Back to school

Today's my first day back since Monday. Missing two days of class was hardly noticeable in high school. Miss two days at Cornell and a person was in jeopardy of having to drop the class. I imagine law school is somewhere between those two extremes. Friends taking notes is a huge help.

People are saying that half the law school has the flu. I won't miss my flu shot next year.

Next weekend, Feb. 8-9, is the Institute of Bill of Rights Law's first-ever Citizen-Lawyer Conference. W&M's credo, if you will, is that lawyers have a special obligation to serve the public interest, given the tools we learn at law school. This fits well with what many of us hope to do. At the conference next week, lawyers and professors from all over the country will discuss the usefulness of the Citizen-Lawyer concept, first envisioned by George Wythe, who signed the Declaration of Independence, attended the Constitutional Convention and at the request of Thomas Jefferson, founded the William & Mary School of Law (the nation's first). His pupils included Jefferson, Henry Clay, James Monroe and John Marshall, who later became perhaps the most important Chief Justice in U.S. history. Hence the name of our school — Marshall-Wythe. (UPDATE: I added a recent snow-covered picture of the Marshall-Wythe statue outside the law school.)

Sandra Day O'Connor, W&M's Chancellor, will be the featured guest at the Citizen-Lawyer Conference. I got the chance to see her speak on the undergraduate campus earlier this year, but this time she's coming to the law school, a more up close and personal visit. Should be a good weekend.

Sick day

Ugh. I have some sort of flu/cold bug. Missing a whole day of classes stinks.

Yesterday I was still well enough to go to a luncheon with the Election Law Society, a student group that started at W&M last year because of the intense interest in all the controversy surrounding recent elections. For the most part, Republicans worry about voter fraud and Democrats worry about disenfranchised voters. Anyway, the National Center for State Courts is based in Williamsburg and is actually located right behind the law school. This week there is a conference featuring chief justices of all the state supreme courts, and we got to have lunch with them. I sat with the chief justices of Alabama, North Carolina and Montana, among others. Coincidentally, all three are women. I also met Marsha Ternus, the Chief Justice of Iowa, and the first woman to serve in that position. She's from Vinton and graduated from Iowa and Drake Law.

So many people are talking about the presidential race, and I've become quite obsessed with it. Virginia votes on Feb. 12, a week after Super Duper Tuesday. Exciting stuff.

We're busy getting ready for the Spring Break trip to New Orleans, which is March 1-8. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet — most likely either community organizing or manual labor. Should be a great experience. There are 21 of us going as part of the Student Hurricane Network.

While many people have wrapped up summer jobs, most of them have done so because of personal connections. The rest of us are still waiting to hear about potential interviews, and should know something soon.

That's as long as I can concentrate today.

Snow day

After it looked like all it would do was rain, snow fell throughout much of the day in Williamsburg today. I threw a snowball and took lots of pictures. Too bad it's Saturday, or they might have canceled school.