Looking for Green, Just Like Every Human Being.

So says Ani DiFranco, says my friend. It snowed again in Denver, covering the crunchy icy snow which covers the icy black snow which covers the frozen blocks of black and chunky ice which persist in every side street unless piled in massive lumpy statuary where there once were metered parking spaces downtown. What I say is that Winter is the city, Summer is the countryside, and Spring and Fall are just the right kind of cozy little town near the suburbs. I spent a summer on the island of Hawaii in the 1980's. I remember that the parking meters downtown took pennies, just a block and half away from the beach.

But enough about the weather. Time to study.

We Don't Mean to be Coy, but . . .

Re: Denver. Snow and ice from repetitive storms persists, becomes denser, more black, more treacherous. Residential side streets are graced with wavy grooves down the middle, one for each tire. Passing traffic the other way means reciting a prayer and then a jolting slide back into the groove. It sounds groovier than it is.

Re: Bar Exam. 42 days remain. Recently my strong subjects have been Criminal Law and Constitutional Law. Ironic. Probably just a few lucky guesses. My normally strong performance in Contract Law has dwindled to a pathetic scramble to guess the least incorrect-sounding options. Not good.

What kills me about Con Law is the almost arbitrary choice of squishy English words to describe levels of scrutiny that control extremely important democratic concepts such as 'equal protection of the laws' and 'Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.'

Words like "necessary," "compelling," "important," and "substantial" are not interchangeable in the law. No. Used by judges in each case to describe something "necessary," etc, but then adopted by "the law" as a stultified, ossified, brittle and crunchy rule of law that thou shalt quote correctly or be killed. And "legitimate?" Who decides what's a legitimate government interest? A silly word choice to describe something driven almost totally by previous judicial decisions. A better standard would have been: "not rationally related to a government interest that the Judicial branch has already anointed as legitimate."

What exactly is a "substantial government interest?" I'm pretty sure I know what it should be, but don't we all? Too squishy for comfort.

What we memorize and regurgitate for the Bar Exam is that words like "necessary" and "compelling" are about things like race, alienage, and national origin discrimination, while words like "substantially related" and "important" are about gender discrimination and whether or not the children of illegal aliens should be allowed to attend public schools. So there you go. That's what's important: gender and whether children of illegal aliens can attend public schools. Nothing else is particularly important. Age, sexual orientation, social class . . . not important. No.

The Tuesday of My Discontent

Re: Bar Exam.
Today I cover the law of Administrative Agencies. Not a subject for the multiple choice section but a potential target for an essay question. An easy subject, a fine place to begin to practice. I counted the number of multiple choice practice questions in my collection - I'm in no danger of running out, even practicing for seven hours per day. I'm strong in the area of multiple choice. Therefore, must commit myself to grinding out practice essays instead. Erk. Today I meet my study partner at a Public Library, so as not to suffer alone.

Re: Law Clerky Goodness.
Must work. Rent not yet paid for next month. On a positive note, three weeks remain for me to corral the money. Before my study partner arrives, I shall log an hour on the following topic: what speech and/or internet activity can support a claim for ‘tortious interference’ given that the plaintiff and the defendant are business competitors, and what must the plaintiff allege to survive a motion for summary judgment?

Bar Exam countdown: 53 days remain.

I'm in the Hell of wishing for a job to end my poverty but finding unemployment a better study aid.