Enjoying the Benefits

Today, my school hosted a Supreme Court review. I attended and was treated to a free hour and a half that easily beat out the majority of the class hours that my tuition has purchased thus far.

First, there was free food. Second, there was free wine. Third, there was free diet coke. Did I mention it was free? Oh, and the technical reason why I went?

There were three of the bay area's foremost legal scholars giving squib versions of their takes of last year's most important Supreme Court decisions. Apparently, the broadband case is the only important case from last season related to IP. (In all fairness, despite the furor in the tech world, grokster is a no-brainer: if you're going to rely on substantial non-infringing use, you can't advertise copyright infringement as your main sales ploy. Shocking.)

Outside of IP, if you're me, other than Booker and FanFan and Gonzales, you are woefully underinformed of the Supreme Court cases from last session and completely uninformed of the cases to be heard this session (other than Anna Nicole's case, of course).

So I went to the event and attentively listened. It was entertaining, informative, and I was conscious of just how lucky I was to be so well educated. Two years ago, I might have thought I knew what I was hearing, but I wouldn't have understood the historical meaning of the ordinary English words they used, the legal jargon, the importance of the issues, or the depth of the knowledge that these three legal scholars poured upon us. But today, I was thankful and in awe, plus well enough informed to understand that I was still missing some things. I guess the transformation is almost complete.

And yes, while the scholars offered informed and interesting commentary on Roberts and Meirs, I tend to agree with Buffalo Wings and Vodka on the likely line-up of the Court.