Law Students

Why I Can't Take the East Coast Media Seriously When They Pretend To Take California Seriously

Posted on January 31, 2008
On a day when all the candidates are in California, we find this geographic oddity in the very first line of a Slate article on the state of the campaign: For the first time today, all of the presidential candidates are east of the Mississippi.How about free maps for all political journalists!It's fun for everyone when the DC media mob -- which occasionally goes years without making it west of 36th & M in Georgetown -- starts to write deep-think pieces about California...

Someone Out There IS Thinking!

Posted on January 29, 2008
I'm not exactly Cell Phone Guy (most days I don't even carry it with me), but I think this idea is flippin' cool:BART is beginning a four month test of near-field technology for ticket sales. If successful, it would allow people to pay for a ticket automatically as their phone passes through the gate...

Do you politically match your law firm?

Posted on January 29, 2008
This article will hopefully be interesting to the 80% of you Berkeley students who plan to head off to the world of Big Law.From the article:DLA Piper has given the largest amount to date, gifting $356,100 (£180,300) to Hillary Clinton?s cause, making the firm her top contributor...

The Next Kennedy?

Posted on January 29, 2008
Sunday, Caroline Kennedy wrote a New York Times editorial endorsing Barack Obama for president. She wrote that qualities of "leadership, character, and judgment" were more important in this election than policy choices and experience. She compared Obama to her father, saying that both men shared a vision of the American Dream that people desperately needed to believe in...

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More California Election Madness

Posted on January 28, 2008
California has a unique primary system. In past primary elections, "decline-to-state" voters could show up to their polling place and vote as either Republicans or Democrats by requesting the ballot.However, for this year's CA presidential primary, the California Republican Party decided to not allow "decline-to-state" voters the opportunity to request and vote with a Republican ballot...

A Little Help Here

Posted on January 28, 2008
I'd like some help from the N&B community. Like many of you, I'm sure, I've been seeing tons of ads both for and against Props 94-97, regarding Indian gaming. I'll admit to some ignorance on this one, and doing some research on the issues hasn't cleared things up for me...

Confession of a 1L Gunner

Posted on January 27, 2008
Forgive me Armen, for I have sinned.I have lusted after a professor. I have desired to know her - not in the Biblical sense, but as two intellectuals, united on a higher plane than that of ordinary mortals. I have waited, all semester, to feel the thrill of eye contact in a crowded classroom, that jolt of electricity when I asked a question that makes her search the vast library catalog in her head for the answer...

...Or You Could Call a Congressman

Posted on January 25, 2008
[Ashley, a 2L doing a field placement at the EFF, asked me to post what looks like a media release. Hyperlinks slightly modified by me. Enjoy. -- Armen]***As you may or may not know, this Monday there will be a vote on an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)...

Won't Somebody Please Think of the Children?

Posted on January 24, 2008
[Illustrious Co-Blogger Disco Stu is having problems with Blogger. He asked me to post this in his stead. -- Armen] ***Alumni, specifically Boalties who were there in 2003. Surely you've seen the news that you're getting a refund. It could be over $10,000 for some of you...

Quick Notes From Dean Edley 3L Town Hall

Posted on January 24, 2008
- Edley and Shelanski were unwilling to talk about the drop in bar passage rates, claiming it is due to "very unfortunate circumstances," and that they will tell the student body when they find out the reasons.- Edley & Shelanski: Class registration times are NOT based on your student ID number despite anecdotal evidence to the opposite...

Two Lunch Break Questions

Posted on January 24, 2008
When there's nothing good on TV at lunch, I get to reading (oh no!). Today, I got to wondering too:1. Why hasn't the California Law Review updated its website? Here's the current issue. Sadly, no links to the articles. If you don't link to it, no one can read it folks...

Teach Me, Coach Me, but Prosecute HIM!

Posted on January 20, 2008
This NY Times article describes an example of what is, to me, the most compelling argument against the death penalty: sometimes we screw up.The short version of the story is that Virginia prosecutors coached a witness to lie in order to achieve a murder conviction against his confederate...

Freedom of the Press

Posted on January 19, 2008
While perusing the Oakland Tribune, I noticed an article about a 10-year-old boy who had been shot during his piano lesson. A stray bullet, shot during a robbery of the gas station across the street, had gone through the wall of the room he was in. This raises all sorts of wonderful questions about gun control (in response to the incident, Peralta is sponsoring a buyback program) and the Second Amendment (exactly, what do those, pesky commas mean, anyway?)...

Inmates Litigating Badly

Posted on January 18, 2008
A propos this and this.

Nevada Caucus Pregame

Posted on January 18, 2008
Things are getting exciting! If I know EW, he's already gone to Vegas to campaign...I've been curious about the recently dismissed caucus lawsuit. I'm not familiar with the pleadings or the substance (here's one link on the odd math), but here's what troubled me...

iPorn?

