All My Trials

I have learned so much over the last few days, but I feel a bit like my life's been hijacked. I'm in trial ad training all day and then I come home and work on my assignments for the next day. My faux trial is Sunday at the District Courthouse here in DC. I represent a small aluminum company that's suing its fire insurer for breach of the insurance plan after the insurer failed to pay on a claim for a burnt down warehouse. Pretty intense stuff.

I want my life back. My apartment looks like a well-dressed, chubby man exploded.

[Edited to add: I got in a little later than usual last night because I went to the Hillary Clinton "block party" with my buddy Jen from work. After I got home (around 9pm), I debated whether I should sleep or do my assignment for today. I chose sleep. I was in bed before 10pm. I slept through the night. I have to run to Georgetown now so that I can get an hour of work in before we start today but it was TOTALLY worth it. I had forgotten what 8 hours of sleep feels like.

It feels like awesome.]

Happy Law Day!

36 U.S.C. § 113:

(a) Designation. — May 1 is Law Day, U.S.A.

(b) Purpose. — Law Day, U.S.A., is a special day of celebration by the people of the United States—
(1) in appreciation of their liberties and the reaffirmation of their loyalty to the United States and of their rededication to the ideals of equality and justice under law in their relations with each other and with other countries; and
(2) for the cultivation of the respect for law that is so vital to the democratic way of life.

(c) Proclamation.— The President is requested to issue a proclamation—
(1) calling on all public officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on Law Day, U.S.A.; and
(2) inviting the people of the United States to observe Law Day, U.S.A., with appropriate ceremonies and in other appropriate ways, through public entities and private organizations and in schools and other suitable places.

Law Day was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 as a counterpoint to the socialist May Day celebrations. As the New York Times tells us in a great editorial today (yes, yes, I'm well aware that it seems like I only read the Times), it was quite the big deal back in the day:

Law Day proved to be a boon to international law, which was seen during the cold war as a check on communism. In his proclamation creating the holiday, Eisenhower emphasized law’s role “in the settlement of international disputes.” On Law Day 1959, Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut, grandfather of the current president, urged, remarkably, that international conflicts be settled by the World Court.

("Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut." Wow. W is so good at making me forget he's a mid-Atlantic snob like yours truly. Or is Connecticut considered New England? Hmm...I think it might be New England. Either way, you get the point: You ain't a Texan if you were born in New Haven.)

It's a shame that once the U.S. stopped being so freaked out by Communism, we stopped caring about Law Day. I join the Times in calling for it to return to our national consciousness. Perhaps if the public is reminded of the law (beyond the day-to-day traffic infractions and medical malpractice lawsuits), they'll start getting mad about how the current administration has been pissing all over it for the last six years.

HAPPY LAW DAY, EVERYONE!!!