Ira, 3L

And the world is watching. While Bush will be President until late January, we all know that America (heck, Earth as we know it in a geopolitical sense) will be a very different place on Wednesday, November 5th.

Regardless of who is elected. Seriously. What a powerful feeling, the sense that we stand on a precipice of tomorrow.

It's been a week of powerful legal headlines, as well. Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens was convicted in Federal Court. Just today, Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested for allegedly accepting $23,500 in bribes from undercover FBI agents and others. The Boston Globe has published photos that do actually seem to show her accepting wads of money. Those who follow Mass politics will remember that she is on the ballot next week, as a write-in candidate (having been beaten in the Democratic Primary Election Cycle by Sonia Chang-Diaz). This may be hefty on the tongue-in-cheek side of things, but this does not look good for her re-election.

Also, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the state sex offender law, namely its requirements of an address for registry purposes, is unconstitutional as applied to Georgia's homeless population.

In news more particular to this (occasionally) hard-working 2L, I accepted an offer to work for the Public Defenders Service's Trial Division in DC next Summer. Check out their website and all they do here. I am very excited at this prime opportunity and honor to work for such a renowned office, although it puts me away from Boston for yet another co-op. As of this moment, I just finalized my plans for my third co-op before I have even started my second.

As Ferris Bueller famously said, "[law school] goes by fast. If you don't stop and take a look around every once a while, you might miss it."

Posted by Ira at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 21, 2008. 10.14pm. I just read a news report, two emails, and multiple Facebook status messages that are reacting to the recent weather report predicting snow flurries this evening. While I'm tempted to sit back and await with glee the onset of winter conditions here in Boston, I have just a bit too much going on.

Exams for us upper levels are in just under four weeks. And it feels like we just broke into the syllabus. Plus, this week, I am in the full swing of interviews with government and public interest internships for next summer. I am really excited, but I have six in two days. Two on Thursday, Four on Friday. The ones on Thursday I plan on fitting in between classes. Friday, however, will likely just be an exhausting day.

These should be my last interviews for a while, so I'll let you know how they go. If I'm able to secure a job with one of them, perhaps I can finally divulge with whom I have been interviewing all this time. I am excited to discuss it, and talk in-depth about how the interviews go (and have gone). Until then, I won't share too much and prejudice myself--lest some curious potential employer does a Google search on me and finds this blog.

Also, elections are coming up in 2 weeks. I sent in my absentee ballot to North Carolina, but I cannot wait until Election Day.

Posted by Ira at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I may have written a blog about this last year, but, if I did, it bears repeating: Everything is intertwined.

But, Ira, you'll say, that is about as obvious as a parrot with Tourette's at a pet store.

Okay, maybe that's a bad comparison.

Anyway, we all know everything is connected. Six degrees of separation for us all, maybe more so for Kevin Bacon. One thing leads to another, and all that. But, when you hone the interconnectedness of life down to one specific area, like, say, the law, it becomes amazingly apparent.

I'm taking First Amendment law right now, in which we spend the majority of our time discussing the freedom of speech and expression. Or, on occasion, the (not quite) freedom of speech. Nonetheless, the First Amendment has popped up in nearly every other class I've been taking. Point-in-case, in Appellate Advocacy I will have to write an appellate brief and give an oral argument to a Court of Appeals panel on a case involving hacking into government databases and computer systems. There are strong constitutional questions in this case, specifically, whether the First Amendment protects the hackers in using the information they acquired (or how they acquired it).

Moreover, issues involving the First Amendment show up all over the coursework in my class, Balancing Liberty and Security in Post-9/11 America.

Right now in the First Amendment class, we're just finishing obscenity, pornography, and sexually explicit speech. The way the Supreme Court has differentiated all three of those categories is interesting, if not, at times, befuddling.

More to come...

Posted by Ira at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes, it's doing a lot of work that is only tangentially related to your studies. And the fun you're trying to have in the meantime.

For much of last week, and nearly all of the weekend, I worked on two projects. First, I was editing and writing a proposal for funding and support to produce a documentary and create a web-based center. A research assistant for Professor Deborah Ramirez, I am leading up a small team of students who are compiling and collaborating research done in the U.S. and U.K. The project focuses on building partnerships between law enforcement agencies and Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian communities to combat terrorism, extremism, and hate crimes. Great project, great work.

And, a main goal of getting the proposal done and beautiful was because of a meeting this week during where we intended (and did) present it. A French Investigative Judge, Philippe Coirre, was attending meetings and doing research in the Boston area, and he asked to meet specifically with Professor Ramirez about this research we have been working on.

The meeting went rather well, I thought. Judge Coirre seemed very receptive to Professor Ramirez's thoughts and vision, and the purpose behind building these law enforcement-community bridges. He asked me to email him an electronic version of the proposal so he could discuss it with the French Minister of Justice. He likes the partnership ideas and thinks it is something the French government should look into implementing.

I'm sorry? Let me, make sure I've got this right. You want to give this specific proposal, which, while a fantastic achievement of collaboration and brought together from many, many people's thoughts and hard work, I spearheaded, to what is arguably the equivalent to our Attorney General?

Incredible. I had only one response: Definitely.

Sometimes, I really love law school.

Oh, and the second thing that occupied much of my time: Revamping an article I wrote for the ILSA Quarterly--an independent international law periodical. My article on victim participation in trials at the International Criminal Court should be published a little later this fall.

Happy New Year to several of you! Happy long weekend to the rest.

Posted by Ira at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)