Medieval Times and More

Last Thursday was the first mock trial competition for my high school students, and they did very well. Out of four teams, we won 3.5 of the trials (we technically lost on one of the two issues in the fourth trial, but we won on the important thing and the judge only awarded the other side attorneys' fees). Not that it matters, since a mock trial is like Whose Line Is It Anyway in that the judge's decision doesn't actually matter at all in terms of scoring. Still, it was great to be in one courtroom and hear the judge (when awarding the win to my kids) say "both sides did very well, but it seems as though the facts in this case were stacked towards the plaintiff (my team)" and then run to the courtroom across the way to hear the judge say (when awarding the win to my kids) "both sides did very well, but the plaintiff really has to PROVE their case and I don't think the facts were there in this packet so, on balance, I believe that the defense (my team) wins." They get to do it one more time tomorrow, and we have been working on advanced techniques and small improvements on the work they had already done. It's good, too, because I'm actually starting to get to the point (for a few of my top students) where I don't know how I would improve on their questions or their delivery all that much. 

Over the weekend we had Sara's golden birthday (she turned 24 on the 24th) and she wanted to go to Medieval Times, so that's what we did. We cheered on the white and black knight, who was the first to lose in glorious battle (of course), so then we switched allegiances to the red knight, who seemed to be doing well until he was offed by the blue knight, who no one liked. I was not expecting to enjoy Medieval Times as much as I did, but it was a very well done production.

The crowns were free, but you don't want to know how much Dan's beer cost.

This week has been exciting in DC for more manic weather, including a random snowstorm.

It was practically t-shirt weather later this day.

It has also been exciting in DC because the Supreme Court handed down a decision for a case that I had used to teach my kids about the 4th Amendment (Florida v. Jardines) and managed to come to the one conclusion that has almost nothing to do with what I taught my kids about the 4th Amendment (basically, that the case could be decided based on the idea of trespass as opposed to the idea of privacy). Thanks, Scalia. On the plus side, it had three very well-written opinions. It's a case about a dog sniff that detected a marijuana growing operation in a house, and on the first page Justice Scalia refers to the police officers monitoring the house as a "joint surveillance task force." See, even the Supreme Court can have a sense of humor.

In addition to handing down that case, the Court is hearing two cases that will probably be the most important of the term- Hollingsworth (Prop 8) and Windsor (DOMA). Or, as you may understand from media reports, the Gay Marriage cases. I'm actually going to a post-argument discussion today after Windsor that will feature several of the people who worked on the briefs for both sides. My personal favorite moment from the arguments yesterday was when Justice Scalia asked something like "at what point did banning gay marriage become unconstitutional?" and the lawyer responded "at what point did banning interracial marriage become unconstitutional?" You aren't supposed to ever respond to a Justice's question with another question, but I thought that was well played.

P.S. You Should Blog

Spring Break was last week, and by Spring Break I mean the school was nice enough to give me a week to write a 21 page research paper tentatively titled Fifteen Years and Death: Double Jeopardy's Multiple Punishment Implications of Extended Stays on Death Row. It's a real page-turner. I'm hoping to use it as a jumping-off point to get people interested in my next paper with the working title: Uncertainty Principle: Legal Approaches to Non-damaging Cybercrime. I know, I know. It practically writes itself.

In the brief moments when I could tear myself away from my riveting research, we did the beach as we normally do it. Nine people representing friendships from most of the eras of my life were able to come down and spend some time. Some had been many times before, and for some this was the first time, but the program did not change: reading, movie-watching, beach-walking, game playing, and grilling while drinking firefly. As usual, we felt that our grilling this year was superior to our grilling every year before (with the exception of the corn, which was not in season). Brian prepped, Kay and I grilled, Jeff turned the golf cart into a speaker with a weird machine that turns solid objects into speakers. Since I had forgotten to bring down my own stereo as I usually do, this kept the continuity. 

We did do one new thing (well, aside from playing some of the 500 new board games that Josh brought): we went to Brookgreen Gardens. Every year, for the past five or six years, someone would say something about going to Brookgreen, but we never did until this year. It was pretty great.

They had a zoo of sorts, and Kelsey decided she was the horse-whisperer. I think at one point she actually whispered "I'm the horse-whisperer" and then a horse came right up to her.

Jeff is a priceless work of art, too.

Everyone's favorite was a giant cage filled with birds in the middle of a swamp.

We went back a second time a couple of days later because we heard about a labyrinth and wanted to walk it. Unfortunately I thought labyrinth meant hedge maze. You would think that as a law student I would have learned to figure out the differences in meanings of words by now.

In spite of all the time I spent working, I had a great time at the beach and came back ready to finish the semester. My street law students have their mock trial next Thursday and then the Thursday after that, so that will be my big project over the next couple of weeks. We had a practice mock trial the other day during which I got to scare them a little and they got to scare me a little. Most of them will do well. I hope.