Goodbye Mondale Hall

At approximately 12:45 this afternoon I handed my paper in for the Election Law seminar, marking the last fulfilled requirement for my semester, and therefore, my law school career. WOO! WOO!

The paper itself is a pretty interesting discussion of some of the unintended consequences of the landmark Baker v. Carr decision, which led to the judicial management of congressional redistricting under the "one person, one vote" mandate. One notable result has been the massive rise in political gerrymandering claims, mostly benefitting Republicans. In the recent Vieth decision, just handed down two weeks ago, the court denied the claims of citizens of Pennsylvania, where a state that is split 50/50 was redistricted by the Republican-held legislature in 2001 to give 12 of 19 seats solidly to Republicans.

For a very non-law school explanation of the situation, check out Jefferey Toobin's article last November in the New Yorker.

In other political news...

Jimmy Carter still rules.

My Science Project

I have always liked science, but hated math. Unfortunately, that fact precluded me from being rescued from my destined profession. But I understand now that I could have a little science project going on the side -- something a little hot, like the guy featured here who created a model breeder reactor in his mom's potting shed. He was only 17, and was trying to get a boy scout merit badge in "Atomic Energy." He got his radioactive materials from smoke detectors, antique luminous clock hands, and oh, yeah, he impersonated a scientist or two.

Other people satisfy their yin for science in other ways, like collecting. This new Russian museum of erotica is featuring Rasputin's penis (fair warning-- the opening photo is a Russian woman staring eye-to-uh, eye with a large disembodied phallus) as part of its display. The other member mentioned in the article belonged to Napoleon, but alas, his organ does not compare to the Mad Monk's.

I think I understand why my Career Services director recommended that I take my reference to this website off my resume.

Side note

We have comments again. Also, I am a proud owner of a sparkling new gmail account, so use that to write me. nathan.hobbsATgmailDOTcom (@ and . left out to prevent me from getting slammed with spam, mom).

The Final Finals

I took my first of this semester’s finals today (products liability). It was painful, but nothing unexpected. I took pretty good notes and stayed reasonably well up on the reading, so I wasn’t starting from behind like some of the hated classes in law school. Next week I have Remedies (the book is called “Modern American Remedies,” which makes me think of “Old American Remedies” like snake oil and laudanum and cocaine), and then the crush of people begin to arrive for graduation. I am very excited to be done with school. Now if I can just get a job. I have an interview tomorrow with a nice sounding judge in Stillwater (approximately fifteen minutes NE of here). My fingers are crossed.

This is a fascinating read, an article by Lawrence Lessig entitled “How I Lost the Big One,” and it is a bit of introspection about how he lost last year’s big patent case at the SCOTUS, Eldred v. Ashcroft. Ashcroft is named as a defendant in a lot of cases, as you may or may not expect, but most of them are naming him in his capacity as Attorney General and not against him personally. Most, but not all.

Finally…

Don’t miss this year’s comet show. Grab some binoculars and look where the graphic tells ya.