As an astronomer-cum-lawyer and a big word nerd, I am thrilled to see that the Supreme Court took a break from being serious yesterday to learn a new word:
Yesterday at the public defenders’ conference:
The presenter, a psychologist, puts up a picture of two teenagers in profile, nose to nose, forehead to forehead. The teenagers are breaming and blushing. She asks “what’s this a picture of?”
The audience, immediately and unanimously, “statutory rape!”
Actually, she was looking for an “above the waist” answer: ‘young love.’
Oh.
On his Twitter Feed, “Skelly Wright” of Arbitrary and Capricious offers a bit of practical advice:
To teen in court: if you want to beat a [urinalysis] for marijuana, make sure the friend’s urine you’re substituting won’t be positive for opiates.
Oops.
Above the Law reports on a story about a 1L (first-year law student) at Minnesota who got hit by a stray bullet while leaving a nightclub in Minneapolis. At his blog, he recounts:
So it’s around 2:30 am on a Monday morning and I’m sitting downtown bleeding on the side of the street. Random people coming from clubs stopped as they saw the blood coming from my back. I had a pretty good idea that I was going to miss this morning’s civil procedure class…
Shot in the back and worrying about civ pro… only from a 1L!
ATL doesn’t do the story justice though. You have to read the first-hand account for such hilarious gems as:
A nurse then tells me that they are going to have to take off all my clothes. Do I have a problem with that?
Me: “I have a bullet in my back. It’s not the time for modesty.”
A few minutes later I’m covered with those wash-rag-like hospital blankets. A homicide detective comes in and asks me a few questions. I remind him that I’m not a homicide case yet…
The dude’s blog his hilarious. Seriously, go read it.
Too good to pass up:
One does not ordinarily maintain an area as a lawn with the intention of using it, and allowing others to use it, as a road. See Proulx v. D’Urso, 60 Mass.App.Ct. 701, 704 n. 2 (2004)
Carlson v. Fontanella, No. 07-P-1410. , decided today by the Appeals Court
The best part, I think, is that they needed to cite another case for that proposition.