Hurray
The week from hell is almost over. Presentation went off well this morning...I'm just waiting for my brief on same-sex marriage to come back from my partner so I can make the final alterations and print it.
Amongst the other things I had to do this week was apply for clinic. See, one of the cool things University of Baltimore has (which UMD doesn't, which is why our practical education is better, ha ha) is a law clinic program. There are various clinics...disability law (involuntary commitment proceedings), criminal practice (criminal cases, duh), appellate practice (cases before the state appeals courts), family law (domestic violence, custody, divorce), and various others...10 total, I believe. Essentially in the clinic you act as a lawyer for a semester. You have clients, you counsel them, you interview witnesses, you go to court and try cases. See, under the Maryland Rules Governing Lawyers, Rule 16 allows students in good standing at ABA-accredited law schools to work as lawyers under the supervision of qualified attorneys. You take an oath from a judge, being sworn in as a sort of temporary member of the bar, and you are expected to fulfill all the duties of a lawyer to her clients and the court. Your supervisor in the clinic accompanies you because he or she is responsible not only for mentoring you and helping you, but for your screwups if you commit an ethical violation or something.
It's very exciting, because you get to experience what it's like to work as a lawyer while you're still learning how to be one. It gives you a taste of real practice and prepares you better for your eventual job, since you'll already have been trained somewhat before you even hit your first post-bar-exam job. Most of law school is theory, which is important, but practical skills are important too and many law schools don't focus enough on them. It's also scary, because from the moment you take on a client YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE. It's frightening to contemplate having that kind of control over other people's lives.
I am applying to the criminal practice clinic- they take 16 people a semester, 10 for the state's attorney's office and 6 for public defender's office (this clinic is unique in that you work under an actual attorney at that office, not a faculty member, although you still attend class once a week and have a faculty advisor). I want SA but I'll take PD. I'm not sure of my chances- it's a lottery system, plus they give priority to 3rd years...so it depends largely on how many people apply and how lucky I am. My ideal schedule is to take this, constitutional criminal procedure 2, trial advocacy (which is a required corequisite) and forensic evidence. That'll be 13 credits, plus 15-20 hours a week spent on the clinic outside class hours, plus my job so I have money for food and rent. I'm resigned to having a VERY busy semester if this works out. But that's fine. I'm happy and excited, and I hope I get in. The list will be posted next Thursday, and I register for classes the following Wednesday.
On a related note (sorta)- I went down to hand in my application (the clinic offices are a couple blocks from the law building) and ran into someone from my con crim pro 1 class. She asked me if I was handing in an application, and said she was surprised I was applying for SA considering how liberal I am. *laugh* We ended up getting into a discussion of drug policy...but she mentioned something I had said in class a few weeks ago that I thought was stupid at the time, but maybe wasn't. See, I have strong opinions about constitutional issues and so I tend to say so when I think the case we're discussing is stupid.
In Property last year I had a reputation because over the semester, I made several rather sarcastic comments to the professor (a nice woman who earned some dislike by her method of teaching and her lack of professionalism). She was so casual with us that I felt she was inviting it (I wasn't outright rude or mean, just somewhat freer than you'd normally be with a respected professor)....Like once she was explaining some concept badly and made an analogy to the Holy Trinity, which I thought was stupid, so I said, "Yeah, well that takes a leap of faith for it to make sense, too." So people in the class remembered me.
The specific comment this con crim pro person mentioned, I made in the context of a discussion about Supreme Court rulings on 4th amendment violations in searches. I believe we were discussing the court's ruling that because cars are subject to pervasive regulation, people have less expectation of privacy and therefore the search of a car can be executed without a warrant if there is probable cause. This is a rather circular argument. The professor said that this has been analogized to the fact that government regulating bodies are allowed to conduct searches of a company's premises for violations without violating the 4th amendment; for example, coal mines can be inspected for violations of environmental regulations. So I raised my hand, and said, "Can the EPA inspect a coal mine to see if it contains albino tiger cubs?"
The point that I used this example to make, of course, is that pervasive regulation is not an excuse for unrelated searches. Ie, just as the EPA cannot inspect the coal mine for albino tiger cubs (illegal though their possession may be) simply because it has the authority to regulate and inspect the coal mine for compliance with environmental standards, the fact that automobiles are licenced and their possession regulated by the government for identification and safety reasons should not operate as a justification for police officers to go on a treasure hunt for marijuana in your car. Unfortunately the Supreme Court disagrees with me there, but that was my point. But when I first said it, it sounded like a particularly bizarre non sequitur, which makes it stick in people's minds. My intention was to emphasize the ridiculousness of the ruling, not to draw attention to myself.
But I like the noteriety anyway.
