Besides just looking forward to a mental break to study, I found a little extra motivation:
Author: Hoplite0352 (Page 12 of 27)
Guess who I’ve been practicing having read me my bar questions? Don’t be surprised when you look over and see me calm as hindu cows.
Bar Tally: 389 Hours
Now if today were World of Warcraft equipment, I’m not so badass as to have today be a grey day, but it certainly isn’t so uncommon as to be a blue. (incriminating facts and events omitted)
Reville: 0900
Study until 1645. (with a 1 hour break for some delicious McDonald’s hot cakes)
1645-1845 –> Be a kickass dad.
1845-1930 –> Eat a whole chicken and watch an episode of King of the Hill.
1930 — 2345 –> Study
2345–0215 –> Get lonely, walk to the bar, get drunk, fail at picking up girls repeatedly.
0215-0300–> Help prevent Montana guy from getting in trouble with the cops and walk home.
0300 -0345 PT and blog.
Now time for bed and 0900 Reville for some study. I don’t think my brain and body have caught up with the revolutions around the sun I’ve made. Either I’m indestructible or I’m going to fall apart one night when it all catches up.
…to protesting the Constitutionality of a statute in the form of an MBE answer:
C. The court should hold the statute unconstitutional, because its relationship to legitimate purposes of the spending power of Congress is too tenuous and conjectural to satisfy the necessary and proper clause of Article I.
Let’s face it: I’m worried. My essays flat out suck and I’m averaging 65-70% on my MBE questions. I screwed up Rice a Roni for God’s sake. I’m getting agitated and losing my chill, which I have maintained quite well.
This does outline some weaknesses in my character. It isn’t so much the bar itself that is upsetting me. If I don’t pass the bar I’ll move on to the next thing and I’ll be fine. At this point my frustration is simple: I can’t accept being average. Ever. At anything.
And here, now, I have never worked so hard to be so markedly…mediocre. Outside of the Corps I have never worked this hard at anything. And I have no one, nothing, pushing me. The only man in the room is myself. And he’s always been my toughest critic, reminding me that I’m weak when I don’t work hard enough. It’s this near-religious fixation I have that demands me to be superhuman, and that the only way to get there is diligent effort. Even when my head tells me I’ll do better if I ease up and rest, I push the thought away and demand a doubling of effort. I’m not worried about what friends might think if I don’t pass. In fact, I’m pretty damn confident I’m going to pass. I’m going to pass and I’m going to be a damn fine lawsmith. But with this much effort I should be cool, calm, and easily passing. I shouldn’t be average. It isn’t what others think. It’s that son of a bitch in the mirror.
You know, I think I’m just tired. And I’m too damn foolish to give myself a break. And I’m even more foolish for taking pride in that. Then again, I’m just loopy at this point, what do I know?
16 Hours. Yeah, oh yeah.
Bar Tally: 379 Hours.
I always save a pack of mortars from Independence Day for Bastille Day on the 14th. I’m no francophile or anything, but it’s one of those days worth marking off. I never much understood our love of the British and hatred for the French. The French may be a bunch of filthy surrender monkeys, but at least they don’t proudly refer to themselves as “subjects”. They handled their whole monarchy problem. That’s more than the Canadians, Australians, or British can say.
The French made a go of it. They may have been able to pull it off if they weren’t stuck back in the old world when they tried. Their revolution was less intellectual and more mob-driven, sure, but there is still an idealogical kinship that I would dare say is deeper than we had for England. So I tip my hat to the Marquis de Lafayette, along with Thomas Paine and my man Thomas Jefferson; I’m sure they all would have considered it a day of remembrance. Viva la France!
So I take the daughter to go see Brave. Near the end you get the stereotypical, “Is she gonna make it?” moment:
My little girl is sitting there next to me crying. This little girl breaks my heart. Next thing you know I’m next to her wiping tears out of my eyes. Pathetic.
