Down, but not out

I didn't win the SBA election, which was held yesterday. Although no final tally has been released — just the winners' names — one of the vote counters told me last night that the election was close, and that I should consider running again in the spring. There were 14 people running for three spots. My campaign (which I couldn't write about on the blog, due to election rules) was primarily a series of posters with cartoonish pictures of me on crutches, paired with a letter to my classmates (and some delicious brownies, until the ants attacked). A bunch of people said I had the best poster, but of course that doesn't always translate into a victory. Que será, será.

This weekend is the Supreme Court Preview. A 2L named David and I have to pick up a federal judge in the 10th Circuit from the Norfolk Airport this afternoon, then I'll be working all day Friday and Saturday. There are some nominally famous people coming, so I'll do a little name-dropping — Linda Greenhouse, a Pulitzer winner from the NY Times; John Yoo, who helped write the PATRIOT Act and the so-called "torture memo"; Dahlia Lithwick, who writes for Slate.com; Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor at Duke and probably the best known constitutional scholar in the U.S.; Stuart Taylor from the National Journal, who will speak about the book he's published on the Duke Lacrosse Case; and Jeffrey Rosen of the New Republic, who wrote a fascinating article about Justice Anthony Kennedy a few months ago, which I read with astonishment. It turns out that even Supreme Court Justices — the weak ones, at least — are subject to their emotions when deciding critical cases. 

All in all, the weekend should be enormously informative. Tomorrow night is the "main event": a Moot Court on presidential war powers during the War on Terror. Some high-powered lawyers will argue two cases that will come before the Supreme Court this term, and nine "justices" will decide the cases. I'm looking forward to it.