In other news, I think I have a Halloween costume! Yay. I'll show pics if it works out. I'm playing The Sims 2 a LOT. I don't know why it's so addictive, but it is. I've also been hanging out in The Sims Resource forums for a lark. I had something of significance to say, but I forget what it is...crap. I'm so tired, I was up late (playing the sims :P) and so I'm sleepy.
Oh yeah! I figured out where I go to vote- I was looking at the candidates for Congressional spots and the city ballot questions on the Maryland Bd of Elections website, and I suddenly went- I wonder where I go to vote. Followed by, I wonder where my registration card is. I knew I was registered because I changed it when I got my change of address card last August, and I remember before the primaries I checked my card because I couldn't remember my party affiliation (it's Unaffiliated, if you care, so I couldn't vote in the primaries- I initially registered as a Democrat in 1999 at my mother's urging, so that I could vote in the primaries, but when I changed my registration I was so disgusted with both parties that I changed it). So anyway, I can't find the card and I'm starting to worry, and I call them and they pull my info and give me the address. They also put in a thing to have another card sent to me. yay. I'm trying to decide if I should blow morning class to go vote- I don't really want to go at lunch (I'm afraid it will be too crowded) and I don't want to get up early because I'm lazy. :) It's depressing but I think I'm pretty much voting a straight Dem ticket this year- I'm voting for Kerry because I hate Bush much more than I hate the two-party political system (4 more years of the status quo is unlikely to do enduring damage to the country- 4 more years of Bush probably will, it's a cost-benefit analysis). And I'll probably vote for the Democratic Congressional incumbents because I don't think the other candidates are necessarily better and I see no reason not to...I'm generally satisfied with them.
And I realized that by moving to Baltimore, I moved OUT of Roscoe Bartlett's congressional district! HOORAY! If my parents' neighborhood is any indicator, that district is VERY Republican and it keeps electing this shmoe. Just imagine your typical Republican who prizes his party's nonsensical but traditional views, and that's Roscoe. (It frightened me when I realized all my parents' friends and neighbors are republicans. I guess that makes sense for an extremely upper-middle-class area but I never thought about it because my parents have always been Democrats, and going from working class to upper middle class hasn't changed that, even though my dad is more politically conservative now. Anyway, someone who is too liberal for the Democratic party bringing up politics in a room full of Republicans is the intellectual equivalent of walking through Crips territory wearing all red. So I try to not do that unless it's unavoidable, ie unless I've had so much to drink that tact no longer exists as an option.)
Amongst the other things I had to do this week was apply for clinic. See, one of the cool things University of Baltimore has (which UMD doesn't, which is why our practical education is better, ha ha) is a law clinic program. There are various clinics...disability law (involuntary commitment proceedings), criminal practice (criminal cases, duh), appellate practice (cases before the state appeals courts), family law (domestic violence, custody, divorce), and various others...10 total, I believe. Essentially in the clinic you act as a lawyer for a semester. You have clients, you counsel them, you interview witnesses, you go to court and try cases. See, under the Maryland Rules Governing Lawyers, Rule 16 allows students in good standing at ABA-accredited law schools to work as lawyers under the supervision of qualified attorneys. You take an oath from a judge, being sworn in as a sort of temporary member of the bar, and you are expected to fulfill all the duties of a lawyer to her clients and the court. Your supervisor in the clinic accompanies you because he or she is responsible not only for mentoring you and helping you, but for your screwups if you commit an ethical violation or something.
It's very exciting, because you get to experience what it's like to work as a lawyer while you're still learning how to be one. It gives you a taste of real practice and prepares you better for your eventual job, since you'll already have been trained somewhat before you even hit your first post-bar-exam job. Most of law school is theory, which is important, but practical skills are important too and many law schools don't focus enough on them. It's also scary, because from the moment you take on a client YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE. It's frightening to contemplate having that kind of control over other people's lives.
I am applying to the criminal practice clinic- they take 16 people a semester, 10 for the state's attorney's office and 6 for public defender's office (this clinic is unique in that you work under an actual attorney at that office, not a faculty member, although you still attend class once a week and have a faculty advisor). I want SA but I'll take PD. I'm not sure of my chances- it's a lottery system, plus they give priority to 3rd years...so it depends largely on how many people apply and how lucky I am. My ideal schedule is to take this, constitutional criminal procedure 2, trial advocacy (which is a required corequisite) and forensic evidence. That'll be 13 credits, plus 15-20 hours a week spent on the clinic outside class hours, plus my job so I have money for food and rent. I'm resigned to having a VERY busy semester if this works out. But that's fine. I'm happy and excited, and I hope I get in. The list will be posted next Thursday, and I register for classes the following Wednesday.