Here is an example model answer to one part of an essay question:
A proper arrest is one that is based on probable cause. Facts supporting probable cause may come from a number of different sources including a police officer’s personal observations. Here, the state law granted police officers discretion to arrest for any traffic infraction, including violation of the state’s seat belt law. The officer personally observed a violation of the seat belt law and so had probable cause to make the stop and arrest. Therefore, the stop and arrest were constitutional. The constitutionality of the stop and arrest is not affected by the relatively minor nature of the violation or by the officer’s ulterior motive for making the stop. Rather, the pertinent factors taken into consideration are whether or not there was probable cause to believe a traffic violation had occurred and whether or not state law authorized arrest for that particular violation. Therefore, because there was probable cause for the traffic stop and state law authorized arrest for the traffic violation, neither the stop nor the subsequent arrest violated Suspect’s constitutional rights.
Here is how I answered:
Courts have held that a pretextual stop and arrest do not violate a person’s Constitutional rights. Whether it is common practice or not for a specific officer to engage in a certain type of arrest is not relevant to the validity of an arrest.
Officer used the violation of the seat belt law as a pretext to stop and arrest. The state allows arrests to be made for violations of the seat belt law. Therefore Suspect’s Constitutional rights were not violated.
This problem has plagued me throughout law school. I always found it funny that professors often said that people go to law school because they can’t do math. I didn’t score great grades in law school not because I didn’t get the answers right. I got average grades in law school because I didn’t do a very good job of showing my work. Let’s consider the above example. In the fact pattern, they say that the officer pulled this guy over because he saw that the driver wasn’t wearing a seat belt. The officer just had a hunch that the guy had drugs on him, but pulled him over for the seat belt violation as a pretext to stop him. He was fishing.
I screwed up here because I never explained the probable cause aspect, ect. I never think, “I should say the officer had probable cause to arrest him because he witnessed the violation. I should explain what probable cause is. I should explain that you need probable cause for an arrest.” I think, “Okay, he saw the guy not wearing his seatbelt and can arrest him. No need to discuss the obvious.” Basically, I lose a lot of very easy points because even though I’m showing my work like my math teacher wants, I didn’t show the steps where I did addition.
I take solace only in the fact that my MBE score is increasing to about 75% right. These essay questions are but 30% of my total grade.
Bar Tally: 359 Hours.
Some of these essay questions crack me up. This one was actually pretty easy. Then again that probably has more to do with the fact that anything not involving Secured Transactions, Commercial Paper, Wills, or Trusts has been violently cemented into my mind. But I just love these questions because there’s this long fact pattern and then they just throw something random in there at the last second. This isn’t the best example, but I’m not going to dig back around and find a better one. I’ve got better things to do.
But I love these questions. There’s a mountain of them that will give you this loooooooooong fact pattern on, let’s say, an evidence issue. And in the last sentence it’ll say, “And on the way to court to testify, a bat that got stuck in an airplane’s landing gear and froze to death, shook loose, fell from 20,000 feet and hit Han square in the dick. Lea is suing for loss of consortium.”
The Medical School at State University (“School”) decided in early 2005 to adopt an admissions policy that provided:
(A) Given that five percent of the State’s citizens are Native American, School must ensure that no fewer than five percent of the enrolled first year class shall be Native American.
(B) Given that the State’s African American citizens have suffered great historical discrimination, all African American applicants will have their college grade point averages increased by twenty percent prior to the consideration of their applications by School’s admissions committee.
(C) With respect to all other applicants coming from racial or national origin minority groups that have been historically underrepresented at School, an applicant’s race or national origin may be considered by School’s admissions committee as a “plus” in a particular applicant’s file.
(D) Given the importance of traditional music to all minority groups, all applicants who are accomplished musicians will have their college grade point averages increased by twenty percent prior to the consideration of their applications by School’s admissions committee.
The application by John, who was white and not a musician, to attend School was rejected in 2006, even though he had a higher college grade point average than many of the minority applicants who were offered admission by School that year. John filed suit claiming that School’s admissions policy was illegal, and a few months later moved for summary judgment.
Town had an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to engage in door-to-door solicitation without first securing a permit from Town. Bill heard about John’s lawsuit, and decided to go door-to-door in Town passing out a handbill stating that School had a racist admissions policy. The back side of the handbill had a small advertisement for Bill’s pizza parlor. Town police arrested Bill for violating the ordinance. Bill moved to dismiss the charges.
How should the court rule on John’s summary judgment motion? How should the court rule on Bill’s motion to dismiss?
Bar Tally: 349 Hours.
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