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.