Posted on January 16, 2008
There are times when you think of something, wonder if you should share it, and then think better and are glad you did not. This does not appear to be one of those times.Yesterday Apple?s Steve Jobs announced online movie rentals. He also proudly announced that 27% of the US smartphone traffic travels through an Apple device...

Stop, restart.

Posted on January 15, 2008
Pity the poor students in Securities Litigation last semester. Everything they learned has been replaced. For those who get a kick out of snark, see part III of Stevens' dissent. Any deeper analysis than that will take time, there's a lot of substantive securities law and a lot of substantive legislative interpretation being hashed out in there...

More Bookbuying Woes

Posted on January 13, 2008
I noticed that the text for the Exempt Organization Seminar is egregiously expensive. The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, 8th ed. (ISBN 0471268208) is currently offered in the Boalt Bookstore at $187.50 for a used copy. This is the most expensive assigned text I have even seen...

Shameless plugs?

Posted on January 13, 2008
The worst course I ever took in undergrad was an American Lit course. From the description in the course reader, I'd expected to read the American greats - Melville, Hawthorne, Faulkner. Instead, the reading list reflected the professors attempt to perform self therapy...

Bar Passage Rates

Posted on January 10, 2008
I don't have too much time to say anything substantive, but the complete bar pass results came out. I will add that someone from USF forwarded me the results gloating about their higher pass rate (85) compared to Boalt's (82). My reaction: Enjoy OCI with the downturn in the market.

What the??

Posted on January 08, 2008
How in the world did Hillary resuscitate a moribund campaign in 24 hours? How did the polls -- not just the day-befores, but the exits -- get it so wrong? Everyone's got a theory! Pick your favorite!The Tonya Harding Moment. The talking heads seem to be latching onto the emotive, teary-eyed moment yesterday when Hillary sounded less like a telemarketer and more like a person...

Welcome to your life...

Posted on January 08, 2008
Hey Boalties: the New York Times would like to give you a wonderfully depressing look at your future - here.My favorite quote: "Forty-four percent of lawyers recently surveyed by the American Bar Association said they would not recommend the profession to a young person...

Hey Judge, Kiss My...

Posted on January 07, 2008
Apparently, signing a court document by asking the judge to kiss your [certain lower body part] is sufficient for contempt. Attention colleagues who are seeking the litigation path: you've been warned.Tangentially related to future employment, I was wondering if anyone got something really good from their future employer over the finals/holiday season...

Meanwhile, in Dick Cheney's bunker...

Posted on January 04, 2008
Iowa raises more questions than answers for the GOP, but I'm afraid I lack any serious insights -- mostly because it's hard to take the Republican Party seriously any more. When the average American has seen his wages decline, his health care disappear, his financial situation endure unprecedented volatility, his country lose soldiers and respect, the GOP response to this is to intone deeply about...

Caucus Raucous

Posted on January 04, 2008
Hah, not quite Armen! What I did say was that, in early Fall, the CW was crystallizing dangerously against Obama -- and it was. But then things changed with that Nevada debate where Hillary stumbled on the Iran resolution, her Presidential records, and Social Security, and suddenly the dynamic of the race shifted-- the press got more combative, Obama found his voice, and Hillary started to sound a little -- forgive the gendered term -- hysterical...

De Ja Vu All Over Again

Posted on January 03, 2008
Based on the Iowa results that are coming in, midwestern GOP wants a Southern governor who's on a mission from God. And it looks like the Dems have a real race on their hands don't they? Just a short few months ago co-blogger Earl Warren thought Hillary had it all wrapped up...

2008 List of Banished Words

Posted on January 02, 2008
Each year Lake Superior State University publishes a list of words and phrases they believe should be banned in light of their uselessness. Here are highlights from the 2008 list:POST 9/11 ? "'Our post-9/11 world,' is used now, and probably used more, than AD, BC, or Y2K, time references...

Congratulations

Posted on January 01, 2008
With the New Year, I wanted to flag a story I noticed a little while ago. The Senate recently confirmed a Boaltie to the Eastern District of Kentucky, the Honorable Amul Thapar. Future commencement speaker? Sixth Circuit judge? Supreme Court justice? The sky appears to be the limit for Judge Thapar...

Confession

Posted on December 31, 2007
Prof. Leiter's latest post reads in full:The top two results for a Google search of "Leiter" are my philosophy blog and this blog. Take that Al Leiter and Felix Leiter!Interesting. In his final post, Buffalo Wings and Vodka (a UT law student at the time) wrote:I?d like to thank the network administrators at each and every American law school for making wireless internet access available in classrooms...

Should Nuts and Boalts Sell Out?

Posted on December 26, 2007
Tempting.

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