Back to Skool

It's been a while, but law school is back in session. Now that I can pick my classes, I'm looking forward to the intellectual stimulation I deserve with the professors I like and the subjects I am passionate about. Well, maybe "passionate" isn't the right word when it comes to Tax law, but it is not boring by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I suspect the only Tax students that are bored by the material are ones that have never done their own taxes-- if you've tried to navigate the tax code without a legal education, hearing the policy and code explanations behind all the little exclusions you always wondered about becomes fascinating.

On the other hand, Advanced Torts is shaping up to be an amazing class. It's with the inimitable Professor Marshall, perhaps my favorite prof ever, and it is a case study in defamation law. We have begun with New York Times v. Sullivan, an extremely important First Amendment case that constitutionalized elements of libel as pertains to public officials. Essentially, an ad was published in the NYT back in the 60s seeking monetary and other help for the Civil Rights movement. This ad contained a few minor factual errors, and a city commissioner for Montgomery sued the Times and four other defendants for defamation. In overturning the conviction, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment made it substantially more difficult to bring this sort of action. Although it seems hard to believe it now, actions like this used to be possible to quiet protest about public officials and to generally chill free speech.

To make a long story short, I went to law school because I thought I could learn law in the way this class is teaching me.

Finally, I am taking Family Law. Although we have been warned not to take the initial case load as representative, it isn't hard to get excited about reading cases involving polygamy, incest, gay marriage, and weird civil annulments. In short, a great class schedule. Besides the classes, I am also on the National Moot Court team and most importantly, participating in the Civil Practice Clinic, which will give me the opportunity to go to court and represent real clients in actions ranging from evictions to divorce. Killer.

Also happening now is On Campus Interviewing, where I get the opportunity to interview with a few firms with the aim of eventually working their post-graduation. It is difficult to predict odds, but a couple of these firms would enable me to quite literally fulfill all my career goals if they would just hire me.

For Mom

An online directory of neat epitaths. Very cool.

From Sean, a list of the top ten pop songs played at funerals. Aaaugh!

Finally, not for Mom specifically, the top ten censored stories of the last year. Pretty depressing.