New Haven has begun handing out Resident Cards to any persons bringing proof of identity and residency.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/22234
The student mailing list here has been getting posts urging everyone to get a card in solidarity with the undocumented immigrants this program is supposedly to benefit. And of course, Yale being Yale, someone replied accusing arguments in favor of solidarity with "illegal immigrants" of being "disingenuous." Oh noes!1 someone who doesn't love all immigrants and worship at the feet of the Mexicans coming to take the jobs no one else wants!!
Of course, the person initially starting the debate was only playing the devil's advocate, not really one of those evil, heartless conservatives we're warned about. And 53 posts later, the storm has finally died down (or so we can all pray). The consensus? Resident card good, cheap immigrant labor without taking up social resources good, ICE raids bad, accusing ICE of Nazism bad, killing Native Americans and enslaving Africans bad, dehumanizing immigrants bad, empirical studies and economics good, interrupting serious discussion with hilarious cartoons good... the point is there is no consensus. YLS students are a smart bunch (multiple Law Review articles, books, and court decisions cited in the course of those 53 emails), but really volatile. Apparently anything at all is capable of setting us off.
Oh, and among the first years there's a "small group competition" to see who can get the most people in each small group to go get a card on Friday. The prize? An autographed Dean Koh bobblehead. I'll be getting a card; they're good for parking meters and it's a royal pain to find enough coins always laying about to pay those things. Oh yeah, and, I think it's a pretty cool initiative and I hope it's successful.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Law Professors and... popular culture?
One of my professors today made an in-depth reference to Dungeons and Dragons. And another answered a question with a link to a wikipedia article.
In the latter case, that might just mean that wikipedia is being taken more seriously among academics, though, for several reasons, I doubt that is the case. It's probably because wikipedia has become the fastest and most convenient place to find information, and other, more serious sites are harder to find. But D&D - possibly one of the geekiest RPGs of all time?
Mind you, I have nothing against D&D or wikipedia. It's just that I might have expected a little more, well, sophistication from YLS. What is happening to academia?
In the latter case, that might just mean that wikipedia is being taken more seriously among academics, though, for several reasons, I doubt that is the case. It's probably because wikipedia has become the fastest and most convenient place to find information, and other, more serious sites are harder to find. But D&D - possibly one of the geekiest RPGs of all time?
Mind you, I have nothing against D&D or wikipedia. It's just that I might have expected a little more, well, sophistication from YLS. What is happening to academia?
Saturday, November 3, 2007
YLS and waterboarding
YLS isn't too happy with its alum right now.
Mukasey nomination sparks debate at alma mater Yale
(Interestingly, the article says Koh did not respond to requests for comment. When Mukasey was first nominated, he spoke praisingly of him to his class and mentioned specifically Mukasey was a YLS alum. The name has not come up since.)
An email was sent to all students this morning strongly urging a demonstration of waterboarding, to establish our position against Mukasey's nomination, his apparent support of torture, and disregard for the rule of law (given that Congress has already passed statutes banning torture, Mukasey's assurances that the executive would be bound by a law outlawing waterboarding rather miss the point). And professors have suggested Chuck Schumer is a fool for continuing to support the nomination, and they continue to disagree with each other.
One wonders whether Schumer's daughter, Jess (who, by the way, is pretty much the opposite of stand-offish), is going to be taking classes offered by Balkin here (he isn't teaching any first semester classes).
As for me, I wish we would stop alienating our famous alum. Mukasey isn't really supporting torture, he's just playing a balancing act between supporting the administration and pacifying the senate committee. And Justice Thomas won't even let us put up his portrait in the law school, though he been has asked several times. Justice Alito can't be too fond of certain YLS profs, either.
I haven't felt alienated here because of conservative viewpoints, but it's little surprise that Yale is accruing an anti-conservative (rather than just a liberal) reputation.
Mukasey nomination sparks debate at alma mater Yale
(Interestingly, the article says Koh did not respond to requests for comment. When Mukasey was first nominated, he spoke praisingly of him to his class and mentioned specifically Mukasey was a YLS alum. The name has not come up since.)
An email was sent to all students this morning strongly urging a demonstration of waterboarding, to establish our position against Mukasey's nomination, his apparent support of torture, and disregard for the rule of law (given that Congress has already passed statutes banning torture, Mukasey's assurances that the executive would be bound by a law outlawing waterboarding rather miss the point). And professors have suggested Chuck Schumer is a fool for continuing to support the nomination, and they continue to disagree with each other.
One wonders whether Schumer's daughter, Jess (who, by the way, is pretty much the opposite of stand-offish), is going to be taking classes offered by Balkin here (he isn't teaching any first semester classes).
