SCOTUS Day

Today was SCOTUS day. I woke up at 5:30, got to the Supreme Court by 6:30, and waited in the cold to get in until around 9, with a brief interlude to visit the Supreme Court cafeteria. It is one of the most regal cafeterias I have ever sat in. It was also warm, quite crucially. Tracy and I were 17th and 18th in line, respectively. It was early enough to be sure we would get in. Had we come even fifteen minutes later we would not have had such a reassuring position. I am not certain of how many people from line got in, but my guess is between 35 and 45. We got to sit in on the Court's proceedings. Two decisions were announced, new members of the Supreme Court Bar were sworn in, and we got to listen to two oral arguments. The first was Freeman v. U.S., which had to do with the retroactive application of modified sentencing guidelines in sentences reached through a particular type of plea bargain. The second was Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB, which was about the proper state of mind requirement for inducing patent infringement. I know they sound very compelling, but the second was actually fairly interesting. It turned out that I knew a lot about its background from some of the intellectual property cases we studied in Property class last year. All of the lawyers were incredibly good, even the ones who were pretty clearly on the losing side (given the justices' demeanor). Being questioned by the Supreme Court is sort of like the hardest cold call you will ever receive.
No, Justice Thomas did not say anything. Though he did whisper with Justice Breyer a good amount.
All of the justices impressed me greatly with their intellect. They asked difficult, probing questions and called the advocates out on their weakest arguments. Justice Breyer led one attorney into a terrible trap; Justice Scalia was blunt in tearing down poor arguments. I don't know, there were lots of highlights.
Between Tracy and me, there was a lot of law nerd-ing out.
It was early, but it was worth it.

I need a new toothbrush. This blog just became my CVS shopping list. I think I patronize CVS too much. I don't like seeing the receipt that tells me how much I've spent using my Extra Care card.

Wow, I need to sleep.

Rock on Wisconsin and now Indiana. Don't let them bust the unions.
Between those two states and Northern Africa, I would like to ask: what is going on??? Is there something going on with the temperature? Something in the water? Lots of protesting. I'm not hating, just commenting.