I'm half-listening to the confirmation hearings (hooray for Perry Mason inspiring Sotomayor's legal philosophy!), and I have this sudden image:

Me, on the Senate Judicial Committee, many years from now, holding a confirmation hearing for Justice Sotomayor's replacement. I look down from the dais at the nominee and reminisce about studying for the bar while watching the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. With that in mind, I say, I have a question for you:

In a civil action tried to a jury, the defendant objects to the introduction by the plaintiff of certain evidence without the judge's first making a preliminary ruling on the admissibility of evidence.

For which evidence is the defendant's objection NOT appropriate?

A. Opinion testimony regarding structural integrity of a building by an engineer called by plaintiff, without preliminary determination by the judge that the engineer is an expert.
B. Hospital records pertaining to the plaintiff, offered by the plaintiff, without a preliminary determination by the judge that they were made as a regular activity of the hospital staff.
c. Contract negotiations between the plaintiff and a third party, without a preliminary determination by the judge that the third party was defendant's agent.
D. A paramedic's testimony that the plaintiff's wife, before she died, said that the defendant's car went through a red light before hitting her, without a preliminary determination by the judge that she made the statement under a sense of impending death.

If the nominee doesn't answer C, they just lost my vote. :)

Harry Potter was great last night. The three of us who went to the movie together enjoyed each other's company, and we timed our arrival perfectly to be able to walk in without waiting in line while still getting great seats.

The crowd was extremely well behaved, fully of 20- and 30-somethings, but without a single flash of a cell phone screen throughout the movie!

The movie itself was wonderful. Our quibbles with it were relatively minor--more for stuff they randomly added or changed for no particular reason than with things they left out. We would have liked to have seen some of the omitted scenes, but at least they didn't really leave out any key information!

The movie was also beautiful--gorgeous scenery, beautiful coloring, and great sets. Add in Ron drunk on love potion and Harry high on Felix Felicis, and wonderful scenes starring Alan Rickman, and we have a winner!

Dear Sen. Kyl,

1. When I say something, I IMPLY a hidden meaning. You, hearing, INFER a meaning. I cannot infer something through my speech.

2. Diversity is a good thing. Not just for appearance of legitimacy. But also because so many Supreme Court cases depend on interpreting terms such as "reasonable" or "significant." Determining what is "reasonable" in a context depends on understanding all the circumstances in that particular instance. This is simply not usually possible (though it occasionally has been done), in evaluating a discrimination case (for example) when everyone on the bench is over 75, white, male, and upper-middle class.

Sincerely,
Me

I promise--this is just a brief study break! I took a practice MBE set over lunch and did really well, so the time that I would have had to have spent working out my missed questions is instead being taken up with this.

I was supremely lazy about going to the grocery store over the past week or so, and as a result, I ran out of Cokes on Sunday. I have not had a Coke in 2 days, and I have had pretty massive headaches as a result (thank goodness for Advil!). I am taking this as a sign that, after the bar exam, I will need to seriously detox from the caffeine. However, this is for POST bar exam.

As a BarBri instructor noted, this is not a time to change any part of a routine. His advice: "Even if you are on illegal drugs, go in to rehab the day after the exam!"

Dear Sen. Sessions,

Please shut up. You are a lawyer. You should know better than to toss around "strict scrutiny" like it doesn't have a specific legal meaning. I realize that you are playing to the camera and your constituents back home and non-lawyers everywhere, but using legal terms correctly can be done. See Orrin Hatch's line of questioning.

Thank you.



Dear Sen. Feinstein,

You go girl!

Love, Me

Has any judicial nominee been tempted to, when confronted with a statement that judges should only apply the law, not make the law, simply stand up and scream at the top of their lungs, "Bulls--t!"?

Followed by a list of cases when courts were responsible for interpreting completely unclear statutes because Congress couldn't get its act together to create a law without gaping holes and ambiguities.

Saturday night was one of the best nights EVER. I had a ticket for the Face 2 Face concert with Elton John and Billy Joel, and it was absolutely incredible.

Once it got started, that is. Before that, I was dealing with the drama of being sold not a seat, but a step!

You see, my seat didn't actually exist. It was a computer glitch, and the usher was completely cool about it. Seems that it has happened even for baseball games, and there were several other people experiencing the same trouble. So he sat us in the handicapped seating, which was 1) more comfortable, 2) closer to the stage, and 3) further around, giving a better view of the stage. In other words, SO MUCH BETTER!

I even got to see a bit of Elton John temper. His piano was broken at first--the sustain pedal, which holds notes out and doesn't stop them from ringing, got stuck open. If he had played like this, it would have sounded muddy and like complete crap. So he understandably refused to keep playing, but then continued to get angrier as it took longer and longer to fix, eventually stalking off the stage. So they wound up switching up the concert a bit. Normally, the show would go: duets, Elton's solo set, Billy's solo set, more duets. Instead, they did two duets together, Billy did his solo set, and then the piano was fixed, so Elton did his solo set, then they did all their duet pieces together. But when Elton came back on stage, he apologized to the audience, thanked us for our patience and the techs for their work, and got on with the show.

Billy is the better showman (he bantered with the audience, was much more animated with his playing, and allowed his piano to rotate), but Elton is the better player. Elton didn't move around much, and he didn't really interact with the audience much other than getting up and waving to everyone after each piece. But he played extended versions of songs, featuring just him and the piano, with the band jamming behind him. I think that he lost some people in the audience by doing this, but the longer he went, the more excited I got. I've always thought that he should do an album of just him singing and playing the piano, and he totally has the chops to back it up.

All in all, the concert went for 3 1/2 hours, with no stops other than about 10 minutes to try to fix the piano. And still, because their library of hits is so huge, you walked out thinking, "But they didn't do this or that!" I would have been happy for it to have gone on all night, and so would the rest of the crowd. Alas, that wasn't possible. But the final song was "Piano Man," done with just Billy and Elton on pianos, the bands having left the stage already--complete with a chorus sung entirely by the crowd, without piano or even their vocals backing us up. So much fun!

Go here for photographic evidence, including photos of my ticket and step!

I have been approved (pending a criminal background check) for an apartment starting in August! I'm still in a bit of sticker shock, but the price is actually very reasonable for that size space in DC (i.e., a one-bedroom). Plus, it's still in Southwest, and only a few blocks' walk to the HUD building! It's also just down the hall from another Georgetown Law alumna that I knew in school.

It's still a little hard to believe that 1) I will be living on my own; and 2) that I am paying more for 800 sq. feet than I was to share an entire house :), but I'm excited for it. Plus, since my starting date for work moved back 2 weeks, I have a chance to fully pack, move, and settle in without having to schedule around work.

Because I did a rather obscene number of practice essays this afternoon, my brain was dead. So my study break? Book travel to Europe!

I now have airline reservations AND transportation to the airport! I've also started the ball rolling on hotels in Prague. We'll probably book that ahead of time to make life easier, but leave most other arrangements (i.e. travel from airport to ship, ship to train station, train to Prague, Prague station to hotel, and hotel to airport) as "planned spontaneous" purchases--in other words, we figure out ahead of time how we're going to accomplish each of these stages, but leave off purchasing the ticket until we are there.

Again, I ask--is it August YET???!!!!

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is currently holding a video contest, and they are offering a $5,000 grant to the congregation that posts the winning video. The videos are narrowed down to finalists by the votes of viewers and the number of views a particular video gets. I created the video that is the entry First Trinity Lutheran Church of Washington, D.C., below. Unfortunately their "screen" space is a little narrower than I had realized, so some of the edges are cut off. Still, I'm pretty happy with the result.

Please watch, then go to the site and vote!