As for me, I wish we would stop alienating our famous alum. Mukasey isn't really supporting torture, he's just playing a balancing act between supporting the administration and pacifying the senate committee. And Justice Thomas won't even let us put up his portrait in the law school, though he been has asked several times. Justice Alito can't be too fond of certain YLS profs, either.
I haven't felt alienated here because of conservative viewpoints, but it's little surprise that Yale is accruing an anti-conservative (rather than just a liberal) reputation.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Fall break
Thank every deity I may or may not believe in - we have a week off school. Notwithstanding the incredible amount of work I have to do by next Monday, this is going to be a much-needed release from the stress and grind of classes.
Law school is tough. It's stressful and it makes me feel stupid. I laughed at everyone else saying that when I was a naive little 0L, but it's the truth. Cases are impossible to read and get anything out of, the sheer amount of work and class time is almost overwhelming in and of itself, and legal writing is terrible. I feel incompetent and under-qualified everywhere I turn. Add onto that stresses of your personal life, and I have no idea how anyone makes it through any other school than YLS. The fact that only our reputation and our ability as future lawyers are riding on this semester make it bearable, but if everything were hanging on first semester grades - well, I'd be screwed. I thought it would be easy enough to get A's - or H's (Honors, our rough equivalent of A's but which are not awarded first semester) - after all, I've mostly done it the rest of my life - but I'll be truly amazed if I end up with any H's at all over the next three years.
Then again, there are tons of really cool things about law school - nerdy inside law jokes, awesome kick-ass friends, incredible intellectual and professional opportunities, a fast-paced exciting life, and yes, even the law itself could be a positive. It's a powerful tool to effect change, which is after all why most of us idealistic Yalies are here, and I wouldn't wish myself anywhere else right now (of course, right now, 'here' is not New Haven; I'm visiting my parents for the break!).
Law school is tough. It's stressful and it makes me feel stupid. I laughed at everyone else saying that when I was a naive little 0L, but it's the truth. Cases are impossible to read and get anything out of, the sheer amount of work and class time is almost overwhelming in and of itself, and legal writing is terrible. I feel incompetent and under-qualified everywhere I turn. Add onto that stresses of your personal life, and I have no idea how anyone makes it through any other school than YLS. The fact that only our reputation and our ability as future lawyers are riding on this semester make it bearable, but if everything were hanging on first semester grades - well, I'd be screwed. I thought it would be easy enough to get A's - or H's (Honors, our rough equivalent of A's but which are not awarded first semester) - after all, I've mostly done it the rest of my life - but I'll be truly amazed if I end up with any H's at all over the next three years.
Then again, there are tons of really cool things about law school - nerdy inside law jokes, awesome kick-ass friends, incredible intellectual and professional opportunities, a fast-paced exciting life, and yes, even the law itself could be a positive. It's a powerful tool to effect change, which is after all why most of us idealistic Yalies are here, and I wouldn't wish myself anywhere else right now (of course, right now, 'here' is not New Haven; I'm visiting my parents for the break!).
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Summer
I have no idea what I want to do with my upcoming summer (or really even what the options are), and that's starting to worry me. What do I know about the law, and why on earth am I even here?
Monday, October 8, 2007
Memos!
Just finished writing one. It wasn't the horrible project I had at first thought it would be. It is for my least favorite class, but you can't get everything you want in life. Of course, I haven't done the reading for my classes tomorrow, but I'm too exhausted to try. I just really hope I won't get called on. Overall, I think I like law school - I certainly don't regret coming or have constant thoughts of dropping out, anyway.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Bluebooking
"The Uniform System of Citation has inflicted more pain on more law students than any other publication in legal history." - Robert Berring.
He was so right. I like writing and I like editing, and I've done a fair amount of it in recent times, but this isn't editing - this is anal-retentive, deconstructive, elitist nonsense. I think of myself as a careful, somewhat rules-oriented and compulsive person, but in the bluebook I have met my match. I am not looking forward to source citing (where we go through someone's article and their 200+ footnotes to check every little detail about their citations, including how many spaces they put where and how they abbreviate certain words and when to put a comma or when to leave it out in certain forms of citations but not others).
He was so right. I like writing and I like editing, and I've done a fair amount of it in recent times, but this isn't editing - this is anal-retentive, deconstructive, elitist nonsense. I think of myself as a careful, somewhat rules-oriented and compulsive person, but in the bluebook I have met my match. I am not looking forward to source citing (where we go through someone's article and their 200+ footnotes to check every little detail about their citations, including how many spaces they put where and how they abbreviate certain words and when to put a comma or when to leave it out in certain forms of citations but not others).
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