Supreme Court Term Ends, Bar Studying Continues

An excellent (and short) article in the New Yorker by Jeffrey Toobin about the Supreme Court. Their term ended today. They've caused us to have to bid a sorry farewell to certain abortion rights, free speech rights, and affirmative action programs. Since I am studying right now for the bar I have not had time to read opinions, but I will after the studying ends and I've had a few stiff drinks.

I get so sad when I think about the Supreme Court now -- especially Justice Ginsburg. I can just see her sitting there, tiny and fuming (or maybe just sad, at this point), wondering how everything has gone so wrong.

Yes, this is what we got with a 2nd Bush term, and it's not going to change anytime soon. The anti-choice and homophobic zealots on the right must be absolutely salivating at this point. They probably figure it will only take another one or two years for Justice Kennedy to complete his switch to the dark side. Then anyone who's interested in equality and rights for anyone except white guys and corporations can just go and sit in the corner and cry in their beer. That day is not very far away.

Thank goodness the Republicans do not have strong candidates for the 2008 election. If we get another Republican in office then it's REALLY all over. Either Justice Stevens or Justice Ginsburg will probably be the next to go, and there are plenty of judges currently on the federal bench who will have no problem taking a SCOTUS appointment if it means acting as a puppet for a conservative administration. So much for separation of powers and judicial independence.

I'm just depressed. And on top of that it's almost 9am and I haven't started bar studying for the day yet. I try to do three essays a day, as well as doing some MC questions, without watching too many Will & Grace reruns that are stored in my Tivo. I am pretty familiar, at least generally, with the law in a lot of areas at this point. It's just a matter of practicing as much as possible at this point, and memorizing more and more while getting the techniques down.

I still hate Bar/Bri, especially for subjecting us to what was quite possibly the worst lecture in the history of legal studies -- last night's Remedies fiasco. I have a brilliant 60-page Remedies outline from my class last Spring. I could have stayed home and read that a few times and learned infinitely more.

I just want it to be over so I can get my life back.

Bar Exam Studying -- Writing an Evidence Essay

Ugh.....

I just attempted to write my first essay for Evidence. I find Evidence essays really hard to write and organize. There appears to be a few different ways you can do it. I tend to talk about relevance of the evidence offered generally, than the form that this evidence takes, whether it is proper for it to be presented in that form, and if so whether there are any exceptions to admissibility of the evidence.

Of course Bar/Bri's sample answers do it totally differently, and they would admit a lot of stuff I would keep out. It makes me feel like my approach is totally wrong, which is very frustrating. It's hard enough to organize an evidence essay without thinking you're on the right track and doing it in a way that makes sense to you, only to read the sample answer and see that you totally messed up.

Bar/Bri has not been everything I hoped it would be. Granted, I know that most people who take Bar/Bri pass the bar exam. But they expect it to be a real review, and that you already know everything and just need a few hours of lecture to be able to answer really hard questions. I don't learn that way. I'm just not smart enough to pull that off. I do things much more slowly, a lot with open book in the beginning, to give myself a chance to process it all and make sure I am not learning rules the wrong way. I feel like a total Bar/Bri failure because I can't do their schedule all the way as quickly as they want us to. I know other people are having this experience as well. But it's just discouraging.

And now I have to deal with having written a totally crappy Evidence essay and without a real stand-by method to use in the future. I'm going to have to figure out how to do it. But not tonight. It's 12:30am and I'm tired so it will have to wait until the morning.

Bar Exam Blues

Very dark days in the BP/SP household. I hate studying for the Bar Exam because Bar/Bri gives you more work than you can do, which so overwhelms and discourages me that I don't feel like doing any of it. Very depressed and low right now with the exam just over 50 days away.

However, other people's blogs can sometimes make you feel better. This one (written by someone in Indiana who passed the bar last year -- all her bar related posts are in the site linked above) is excellent. I felt better after reading it.

So apparently your grade on the bar exam does matter (to some)

I realize that by posting this, readers who don't know me will now know where I went to law school. But I can't resist.

Apparently PEPPERDINE alum Land Murphy got the highest score on the Texas Bar exam. Land was the legend of the law school when I was a 1L and he was a 3L. I think he ended up getting one of the higest GPAs in its history, or something (but that distinction might go to some other smart guy who went to Pepperdine -- it's hard to keep straight all the rumors that float around that place). I don't know.

He seems to be equally prolific at taking bar exams as law school exams.

What I think is funny/interestng about this story is that he was a bit concerned about some of the essay questions and THOUGHT HE MIGHT END UP FAILING. This just shows what a self-esteem-killer the legal education and qualification process can be. Even if you have genius-level grades and kick everyone else's butt, self-doubt is never very far away. I'm glad he told that story actually, because it shows SELF-DOUBT HAPPENS....even to the best of us.

I don't mean to make light of Land's accomplishment. I know from 2 weeks of doing Bar-Bri that the bar exam is really really really really hard. It will be the most difficult thing I will ever undertake. So to get the highest score in the state is an amazing accomplishment.

Of course I will never get a good enough score to have a story published about me and it on the law school website ("Well, not with that attitude you won't..." would be SP's response to that remark). But that might be a good thing -- too much pressure. The older I get, the more I realize that MORE pressure is really the last thing I need -- I impose plenty of it on myself without any outside help.