A Banner in the Rafters

On Saturday, a team of four students from JSL won their final round of the annual Thurgood Marshall National Mock Trial Competition. The team, coached by Professor Luevonda Ross, beat the Texas Tech School of Law to become our first ever national championship team.

Hail the Victors.

Also, our team at the National Trial Competition in Texas made it through to the semi-final round in the national tournament. These students were in the the "elite eight" from over 1000 competitors nation-wide this year.

Go Eagles.

Blue Alabama, continued

CQ calls the Second District race highly competitive.

Rankings

If we were discussing law schools in general and the law school where I work, I would say that the U.S. News rankings are a distraction, a novelty to sell copy, and, emphatically, that they should not be a guide to selecting or grading a school. Every school is different, serving different regions, different students, different markets and different needs in the world. Schools who commit to gaming this process corrupt the rankings and distort their own souls and missions.

Everyone in the legal academy agrees with me.

Everyone in the legal academy, including me, is a hypocrite, because we salivate over them.

As for me and my house, I must say GO 'DORES! Vandy rises to 15th in the nation. We rock, and the rag shafted us by putting Duke and UVA ahead of us. That's a ridiculous injustice.

Blue Alabama

Alabama may be the scene of legitimate political movement and competition this season. Two Congressional seats are open, and the DCCC and state Democrats sense an opening, national momentum toward the party in the winter of war and recession. Of course these are socially conservative districts, but they also have a populist streak. The Democratic candidates are running that way, too.

We live in the Second District, and if it goes Blue, it’ll be national news. The leading Democratic candidate is Bobby Bright, current mayor of Montgomery. He is a very promising candidate for the slot. He’s been elected thrice for mayor in a city with much the same demographics as the rest of the district, the first time against a well entrenched incumbent. Even better, he and his wife, a retiring judge, are alumni of Jones School of Law.

If the Fifth District in north Alabama, including Huntsville, and the Second District in central and south Alabama, including Montgomery, go to the Democrats, we will know that this is a movement or at least a deft pivot for the state of American politics and party identification.

Carson

Please pray for our friend, Edward Carson, and his wife, Janette. Eddie is struggling with some neurological issues, is in ICU in Houston and is awaiting surgery this week. This is a sudden onset of very scary symptoms. Carson is a brilliant teacher and writer, historian, scholar and friend. The world needs him around for a long time more. Please lift him up.

Angry Black Preacher

E.J. Dionne writes a good piece on Jeremiah Wright, Martin Luther King, Obama and the Speech, and I agree with it.

Law Professors

The appointment of Nick Zeppos as Vanderbilt's new chancellor is great news. Professor Zeppos was still on the law faculty full time when I was a 1L, before moving into the University's administration, all the while teaching and writing in the law school. He is a natural fit and deeply loves the University. This makes me prouder, if possible, of Vandy and its commitment to its high ideals for the academy.

This news also leads me to declare 2008 the provisional Year of the Law Professor, citing Clinton, Obama and Zeppos, so far.

Anniversary

Adventure Girl,

Twelve years ago we fell in love. Seven years ago today, by the grace of God, we bound our lives together. You are the fulfillment of His promises of a full, abundant life, steeped in faith, hope and love. You are my sweet, courageous, visionary mate, friend, love and wife.

I love you. Happy Anniversary.

If we are going to discuss re-votes. . .

I wonder if anti-NAFTA Ohio might have some buyer's remorse today?

I also wonder if this is foreshadowing of the way they would govern, again.

Message Discipline

I don't know; maybe the union folks in Ohio will dig it. Just recently, though, didn't she criticize America for electing a guy on the basis of beer collegiality?



(AP Photo from CNN)

"The New York senator, nursing a beer from of a red plastic cup. . . was in a cheery and reflective mood before the plane flew from Cleveland to Toledo."

Seems to me, though, as if she might just be relaxing, pondering inevitability.

Pig Sooie.