Visiting the Supreme Court!
Our fearless leader Professor Kobylka admiring the institution he has thoroughly researched.
Anna and I touching John Marshall’s knee (the father of the Supreme Court that pushed the court to expand its power and establish judicial review). Professor Kobylka said that touching his knee would bring good luck for law school but the docent said it was his foot. Don’t worry I touched both so I’m all covered.
These stairs levitate! We didn’t get to climb them, but if we did you know I would be playing Dua Lipa’s “Levitating!”
This quote was a good reminder of the importance of the separation of powers within American Government. The Supreme Court is a supreme body charged with administering justice at the highest level even if that is a painfully slow process, yet it does not have the power to legislate from the bench or act in place of Congress. Therefore, the court must rule employing the text Constitution in its current form and not personal biases or public opinion. If the Constitution is wrong the court must trust that citizens will motivate its alteration but the court cannot provoke that process but rather interpret the document they are required to employ.
I learned so much in my visit to the Supreme Court, but do you want to know what surprised me the most!? To preserve tradition, the Supreme Court uses paper for everything. When justices need to reference a specific state law or statistic a book is pulled for them to employ and sent up during the trial. Justices take handwritten notes with the most junior justice being responsible for taking notes for the conference. Even members of the press are not allowed to bring their laptops and must take handwritten. This is so contrary to the way all of us live in such a digital era that I found it fascinating!
More fun findings!!!
A sweet note from Chief Justice Lewis Powell to Justice Blackmun’s wife after he wrote the Roe opinion that demonstrates the community on the bench.
Zoe holding up a note that says “its a great day for the country.”
My camera roll will never recover from the damage done at the Library.
One of my favorite pieces of information I found while in D.C. In the case, U.S. v. Vutich the justices needed to define the word health so that maternal health would be considered and protected within privacy cases and to do this the justices used the current societal understanding of the word health and the Webster’s dictionary definition.
Ellie and me with the cherry blossoms
Our second to last night in D.C. we had dinner at Union Station and I couldn’t get over how pretty it was. The cherry blossoms had just starting blooming and the sun was smiling for us!
Cherry Blossoms
On our last day, Professor Kobylka served as our tour guide showing us all the prominent DC sights including the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and the White House. Don’t worry the neon green is not a permanent White House look just a little Saint Patty’s day fun! Walking around DC made me realize how much I love our nation’s capital and aspire to work there in the future.
White House during St. Patrick’s Day
WE DID IT JOE!
Signing off,
AK