Law Students

The End... and a new beginning.

Posted on April 27, 2009
Well, this blog ended some time ago, but I'll make it official. This is my last post. In a few weeks, I graduate from law school. Shortly thereafter I am told I have to take some sort of test.Then, if all goes well and I jump through a bunch of hoops, I will make the following affirmation sometime in December: "I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney and counselor at law to the best of my knowledge and ability...

Sarah Palin is Not Flat Busted

Posted on September 04, 2008
This photo of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin shows her showing off her shirt that reads "I may be broke but, I'm not flat busted." It was provided to the media by her parents.I think the implication of this should be clear to everyone: a vice presidential candidate that would choose to wear a shirt with a message that employs such poor use of punctuation is clearly unqualified for the job...

USF Beats Boalt.... Again!

Posted on August 10, 2008
It was noted here last winter that USF beat Berkeley Law in first-time passage rate of the July 2007 California Bar Exam. The Bar is administered twice a year, and the February 2008 data are out. USF beat Boalt once again! And Hastings. And a bunch of others...

The Eyes of The World are on You, Hillary

Posted on May 07, 2008
Sen. Clinton on May 2:This primary election on Tuesday is a game changer. This is going to make a huge difference in what happens going forward. The entire country -- probably even a lot of the world -- is looking to see what North Carolina decides.And North Carolina decided: Obama 56%, Clinton 42%...

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Reason Number 4,572 Why Socialism Sucks

Posted on May 07, 2008
Sunrise over Havana. This is a photo taken by blogger Yoani Sanchez, from her balcony in Havana, Cuba. I admit I had never considered that Cuba might have a lot of air pollution. It being a Caribbean island nation with ocean breezes, sustaining itself on tourism and supposedly so committed to the common good and all...

Why I hate TV

Posted on April 27, 2008
Even when it's not TV, it's HBO. Season 1, Episode 8 of Big Love: Lawyer: You are being sued for $5 million in injunctive relief....Hrmmph.

Repeal the Sixth and Seventh Amendments!

Posted on April 16, 2008
After what seemed like a lifetime of jury duty (but was really only two days), I've decided it's time to start flipping coins. One of my fellow jurors put it best: "After two hundred-odd years of this country, is this the fuckin' best we can do? Waste sixty persons' time for two days with a bunch of dumb questions? Pick 12 people and decide this thing, already!"Of course, me and the two people with JD's were eventually peremptoried off...

Dr. King's Last Sermon

Posted on April 04, 2008
I See The Promised LandApril 3, 1968Memphis, TennesseeThank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you...

Does JP Know How to Use a Computer?

Posted on March 28, 2008
From my visitor logs:Domain Name: (Unknown)IP Address: 209.144.137.# (The Supreme Court of the U.S.)ISP: SAVVIS Communications CorporationLocationContinent: North AmericaCountry: United States (Facts)State: District of ColumbiaCity: WashingtonLat/Long: 38...

Obsessions

Posted on March 25, 2008
I've been slack in my posting for the past few weeks, and I am not sure why since I have been obsessesed with a whole host of issues, in particular the corporate law issues in the Microsoft acquisiton of Yahoo, the Bear Stearns collapse, and DC v. Heller...

Medellin v. Texas: ICJ decision creates an international obligation, but not domestic law

Posted on March 25, 2008
Cross-posted at TLB.This morning?s decision in Medellin v. Texas is the culmination of a long line of cases, both at the ICJ and at the Supreme Court, that have attempted to determine the effect that an ICJ ruling has under U.S. domestic law. In the law review comment I am working on, I have approached this problem from the perspective of trying to doctrinally resolve the Medellin line of cases with the Supreme Court?s decision in Mitsubishi Motors v...

Simon's Rock Pride!

Posted on February 25, 2008
My fellow alumni Joel and Ethan Coen are big-time Oscar winners.It was a tough choice for me, but I have to say I liked There Will Be Blood just a bit more. Oh, well.

