer. I had instead expected to hear that Rehnquist was retiring.

O'Connor's opinions are consistently some of the most well written of any of the justices on the Court currently. I've for the most part agreed with her stands on various issues. I very much admire the fact that she seemed to take a very moderate stance on most issues. I know that many fear that women's issues have been dealt a severe blow. They forget about Ginsburg though. However, Ginsburg is also getting on in years and her health isn't so good. There's a possibility she will be leaving in the near future as well.

I think history will view the current Court as one of the most powerful in the history of jurisprudence. This Court has almost singlehandedly revived the notion of favoring states' rights over a centralized federal government control.

We'll have to see who Bush nominates. I don't have a good feeling about this though. Then again, you never know with the Supreme Court. Past nominees haven't exactly fallen in with what political affiliations might indicate. Justice Kennedy is a prime example of this. He was nominated and appointed by Regan in the belief that he would help swing the Court right. Ironically enough, he's voted very liberally. Republicans have talked pointedly about avoiding having another Kennedy appointed.

I'm #1!!!

Just kidding... I'm not, but a friend recently sent me a cute little test to try with your birthday dates. The way it works is that you take the numbers of your birthday (including the full year) and you add the numbers up until you come up with a single digit.

Turned out I was a #1, which was described as follows:
#1 - The Originator

1's are originals. Coming up with new ideas and executing them is natural.

Having things their own way is another trait that gets them as being
stubborn and arrogant. 1's are extremely honest and do well to learn
diplomacy skills.
They like to take the initiative and are often leaders or bosses, as they
like to be the best. Being self-employed is definitely helpful for them.
Lesson to learn: Other's ideas might be just as good or better and to stay
open minded.
Famous 1's are Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Hulk Hogan, Carol Burnett,
Wynonna Judd, Nancy Reagan, Raquel Welch.

Unfortunately, this is not too far from the truth. Heh...

Then my curiosity was peaked and I went out looking for some personality tests after talking with a friend of mine on the phone the other day. One of the tests she mentioned was the "Eneagram" test and suggested I try it. Well, I did and it turns out I'm a Type #1 personality. Here's a link to the description.

The thing was completely dead on. My friends who know me will tell anyone that this is me!!!! It's so eerie. Apparently, this test is based more on a person's psychological and emotional motivations. The origin is rather unclear. There is some mnetion of Kabbalah and Sufi mysticism but how you get a personality test out of those mystic traditions is beyond me!

If you're interested in the test, you can go here. It has a bunch of different personality tests to and a couple of intelligence tests.

The gauntlet has been thrown...

Heh... A comment on my last post has prompted me to at least post a second time within a week.

So, HA!!! I have done it!

I can spend a little time here ranting about my summer class and my fellow students. I'm taking Evidence right now and I'm enjoying it a lot. Very interesting stuff and very crucial to future practice in law. After all, evidence is the core of the legal system. Without it, you can't win cases, gain leverage in negotiations or even file a suit. It's the stuff that Law and Order is all about. Collecting evidence and finding ways of introducing it and using it to get the bad guys. None of the open and shut stuff with CSI. Don't get me wrong, CSI is awesome but jeez.... you wouldn't believe how much prosecutors HATE the show!!!! During voir dire, they actually now ask jurors to state whether they watch CSI regularly!! You just don't want a jury that's expecting forensic evidence like tracing a single flax seed found on the victim's shoe to a remote area of northern Montana. Sheesh...

Anyway, I digress. I feel for my poor professor and I'm getting very frustrated with the majority of my classmates. I don't know what their problem is, but for some reason the majority of the class chooses to sit like idiotic, drooling morons who apparently don't read the assignment. My professor winds up sitting there after asking a simple question, waiting and waiting for someone to volunteer and answer. Now, if you're wondering what happened to the Socratic method, it doesn't really exist anymore. Not in the "Paper Chase" style anyway. (Well, it might at Harvard, but I'm not at Harvard so that's my reality.) Instead, today's professors are nice enough to leave students alone and expect volunteers to fill in the time and discussion.

So me and a few of my chums in the class have taken it upon themselves to try and move the class along by relunctantly volunteering answers. If we didn't, I'd swear we'd just be sitting there the whole time waiting. Either that or my professor would give up. We look like teacher's pet overachievers to the rest of the class, I'm sure. (It doesn't help we sit in the front two rows.) Do I care?? H*** NO! I want to move the class and my learning process along, thank you very much.

It's just so frustrating sometimes!!!! I swear, I think I may wind up going postal at some time. (If you're wondering, the preceeding statement would most likely wind up as non-hearsay evidence of my state of mind if I ever did go postal. Heh....)

I know the students in my class are quite intelligent. You have to have a modicrum of intelligence to get into law school, after all. I know these people are overachievers who do the reading and know what's going on. Yet for whatever reason, everyone wants to keep their traps zipped. I've been told that some people were told that volunteering was pointless as it does nothing for your grade so why bother?? My answer to that?? Well, how are you supposed to get the material if there is no discussion to get all the pertinent points??? How can you know that you truly understand something if you don't try and explore the minutiae of the theory behind legal concepts???

Law is not black and white. It's not simple, straightforward formulas that get you to one answer. Justice is blind and in that blindness is a cold, impartial and sometimes harsh fairness. In truth, the law really rests on whether you are more persuasive than your opponent and can find ways for the law to fit what your side wants. There are very few absolutes in the law. In that sense, the more that you can debate and discuss, the more you can truly dig down and learn to be an advocate.

I don't think some of my classmates get that. Maybe it's an age factor. I happen to be much older than most of my classmates. I didn't decide to do law until well after I graduated college and went into the work force. I hate to think that way though since I know that it's unfair to judge them as an age group.

Ah, well... enough of this rant. I'm probably making a big fuss over nothing but it's driving me nuts!!!

Anyway, I'll try and post more. I'll probably mostly rant and rave about everyday stuff. Boring, really... so we'll see.