Darth Vader in a Video Shop

Just thought I'd take an opportunity to promote my favorite comic artist, Jason:

The Oldest Bench Ever: Extreme aging in the federal judiciary—and the trouble it causes.

As if the criminal justice system weren't arbitrary enough.

Judge Richard Owen of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan gathered a group of lawyers in his courtroom in 2007 to discuss the possible leak of sealed documents in a business case. As the hearing got under way, Owen, then 84, asked for someone to explain this newfangled mode of communication the lawyers kept mentioning: e-mail. "It pops up in a machine in some administrative office, and is somebody there with a duty to take it around and give it to whoever it's named to?" he asked.

Federal judges are getting older—and more often senile. - By Joseph Goldstein - Slate Magazine

Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.

To anyone who's ever argued with me about this: I told you so.

The only reason today's teachers learned to use two spaces is because their teachers were in the grip of old-school technology. We would never accept teachers pushing other outmoded ideas on kids because that's what was popular back when they were in school. The same should go for typing. So, kids, if your teachers force you to use two spaces, send them a link to this article. Use this as your subject line: "If you type two spaces after a period, you're doing it wrong."

Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.
- By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

What happens when Supreme Court justices try to think like criminal suspects. - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine

...you might think that the prospect of high-speed police chases and sweaty-palmed drug busts would get the justices' criminal juices flowing. But for the most part, their knowledge and understanding of American criminal activity seems to be ripped right out of the Wile E. Coyote playbook.

What happens when Supreme Court justices try to think like criminal suspects. - By Dahlia Lithwick - Slate Magazine

Supreme Court Weighs Warrantless Entry : NPR

The U.S. Supreme Court is wrestling with a case that could give police greater power to forcibly enter a home without a warrant. The Constitution bars warrantless searches except in certain circumstances — for example, an emergency search to prevent the destruction of evidence. But on Wednesday, the question before the court was whether police, by themselves creating such exigent circumstances, are unconstitutionally evading the warrant requirement.

Supreme Court Weighs Warrantless Entry : NPR

Political Attack Ad from 1880

Arizona Orders Tucson to End Mexican-American Studies Program - NYTimes.com

...Mr. Acosta’s class and others in the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American program have been declared illegal by the State of Arizona — even while similar programs for black, Asian and American Indian students have been left untouched.

Arizona Orders Tucson to End Mexican-American Studies Program - NYTimes.com

Slate article on efforts to eliminate citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants

If the last line of this paragraph doesn't frighten you, it should:

"Anchor babies" are back in the news: Be prepared for another round of railing against the granting of automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. There was a burst of this last summer, when Sen. Lindsey Graham rumbled about pregnant Mexican women crossing the border to give birth and win American citizenship for their babies—which he inelegantly called "drop and leave"—and how it was necessary to change the Constitution to stop them. Now Rep. Steve King of Iowa promises to end automatic birthright citizenship through legislation, and conservative legislators from five states are talking about excluding kids from a new thing called state citizenship, and also creating distinct (second-class) birth certificates for these kids.

If conservatives want to deny "anchor babies" U.S. citizenship, they'll have to change the Constitution. - By Emily Bazelon - Slate Magazine

In which things get a little hairier

Ah, where does the time go? For those of you keeping score at home, it has been more than three months since my last real blawg post, a fact from which I have tried to distract you by posting a couple of non-blawg posts, but I know you weren't fooled. I can only hope you'll forgive my lack of diligence and not remove me from your bookmarks entirely. Fortunately, I doubt anyone but my friends and family have bookmarked me anyway, and they wouldn't delete me, right?

Well, anyway, here it is, four-and-a-half weeks from the end of my third semester of law school, and I am behind in all my reading, overcommitted and overwhelmed, and outlines? Don't get me started on outlines. (Actually, if you could, that'd be great, as I can't seem to get myself started on outlines.) All the same, with one small exception, I'm feeling pretty good about things. What things? These things:

Constitutional Interpretation Humor!

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