Post South Carolina Roundup

Posted on January 27, 2008
It's no secret that I am for Obama. I predicted he would be the nominee in February 2007. I still think he is going to win, but I fear the Clintons.To be honest, I have this pit of ice in my stomach, because I have a feeling that no matter what happens, I am going to come out of this having lost all respect for Bill Clinton...

We Interrupt This Blog For An Important Public Service Announcement

Posted on January 24, 2008

Presidential Candidates and the Juris Doctorate

Posted on January 23, 2008
Democratic presidential candidates with JD's:Hillary Clinton - YaleBarack Obama - HarvardJohn Edwards - UNCJoe Biden - SyracuseChris Dodd - LouisvilleTom Vilsack - AlbanyWithout: Bill Richardson (But has M.A. from Tuft's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy)Dennis KucinichMike GravelRepublican candidates with JD's:Mitt Romney - HarvardRudy Giuliani - NYUFred Thompson - VanderbiltSam Brownback - KansasDuncan Hunter - Thomas JeffersonTommy Thompson - WisconsinWithout JD's:John McCainMike Huckabee - but for what it's worth he has an honorary LL...

What Are They Teaching at NYU Law These Days?

Posted on January 22, 2008
From the NYT coverage of Heath Ledger's death:Others in the crowd said their first reaction was disbelief. Nicole Vaughan, 24, a law student at New York University, was in a seminar about Jesus when someone sent her a message about Mr. Ledger.Crikey. That makes me feel so much better about my own school's class Interpersonal Dynamics for Lawyers...

Transnational Law Blog

Posted on January 22, 2008
In order to focus my blogging a bit more, I have recently started posting at Transnational Law Blog, a forum created by a group of students from Hastings that focuses broadly on issues in international law, whether public or private.I have mostly focused on posts regarding my law review comment, which is a comparison of third party dispute resolution mechanisms in international private contracts and in international treaties...

USF Beats Boalt!

Posted on January 10, 2008
I blogged earlier about USF's high California Bar passage rate for first-time takers on the July 2007 exam (85%). And I cautioned, of course, that we will have to look at how we did relative to other schools. But now the data for the other schools are out...

What if the worst-case scenario happened in Pakistan?

Posted on December 31, 2007
Over at Opinio Juris, Prof. Julian Ku links an article in the UK?s Herald that noted that US Special Forces were on standby to enter Pakistan and secure the nuclear warheads should civil unrest threaten the Musharraf regime. Ku calls this plan a ?sensible precaution? but opines that it would be ?almost certainly illegal under international law...

Building a Better Legal Profession (really?)

Posted on December 12, 2007
Of course, we all know that while a good number of the people who are admitted to Stanford Law are really, really smart, some of them are going to end up being fairly useless. For example, take the Stanford students behind Building A Better Legal Profession, a supposedly "national grassroots organization" dedicated to "reforming the legal profession" (which seems to mean not making corporate lawyers work so hard, and increasing diversity among associates and partners at BigLaw firms)...

Class of '07 knocks the cover off the bar

Posted on December 07, 2007
USF first-time bar exam takers in the the July '07 exam achieved a 85% pass rate, compared to a 76% pass rate overall for exam takers from CA ABA-approved schools. Data on other schools is not yet available.In comparison, in July '06, USF had a 74% pass rate, while the CA ABA rate was 73...

Boumediene v. Bush

Posted on December 05, 2007
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today in Boumediene v. Bush, the latest in a series of cases seeking to establish the scope of the rights of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. One of the issues before the Court in this case is whether non-citizens detained as enemy combatants have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in federal court...

Law school is a mad, mad, mad world

Posted on December 04, 2007
My Con Law exam was this afternoon. I went to sleep early this evening.I just woke up, and thought I was having a nightmare. But I wasn't. In my dreams, I had managed to piece together (through the fog of the wine and Tylenol PM that I took to get me to sleep) that the Tenth Amendment only serves as a bar to the commandeering of state resources when Congress acts pursuant to the powers that come before the Tenth (and possibly only the Commerce Clause)...

