I did not camp out in front of the Supreme Court

I had some friends who did this, though.   It is understandable, given that the Court crafted an unprecedented debate structure over three days to decide one of the more important cases in the past forty years.  But as interesting as it would be to witness legal history in the making as a law student in DC, it's been sort of cold at night and I would rather stay warm.  Also I have been able to ask my friends how it went and then listen to the rush transcripts.

So here's the week in recap:

Thursday- one week (and two posts) ago, I went running through the cherry blossoms with Ben.  We spent most of our time dodging people and trying not to let our momentum mixed with the unpredictable walking patterns of tourists end up running us into the tidal basin.  Tourists LOVE cherry blossom season.

That evening I went with a big group to see The Hunger Games.

Sarah (on the left), our resident sorority girl, made everyone shirts.  Except for Noah, who was channeling the character Cinna and wanted to be stylish and different.  Classic Noah.

Our group expanded once we got into the theater.  

While waiting for the movie to start (we got there an hour early and more than 80% of the seats were already taken- never seen that before) I got the chance to catch up with Carolyn Myers, who sat down right in front of me.  Small world.

The movie itself was good.  The experience- how we went about seeing it- made it great. 

The next morning I drove a couple of hours away to go visit my IP client.  My work with the Innocence Project has probably been the most rewarding legal activity I have undertaken in law school, and this visit was no exception.  Our client was kind, intelligent, honest, thoughtful, and heartbreakingly grateful that anyone was even interested in his story.  His last legal counsel visit was in the mid-90's.  

Now, my work with IP doesn't jade me into thinking that the entire criminal justice system is broken.  I mean, it is, but I arrived at that conclusion from a lot of other places.  Having been in business school, though, it strikes me as obvious that the criminal justice system has no interest in implementing a six sigma mentality (3.4 defects per million 'products' manufactured).  The comparison of manufacturing to criminal justice is ludicrous even on its face, given how much more difficult it is to standardize a process that can be abused a million different ways from case to case, and that's sort of the point.  If we view a manufacturing company that only screws up 3.4 times per million as UNBELIEVABLY accurate, and we understand that criminal justice can't really be put on an assembly line, then how many mistakes do we implicitly accept are just going to be par for the course?  (And that includes mistakes in both directions- in a society that values trying to keep innocent persons out of jail more guilty parties are going to be cut loose than innocent parties accidentally incarcerated.)  

That's why I'm very proud to be investigating this case, even if it turns up nothing or if it turns out that our client actually did what he was accused of... it all helps improve the integrity and baseline trustworthiness of the system.  No matter how careful or how effective the system gets, there will always be a need for law students and lawyers to go and just listen to the claims of those inmates claiming actual innocence. 

After the meeting we drove back and I caught a bus (barely- I was sprinting) to Williamsburg for the weekend.  I got to watch Hunger Games again, but this time at the greatest movie theater ever where you can order food and beer and they bring it to you during the movie  You can even order additional beer to be delivered halfway through the movie before you go in.  Yes, such a place exists.  I think it's a franchise.  There should be one in every town.  

Kelsey and I also started watching Breaking Bad, because it's supposed to be very good.  The first few episodes were alright.  For snacks we got goat cheese from Trader Joe's.  Trader Joe's is my new favorite grocery store, because I hate grocery stores.  Too many brands.  Trader Joe's doesn't have any brands other than their own, which makes decision making easy.

On Sunday we ran and got cake, in that order.  We walked into the cake shop wearing running clothes and sweating, as if to prove that we had earned the cake.  I'm sure the cake more than offset our efforts.

Back in DC this week, I had the kind of week that required me to go back and check my calendar to see exactly what I did.  I've had a lot of those weeks recently.  I got drinks with Kelly on Monday evening, which was excellent and long overdue.  I also made a bet involving self-driving cars that I will most likely lose... ten years from now.

Tuesday and Wednesday were fairly normal days, except that I've been playing the go-to-trainings-to-get-free-food game with Lexis and Westlaw, which is just a fantastic deal.  I sit there for an hour and get a free water bottle, pizza, and points that I can then exchange for amazon gift cards.  Also in the process I have been certified as a professional researcher for lexis.  Which is hilarious to me.  Right after I got the certification I received the following text message from David:

"You are doing law school wrong.  I have decided this.  Frustratingly it seems to be working for you."

I always appreciate his insights.  Also, Innocence Project had elections on Wednesday for next year and I have been elected as one of the case managers, which means that instead of being on a team next year I am in charge of supervising three teams.  I'm going to try to stay involved in my case at the same time, if that is possible.

Tonight we have another GGSS caberet performance and then this weekend I get to babysit Emily's dog Nori while she is in Rhode Island!