It is the final stretch of the semester.
I am at the Spyhouse to write the first of the last three papers of my law school career and I’m bewildered. The paper is for my death penalty seminar. It is due on Friday, and I have never been so thoroughly disinterested in a class or topic. Strickland, Lockhart, AEDPA, 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) deference…I can’t be bothered.
I started my 3L year today. My first class is called “Great Cases” and it is a survey of 22 noteworthy Supreme Court cases and sensational trials. The class has an interesting mix of students: there are 3 Scandinavian exchange students, two Chinese LLMs, and some people randomly auditing the class including a Chinese girl from Dartmouth and a former state attorney.
We spent most of our time on course mechanics and trotting through the United States Constitution. I’ve taken two constitutional law classes but this is the first time that I was assigned the entire constitution. The only surprising thing was its brevity and how seemingly unrelated things are clumped together.
The second class of the day was a Death Penalty seminar taught by Professor D.