Objection!!!!!!!

On any given day you can watch the news and hear someone upset that the jury was not allowed to see all of the evidence, but if they had, the defendant would certainly have been convicted/aquitted. Evidence at trial is tricky business. It involves a complex set of rules all of which have exceptions. One thing the court does not allow is a witness to get up and tell us all what she heard others saying. This is because our constitution requires that the defendant be allowed to confront and cross examine the persons who have something to say about his being locked up. However there are over 20 exceptions to the hearsay rule. I like evidence. It is part of what makes trial work exciting because you have to be on your toes in order to launch your objection. You can't yell out "I OBJECT!" prior to the question being completed, but then again neither can you wait until the witness has answered in some situations. You have to think all the time and be prepared to explain the theory on which you base your objection. Though Robert Duval in A Civil Action says that when you have fallen asleep in court and wake up, the first thing you do is fire off an objection, I would advise against it. It maight wake up the judge.

Essay Hell

So, this is Memorial Day weekend. I am doing a multitude of multiple choice questions and writing way too many essays. I am told this is the way to prepare for the Nevada bar...one of the most difficult in the country. I did the PMBR early bird six day lecture series. My iPod plays PMBR lectures all night as I sleep. I am a week in to Bar/Bri. I have to spend today writing several essays. The schedule given to us by Bar/Bri generously suggests taking tomorrow off. However, THAT cannot happen and get the work assigned done as well. I could skip it. But will that be just the thing that puts me under the line when the bar exam is graded. Can't take the risk. This is war. This is combat, this is ESSAY HELL!!!!!!!!!

Passing the Bar

ERWIN CHEMERINSKI - DUKE LAW

It is a time tested rite of passage to take and pass a bar exam to actually be able to practice law. No matter that you just plunged yourself into six figure debt and endured professors who had as their goal to single handedly suck every last vestige of conservative thought from your brain. The courts of the land, read: good ol' boys, have maintained that it is no violation to require this abuse.

Interestingly, now that law school is over and class is done, the tassel on my mortorboard is still wagging and I find myself back in the classroom. This time, it is to learn to actually PASS the bar exam. Now, being of Irish decent, passing a bar is counterintuitive. Wait. Can I say that, or is it too insensitive to suggest the Irish like their drink? Those damned liberal profs!

It is no secret that a person undergoing bar prep has a single minded, one note song playing from now until the end of July. Rightzilla is no different. Wait, that is Rightzilla, J.D. now.

Erwin Chemerinski was in the classroom the past two days. I do not like his politics. But I own his book Constitutional law: Principles and Policies and enjoyed him. I have admired his intelect for years. He is a smar-T-pants with a capital T. Does the entire outline without notes and is unflappable. I felt I got my money's worth from those lectures, let me tell ya.

Chemerinski is a law professor a Duke. He is a premier brainiac on constitutional law. I was surprised, then, that he revealed he had recently represented a plaintiff in a Texas case wherein they were suing to force the removal of a 6 foot high, 3 foot wide monument from the Texas state house property because it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. It contains the Ten Commandments. You see, there are 22 other such monuments on the property with a variety of inscriptions and therefore, no endorsement of religion. Seems so straight forward that would be the case. It is like the bullying often done by the ACLU in such cases. Thank God, (no pun intended....uh....yes there was) they lost the case. To me, the only reason to even think that that case had more than an ice cube's chance in hell (note additional pun here) of prevailing was to find an activist judge who would ignore the full application of establishment clause law and just throw the monument out. I was disappointed by this. But I cannot deny his incredible knowledge and grace in presenting information.

You will tire of Rightzilla's bar prep. But no more than will Rightzilla.

Graduation Time

Listen to a graduation address by Michelle M. at Hot Air!
http://hotair.com/archives/vent/2006/05/19/conservative-commencement/