Author: ssw15

The news is out – the Supreme Court has ruled on the Pledge of Allegiance case. The NY Times has this posting up (Linda Greenhouse is probably hard at work on her article as I speak). I have not read the Court’s opinion yet, but the Court apparently essentially came down to this: “Eight justices agreed that Dr. Newdow, a nonpracticing lawyer who is also a physician, cannot qualify as a legal representative of his 10-year-old daughter, on whose behalf he filed suit.” Well, the Associated Press seems to indicate that this is a “technicality.” I thought that Slate.com’s Dahlia Lithwick had a most pertinent conclusion: that Newdow couldn’t win because of the standing problem – that he lacked legal custody of his daughter, which made the Court stuck with custodial issues rather than the substantive matter itself – and in so doing, may arguably be seen as a technicality.

Nonetheless, the Court understandably wouldn’t accept Newdow’s case as the appropriate case to answer the question of the constitutionality. You need standing after all, as my Con Law prof would say (and heavens knows, he spent half the term covering the concept of standing), and I think that this outcome was something that was easily expected. But, would laypeople understand that? First year law students can barely accept that, and I’d agree that this can be irritating of the Court. But, Newdow was a curious party all along (forget the standing problem, he’s something of an eccentric, being the lawyer-doctor). Anyway, the constitutionality question can be explored under better circumstances.

In today’s NY Times, Fascinating article on the history of slavery in America – how slaves lived during slavery, became free, and dealt with what freedom meant – and then they wrote about it in their own slave narratives, which have not been published until the 21st century. I liked how the article traced how a family passed their ancestor’s manuscript in each generation, and the article was nicely noted how the manuscript had the literary value – not just the historical power.

A curious NY Times’ article – NYC’s ex-mayor Ed Koch is in a commercial to get NY’ers to volunteer to facilitate the Republican convention. Quite an idea – the Democratic party town hosting the Republicans, and Koch is telling us to make nice with the GOP tourists. Uh, ok.

Strange weather – cloudiness with sun peaking out now and then. Partly sunny or partly cloudy – technically….

The perfect spring Saturday in NYC! The weather’s so wonderful – sunshine, not too warm, not brisk. Just right. Is Mother Nature holding global warming at bay today? Darn straight she is!

The news junkie that I am – am I amazed by how nostalgic the media has been about the Reagan era this week. They were such lovely times compared to our current state of terrorism, confusion, and polarized politics. Well, and just a thought to put out there: I recall the Ronald Reagan presidency as a warm and fuzzy time, as it was my warm and fuzzy childhood. With his passing, I can say that I can respect the man while withholding judgment on how I feel about his politics.

The passing of Ray Charles – wow, it’s so impressive how his music transcends any one genre.

I saw the latest Harry Potter movie today – it was okay. Pretty art filmy kind of way, compared to the two previous Potter movies. Actor Alan Rickman’s character was less annoying in the 2nd movie; actor Gary Oldman’s character still puzzles me; and actor Michael Gambon – well, he has a presence, but it’s not the same Prof. Dumbledore. Otherwise, I thought that the other characters were all right in the current movie (although that kid playing the Draco Malfoy character is clearly not a physically attractive adolescent – the teenage years never being easy, as they are). I haven’t read the books yet, so can’t say one way or another about accuracy. But, at least Movie 3 is making me want to read the books. Whether I can get to it remains to be seen. (I haven’t read Lord of the Rings yet either, but at least the movies were really great and one felt it so strongly).

The newspaper reviews for the Garfield movie (i.e., the one where Garfield the comic strip cat is computer animated but no one else is) is mostly negative, but Garfield still looks cute to me (more like a stuffed Garfield come to life and very kitty like, so I at least enjoy watching the trailer and commercials, even if I won’t watch the movie; Garfield’s certainly more easier to swallow than what Hollywood did to Scooby-Doo – ugh, cannot believe that Scooby got into two movies and he looks sillier than he ever did). Sort of amazed by how underwhelmed the critics are about it – I mean, at least demonstrate some sincerity about it (one critic made it seem like the vet Liz came out of nowhere – but Garfield followers would know that Liz has been in the comic strip for awhile) – one can pooh-pooh a less-than-average movie only so much. On the other hand, Slate.com has an interesting article noting that Garfield hasn’t really sold out because he has always sold-out anyway. Wow. Talk about putting down the fat cat. I thought that the analysis was really sharp toned stuff.

I can re-read this article and still think it curiously interesting: – YiLing Chen-Josephson did a comparison shopping for Slate.com to figure out which pens are best. I used to be very partial to Papermate pens, but when they’re about to run out of ink, they get all smudgy and ink gets on your fingers. So, I have no favorite pens for now, but Chen-Josephson has given me some thought on what I like about my writing implements.

The poem of the week, on Slate.com – “Holding Hands” by Michael McFee – is nice. I love the imagery and the lyricism.

Enjoy the weather, whereever you are….

The weather is way strange in NYC. Today is summer, as opposed to the three previous days of a nice spring. Eh.

–> Asians in the news:

Being the sucker that I am for news on royalty, it appears that Japan’s Crown Princess Masako is just buckling under the severe public and personal pressure that she’s under. A Harvard-educated woman who had a career in Foreign Service until she married the Crown Prince, Masako has since become “dowdy” and has only produced a daughter, contrary to the desires and expectations of the promoters of primogeniture of the Japanese royal bureaucracy. Considering that Crown Prince Naruhito’s brother himself has only daughters and there are no male descendants, Japan is going to have to quit it with the whole primogeniture thing. This Chicago Tribune article (via Yahoo) notes that Masako is “more or less a prisoner of her womb.” It makes me wonder what it means when educated, high class Asian women feel so oppressed, whether or not they put the stress on themselves or that it is their society that does it.

UC law professor John Yoo is in the news about his legal memoranda to the US Justice Department. Findlaw has an interesting analysis by Julie Hilden; she appears to say that while Yoo’s memoranda may be covered under his role as a lawyer advising the government (and therefore not a legal violation and to say otherwise would chill attorneys from advising the government), what he did may be morally wrong. Hmm. May the lay public, forget law students and lawyers, accept the distinctions between morality and legality? Hard to say.

–> Non-Asian-related (so far as I can tell) news: I couldn’t resist reading this article, while I was passing through Findlaw: “Man Charged With Chalupa Assault” – it’s a Taco Bell tort, apparently. ;-D

–> weddings and stuff like that… On Sunday, I highlighted the NY Times’ wedding announcement of the Piepers, of bar review fame (to be more precise, Mr. Pieper’s son – who I heard also teaches some of those classes). Therefore, upon further elaboration: the bride is a medical doctor; Pieper the Younger is a lawyer; plus Pieper the Younger’s parents are, well, dedicated to the family business (the wedding announcement notes that Pieper the Younger’s mom is an editor of the Pieper materials); so, I figure, hopefully, the bride can fit in this family’s activities (she could cover torts, I guess, or treat the students for carpal tunnel syndrome for writing their notes so much). (sidenote: thanks to FC for ruling on the side that the Piepers are public figures who can be referred (see his comment to my post); I had my guess there, considering that they’re in the business and are well known).

Well, June is wedding month (putting aside that it is bar review time, which the Piepers ought to know); congrats to the Piepers and to… [drum roll] J. Lo and Mark Anthony (hmm. was a pre-nup signed there? Any other rules of NYS Domestic Relations Law to consider? Oh, wait – Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony weren’t even married in NYS; but aren’t they still domociled in NYS? Oh whatever)….