On a related note (sorta)- I went down to hand in my application (the clinic offices are a couple blocks from the law building) and ran into someone from my con crim pro 1 class. She asked me if I was handing in an application, and said she was surprised I was applying for SA considering how liberal I am. *laugh* We ended up getting into a discussion of drug policy...but she mentioned something I had said in class a few weeks ago that I thought was stupid at the time, but maybe wasn't. See, I have strong opinions about constitutional issues and so I tend to say so when I think the case we're discussing is stupid.
In Property last year I had a reputation because over the semester, I made several rather sarcastic comments to the professor (a nice woman who earned some dislike by her method of teaching and her lack of professionalism). She was so casual with us that I felt she was inviting it (I wasn't outright rude or mean, just somewhat freer than you'd normally be with a respected professor)....Like once she was explaining some concept badly and made an analogy to the Holy Trinity, which I thought was stupid, so I said, "Yeah, well that takes a leap of faith for it to make sense, too." So people in the class remembered me.
The specific comment this con crim pro person mentioned, I made in the context of a discussion about Supreme Court rulings on 4th amendment violations in searches. I believe we were discussing the court's ruling that because cars are subject to pervasive regulation, people have less expectation of privacy and therefore the search of a car can be executed without a warrant if there is probable cause. This is a rather circular argument. The professor said that this has been analogized to the fact that government regulating bodies are allowed to conduct searches of a company's premises for violations without violating the 4th amendment; for example, coal mines can be inspected for violations of environmental regulations. So I raised my hand, and said, "Can the EPA inspect a coal mine to see if it contains albino tiger cubs?"
The point that I used this example to make, of course, is that pervasive regulation is not an excuse for unrelated searches. Ie, just as the EPA cannot inspect the coal mine for albino tiger cubs (illegal though their possession may be) simply because it has the authority to regulate and inspect the coal mine for compliance with environmental standards, the fact that automobiles are licenced and their possession regulated by the government for identification and safety reasons should not operate as a justification for police officers to go on a treasure hunt for marijuana in your car. Unfortunately the Supreme Court disagrees with me there, but that was my point. But when I first said it, it sounded like a particularly bizarre non sequitur, which makes it stick in people's minds. My intention was to emphasize the ridiculousness of the ruling, not to draw attention to myself.
But I like the noteriety anyway.
In other news, I think I have a Halloween costume! Yay. I'll show pics if it works out. I'm playing The Sims 2 a LOT. I don't know why it's so addictive, but it is. I've also been hanging out in The Sims Resource forums for a lark. I had something of significance to say, but I forget what it is...crap. I'm so tired, I was up late (playing the sims :P) and so I'm sleepy.
Oh yeah! I figured out where I go to vote- I was looking at the candidates for Congressional spots and the city ballot questions on the Maryland Bd of Elections website, and I suddenly went- I wonder where I go to vote. Followed by, I wonder where my registration card is. I knew I was registered because I changed it when I got my change of address card last August, and I remember before the primaries I checked my card because I couldn't remember my party affiliation (it's Unaffiliated, if you care, so I couldn't vote in the primaries- I initially registered as a Democrat in 1999 at my mother's urging, so that I could vote in the primaries, but when I changed my registration I was so disgusted with both parties that I changed it). So anyway, I can't find the card and I'm starting to worry, and I call them and they pull my info and give me the address. They also put in a thing to have another card sent to me. yay. I'm trying to decide if I should blow morning class to go vote- I don't really want to go at lunch (I'm afraid it will be too crowded) and I don't want to get up early because I'm lazy. :) It's depressing but I think I'm pretty much voting a straight Dem ticket this year- I'm voting for Kerry because I hate Bush much more than I hate the two-party political system (4 more years of the status quo is unlikely to do enduring damage to the country- 4 more years of Bush probably will, it's a cost-benefit analysis). And I'll probably vote for the Democratic Congressional incumbents because I don't think the other candidates are necessarily better and I see no reason not to...I'm generally satisfied with them.
And I realized that by moving to Baltimore, I moved OUT of Roscoe Bartlett's congressional district! HOORAY! If my parents' neighborhood is any indicator, that district is VERY Republican and it keeps electing this shmoe. Just imagine your typical Republican who prizes his party's nonsensical but traditional views, and that's Roscoe. (It frightened me when I realized all my parents' friends and neighbors are republicans. I guess that makes sense for an extremely upper-middle-class area but I never thought about it because my parents have always been Democrats, and going from working class to upper middle class hasn't changed that, even though my dad is more politically conservative now. Anyway, someone who is too liberal for the Democratic party bringing up politics in a room full of Republicans is the intellectual equivalent of walking through Crips territory wearing all red. So I try to not do that unless it's unavoidable, ie unless I've had so much to drink that tact no longer exists as an option.)