A Touch of Continuing Legal Education
Even lawyers who are distinguished members of the Bar can have embarrassing, gaping holes in their legal knowledge. That is one of the reasons that the Bar requires a certain number of Continuing Legal Education credits to keep a law license up to date.
While we are not sanctioned to provide official CLE courses, we do occasionally help our lawyer friends by providing a little remedial legal training. I won’t mention any names, but last night at Keegan’s there was a learned lawyer (drinking something stronger than Kool-Aid) who insisted that Warren Burger was a dissenter in Roe vs. Wade and that Byron White was in the majority. I insisted on the opposite. As a guest member of the winning Fraters Libertas trivia team, you’d think that I would have been deferred to – but you’d have been wrong. Strangely, the (non-nuke toting) lawyer would not take my word for it. Thus, I am forced to provide evidence supporting my contention:
Roe vs. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Decided 7-2 Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court, and was joined by Burger, Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, and Powell.
White and Rehnquist in dissent.
Note to those at Keegan’s on trivia night: you may want to check for the “Defending Champions” trophy before contradicting a fellow patron on a matter of fact (even if the matter of fact is in your field). I know of a certain Iron Maiden listening, moonbat dissing, law talking guy who probably wishes he’d followed that advice.
While we are not sanctioned to provide official CLE courses, we do occasionally help our lawyer friends by providing a little remedial legal training. I won’t mention any names, but last night at Keegan’s there was a learned lawyer (drinking something stronger than Kool-Aid) who insisted that Warren Burger was a dissenter in Roe vs. Wade and that Byron White was in the majority. I insisted on the opposite. As a guest member of the winning Fraters Libertas trivia team, you’d think that I would have been deferred to – but you’d have been wrong. Strangely, the (non-nuke toting) lawyer would not take my word for it. Thus, I am forced to provide evidence supporting my contention:
Roe vs. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)
Decided 7-2 Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court, and was joined by Burger, Douglas, Brennan, Stewart, Marshall, and Powell.
White and Rehnquist in dissent.
Note to those at Keegan’s on trivia night: you may want to check for the “Defending Champions” trophy before contradicting a fellow patron on a matter of fact (even if the matter of fact is in your field). I know of a certain Iron Maiden listening, moonbat dissing, law talking guy who probably wishes he’d followed that advice.
posted by Sisyphus at 3/25/2005 10:18:00 AM
5 Comments:
Obviously when I said "Warren Burger dissented" I meant "Byron White Dissented". Someone as smart as you should have deciphered my code.
Oddly enough, they don't ask about dissenting judges in particular cases on the bar exam, nor have I ever heard of any attorney disciplined or sued for malprctice for forgetting such things.
I wonder whay that is...
So you're saying there's no practical application for my encyclopedic knowledge of Supreme Court dissents?
There can be uses for the dissenting opinions themselves. Sometimes that'll win you a case.
Knowlege of who wrote the dissenting opinions wight win you a trivia contest.
Perfect then, since my only use for them is winning trivia contests.
See you can decode "Footspeak": you knew that "wight" meant "might".
I think you were just sandbagging to humiliate me.
LF
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