Today I woke up and met Dr. Kobylka at our meeting spot in the lobby of the luxurious Ballston Comfort Inn. We had a mutual need to run every morning before heading downtown, Dr. Kobylka with his 20-year running streak and me with conditioning tests from the soccer team on our return from D.C., so naturally we headed out each morning for a few miles. On our return, I showered and got ready with my roommates, Natalie and Zoe. After a quick breakfast and head count to make sure we had Patrick, who loved a few extra minutes of sleep in the morning, we started our walk to the metro. On the walk, I talked with Anna Kelley and Tyler because all three of us are studying the right to privacy, so we needed to plan who was going to pull which boxes of cases. I was excited to get through some of the medicaid cases today, because I spent all of yesterday going through Roe v. Wade (1973). Justice Blackmun had so many snippets in Roe that will be great when writing my thesis, and finally being in his papers yesterday made me realize the magnitude of the research we are doing.

Once off the metro and into the manuscript reading room of the Madison building, I got working as quickly as possible. We only had an hour to work in the papers before our special tour of the Supreme Court. I started with Poelker v. Doe (1977), in which Justice Blackmun joined Justice Brennan’s dissent. In the papers, I found evidence that Blackmun argued for the rights of women, which was different from his opinion for Roe where he argued for the rights of doctors. This evidence in Poelker was in preliminary memorandums from clerks of the Court and several draft opinions, which I would have not been able to find had we not gone to research in the papers of the Justices.

The Brennan portrait

At around 9:30 we left for a tour of the Supreme Court. There was an extensive line of tourists waiting to get in, but, of course, Dr. Kobylka talked to someone and was able to take us in the side door with no wait. There, we met with two college students interning at the SCOTUS who split us up for a tour of the Court. We went upstairs to see the library that the clerks and Justices themselves sometimes research in, which was full of books of state codes and laws. Next, our tour guide took us to the Supreme Court room itself. Right outside the room, people were setting up for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Court memorial, which made this experience feel very real. Inside the courtroom, our guide let us stand up at the podium where lawyers present their cases. It was incredibly intimidating seeing how close you would be to the Justices. While our guide talked about the history of the courtroom, we got to sit on the bench designated for family members of the Justices, so naturally I sat in Mrs. Thomas’ spot. Then, we had a special meeting with one of the current clerks of the Court where we had an opportunity to ask questions. We concluded the tour at the Supreme Court gift shop and café before heading back to the manuscript reading room.

I continued reading medicaid cases and a couple other consequential cases before we wrapped up for the day. We went to a burger place for dinner tonight, only a few steps outside the Madison building. As we chowed down, everyone was so excited to talk about the little things they had found in the boxes that day. It was a little nerdy discussion, consisting of things like “Blackmun’s clerk and O’Connor’s clerk were totally gossiping in this memo”, and I absolutely loved it. It was obvious that Dr. Kobylka had picked the right people for this experience.

After a metro trip home and dropping off our backpacks, we congregated in the lobby for a couple rounds of the board game Secret Hitler. It was a great way to end the night and everyone was starting to get really comfortable around each other. Then I headed to bed so I could wake up early for my run with Dr. Kobylka in the morning!