Books I would like to read if I wasn't always reading cases

Posted on November 30, 2007
So, uhhh...If anyone is looking for Xmas gift ideas for me, these might work:The Savage Detectives, Roberto BolanoThe Quiet American, Graham GreeneA Theory of Justice, John RawlsAnd, if anyone has other recommendations, please let me know.

I love that crazy old coot

Posted on November 30, 2007
I might have voted for John McCain had he been the Republican nominee in 2000. Thankfully, he wasn't, because he has since proven to be pretty batty.But, I gotta hand it to him: regardless of the number of issues on which we might disagree, I admire him for following his conscience...

My New Blog Buddy

Posted on November 27, 2007
The blogosphere has a new contributor: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.Of course, he starts off with an autobiographical post:During the era that nobility was a prestige and living in a city was perfection, I was born in a poor family in a remote village of Garmsar-approximately 90 kilometer east of Tehran...

Why I am not going into criminal law

Posted on November 25, 2007
The following was posted by an anonymous PD on Craigslist:Some Advice From Your Public DefenderFirst, let me say I love my job and it is a privilege to work for my clients. I wish I could do more for them.That being said, there are a few things that need to be discussed...

Two Words: Chuck. Norris.

Posted on November 19, 2007
I may just vote for Mike Huckabee

Big Ups to all my Homies

Posted on November 16, 2007
The July 2007 California Bar Exam results come out today. While individual results won't be a public for a few more days, the aggregate results have been released. It appears that 56% percent passed, the highest total since 2001.Well done, Class of '07!

Law School Musical

Posted on November 15, 2007
Posting this from my own broke-ass Dell...

Traitor!

Posted on October 24, 2007
One of America's four or five most famous people, Rudy Giuliani, is rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series.Apparently, nothing is sacred to Hizzoner in his quest to get votes in New Hampshire.Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul appear to be the only Republican candidates with any degree of integrity...

Attack of the 50-Foot Straw Man

Posted on September 27, 2007
(Cross-posted at De Novo)Prof. Ilya Somin of George Mason University School of Law has recently posted a series of arguments against any sort of national mandatory service program. By a "mandatory national service program," Somin means the broad proposition of mandating that young people at some point after high school participate in a civilian work service program for a year or two, perhaps working in national parks, teaching, or some other national service (think combining the draft with Americorps)...

The World is Going Crazy

Posted on September 20, 2007
1) Venezuela's Chavez has decided to alter Venezuela's time by a half an hour.2) Iran's Ahmadinejad wants to lay a wreath at Ground Zero.3) China clearly does not understand the meaning of the term "peace."4) And Rudy Giuliani thinks he is one of the four or five best known Americans...

Three cheers for non-justiciability

Posted on September 18, 2007
N.D. Cal. Judge Martin Jenkins has granted Defendants' motion to dismiss California's lawsuit against them (California v. General Motors) on the basis of non-justiciability. California had sued six automakers arguing that emissions from the cars they made constituted a public nuisance...

Increased traffic to Traditional Notions

Posted on September 07, 2007
Despite my lack of posting, there has been an increased uptick in google searches finding Traditional Notions.First, my post on a NYT article last year has attracted a surge in people searching the term "Venezuelan names'" that is apparently occasioned by news reports that Venezuela is currently considering legislation to limit parents to giving their children one of 100 officially sanctioned names...

Culture Shock

Posted on August 09, 2007
I am on my way home. I knew I would be sad to leave Vietnam. I was. I watched the people on the streets as our driver took me to Noi Bai. I waved goodbye to Uncle Ho as we went past the Mausoleum. I waved to the cattle running along the highway. It was sad...

Day Four - Motorbiking across NW Vietnam Mountains: Into the Heart of Darkness

Posted on July 23, 2007
Day Four brought brought some of the most colorful and nicest minorities we met on the trip. It also brought us to the highest altitude on the trip, as we crossed over Fansipan, Vietnam's (as well as Indochina's) tallest peak. Not only was crossing Tram Ton Pass a physical crossing, but a metaphorical one as well, for the other side of the mountain gave us a glimpse of what might be in store for this mountainous region as development and tourism increases...