Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Ah yes, the pre-ConLaw exam run.

(My jogging grounds, "then and now.")

Tomorrow begins the end of my first year as a law student. I would normally feel elated after the end of classes, but this time the imminent threat of injury that is Prof. Weiner's Constitutional Law examination hangs over me like a giant tottering boulder. And the fact that the exam is closed-book and closed-note means that I stand under that boulder with little more in the way of protection than the miniature umbrella so often employed by desert canines.

So to clear my mind and get energized, I took a short run along the scenic East River, which is near my apartment. It was nice to get out and do some semblance of triathlon training after a day spent indoors with my nose in a book written by this guy. And as I ran I was indeed able to think clearly about the pendulum swing of the Supreme Court's Federalism jurisprudence from the pre-1937 bench to the New Deal-era 1937-1995 bench and back again. I pondered Justice Jackson's test of executive privilege in his dissent in Youngstown v. Sawyer and the substantial economic effects analyses in Wickard v. Filburn and Gonzales v. Raich. And by the time I stumbled home to my wife's delicious fresh-cooked dinner, I felt that maybe it wasn't going to be so bad after all.

Perhaps this time, the coyote will win.

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