News & Links

While accepting a lifetime award from the American Society of Legal Writers, Justice Scalia states that he does not believe that legal writing exists. Rather good legal writing is no different than any good non fiction prose.

Undercover cop exposes gambling ring a few blocks from Seattle University. The arrests result in police seizure of $217,000, 7 kilos of cocaine and 3 pounds of methamphetamine. Apparently the dealer was receiving 100 kilo shipments of cocaine from Honduras.

This site has links to the top 10 Twitterers for lawyers.




Apparently you can buy dynamite at Tulalip's Boom City. The dynamite pictured above was purchased at Boom City.

On the international front:

Gay sex is no longer illegal in India.

Syria has amended their "honor killing" law. Previously, when men in Syria killed women in their families suspected of having illicit sex, the maximum penalty was one year in prison. The minimum penalty is now 2 years. Still, seems like Syrian reform might be moving at a glacial pace.

Summer TV

If you're looking for something to watch this summer you should check out Expedition Africa on the History Channel Sundays at 10, So You Think You Can Dance on Fox Wednesday & Thursday at 8, and Big Cat Diary on the Animal Planet all the time. In Expedition Africa four explorers try to recreate Stanley's 19th Century trip across Africa.



So You Think You Can Dance is basically just what it sounds like. Think American Idol but dancing. Here are three clips from Wednesday's episode. The dancers are assigned different genres at random.







Big Cat Diary follows the lives of cheetahs, lions and leopards in Kenya's Masai Mara. The first clip is from the first episode of the 2006 season and gives a pretty good idea of what the show is all about. The second clip shows a lion cub trying to match the "rawrs" of the other cats in the pride.

Summer Class, Spring Grades, and a Summer Job

I'm loving the Evidence class that I'm taking this Summer. I think it's my favorite class thus far with the exception of Legal Writing.

My grades last semester turned out to be rather disappointing. I did fine in Legal Writing but my grades in all my other classes were worse this semester than last. I have no idea why. I was pretty sick during my finals, maybe that's why I didn't perform well. But I still felt like I did well. I had one less class and I studied even harder this semester than last, so I'm just not sure what happened. I won't get to see the tests for another few weeks at the earliest. It looks like I'm going to lose my scholarship by about a tenth of a grade point. So that's pretty frustrating, but we'll see what happens with that. There's nothing I can do about these grades now except use them as motivation to do even better on my future classes.

I got a research assistant position with one of my professors, so I'll be doing some research this summer in addition to taking my class. This is a great opportunity for me: I'll be doing interesting research, getting paid, and it will also give me something to throw on the resume. Best of all the hours are flexible and I can work from home.

I'm also doing a little research for a local practitioner.

I'm thinking this extra work will allow for an August road-trip. California here we come! Laura and I have a few weeks off in August between the summer & fall semesters... She starts law school on the 22nd! We're excited.

Photos from Sunny Seattle

I've gotten some exercise jogging to Green Lake the last week or so. These little ducks are, without a doubt, the highlight of the jog!


I stopped by Pike's Place Thursday on my way back from registering for my classes. Say what you want about the other two-thirds of the year but our summers (late spring and early fall included) are awesome.


I snapped these last two photos from our dining room this week.

Back from the (Internet) Dead; Fall Class Schedule

I had no Internet for pretty much all of the last week. Thanks Comcast. They fixed that, but now our cable service is messed up. Sigh...

How did people get by without the Internet? I guess that explains all the hard drugs of the 60's and 70's. They were just using acid til Al Gore created the Internet.

Since I've been offline we got a new Supreme Court justice nominee and North Korea is threatening to start a nuclear war (plus, all the North Korean foot soldiers are probably a bit stir crazy because they don't get the Internet). I also signed up for my fall classes.

I had better luck signing up this way than with the random lottery. Currently I'm signed up for four classes:

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (4 credits) CNLW-200
This course must be taken Fall Semester, 2nd year. Generally, the course will cover the powers of the Supreme Court (both constitutional and political), the powers of the Congress, the powers of the President, and individual rights (due process and equal protection).

BUSINESS ENTITIES (4 credits) BUSN-300
This course begins with a brief discussion of business risk. It then deals with agency principles and considers whether a business ought to be organized as a corporation, partnership, or other entity (such as LLC or LLP). The course next considers the formation process, capital structure, and limited liability before moving on to cover questions of internal governance. If time permits, we then consider questions particularly relevant to large, publicly held corporations such as social responsibility, corporate accountability, and takeovers. This course does not involve the application of the federal securities laws. The topics are analyzed under common law principles, the Washington Business Corporation Act and the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE (3 credits) INTL-340
This course will examine the international trade regime created by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization and various regional agreements, such as NAFTA and the European Union. The course will also examine aspects of U.S. trade law.

CLIMATE CHANGE (2 credits) ENVL-372
The Climate Change Course will survey the current state of International, Federal, State, and local laws intended to address the global challenge of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Topics covered include: (1) the Kyoto Protocol (its provisions, implementation and future); (2) litigation under federal environmental statutes (e.g. the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act) and common law principles to address Green House Gas Emissions and current proposals for federal legislation; (3) state, regional and local initiatives to address these concerns in the absence of a federal approach. A brief overview of relevant statutes is provided so prior environmental courses are not a prerequisite.

To check out all the different courses SU law is offering this academic year, click here.

Lottery Results

I guess I must have lost the school's lottery for class assignments. I didn't get into any Legal Writing 2 sections. It's not exactly what I was hoping for, but it's not a big deal either. I'll just take it in the spring. I did get into my second choice for Constitutional Law. I didn't get into the class with my Civ Pro teacher, but the section I got into is with another teacher who is supposed to be great and class is from 2-4 instead of starting at 8am. What makes me think that I "lost" the lottery is that I'm not higher than #40 on the wait list for any legal writing section or for my first preference for Con Law. I register for the rest of my classes next week.

Got Into Evidence

I made it off of the wait list today. I will now take evidence instead of intellectual property this summer. Evidence is a required class. If I didn't take it now I'd have to wait until Spring semester because I don't want to take Legal Writing 2, Constitutional Law, and Evidence during the same semester. (I'm taking Con Law and LW2 in the fall. Con Law is only offered in the fall and I'm hoping to get into my LW1 professor's LW2 class this fall.) But I've been told taking evidence will help with Legal Writing and some of the writing and moot court competitions that occur throughout next year, so I'm happy to take it now even though it will mean taking an extra credit over the summer. I'll have class Monday - Thursday 6:00pm - 7:40pm. (WHAT ABOUT DINNER?! I guess I'll have an early or a late dinner.) Almost all summer classes are offered during the evening to allow students to pursue work options.

I find out tomorrow the results of the lottery for Constitutional Law and Legal Writing. All 2nd year students - that's me now! - filled out a survey listing their preferences for LW and Con Law. There is a random lottery assigning students their preferences. I'm hoping to get my Civ Pro professor for Con Law (I think I have a good chance because his class starts at 8AM) and to have the same LW prof as I did this year.