City of Dreams

Corny title? Yes. But it's true! There's so much opportunity in this city it's ridiculous. Everyone that I meet seems to have a connection somewhere. If you are open about what you want in a career, people will usually help you out to get it. I have a meeting tomorrow that may have the potential to make or break a future career. It's not a formal interview or anything, but if you royally screw up in front of one of the managing partners you're finished. I'm nervous...

I sat in on a session of the Supreme Court today! One of the coolest experiences! The sessions are open to the public, and I highly recommend everyone to attend sometime in your lives, especially if you're into law. Sadly, this was the last session until October but they pick up again then. I woke up at the crack of dawn to go stand in line at 7am outside the building. Thank goodness it was a pretty morning and the weather was nice. They let us in around 9 and we entered the courtroom after storing all of our belongings in lockers (no pictures). This courtroom is one of the most gorgeous rooms I've ever seen. It was all white marble with long red velvet curtains and a huge frieze along the perimeter with all of these figures. The ceiling was 44 feet tall (I remember from the lecture haha). Our seats weren't great since they make the general public sit along the outside of the courtroom between these huge pillars. Luckily, I was in a row near the front, so I could still see everything.

 It was a non-argument day so the Court only read opinions. Two of the first opinions concerned personal jurisdiction and went over my head, but I'm positive I'll learn about it in law school. The third opinion struck down a California law that prohibited the sale of violent video games to minors arguing that it violated the First Amendment (aka violence is not obscene and is therefore still a protected form of speech). The other case dealt with an Arizona clean elections law that permitted public financing to match funds in campaigns. The Court also struck down that law as unconstitutional, arguing that it restricted political speech of candidates who raised funds privately. Interesting stuff! I can't wait for a law professor to ask about my summer: "well sir/ma'am, I attended a session of the Supreme Court where they verbally gave the opinions that we're reading about in these casebooks." NBD.

The funniest thing was being mistaken for a member of the Supreme Court Bar (aka an attorney who can argue in front of the Supreme Court). First of all, I'm not even a law student yet until August. Second of all, this is a coveted position among attorneys and not many can practice in front of the Court. I tried to use the restroom and this guy was like "why are you using the public restrooms? The private lounge for members of our Bar is this way with private bathrooms." Haha I played along. It was great. Thank you professional attire.

I can't believe I saw the Justices up close. Most are getting pretty dang old but the Chief Justice is relatively young. This select group of 9 people interpret the law of the land. Wow. Law student geek moment- I think so. I can't get over all of the cool stuff I see out here.