Category: Law

Lake Samammish Loop Variation

I’m not sure how some students do it. They get up early every day and study until late into the evening. Each minute of every day is scheduled - down to the exact minute they’re going to shower (if at all). My limit is about 6 to 8 hours a day, depending on what type of studying I’m doing. I also need to take short breaks every hour and a half or so. Usually, I do a few push-ups and sit-ups to get the blood flowing. Sometimes I stretch and meditate to rest my brain and let the material settle.

This afternoon was lovely (in December that means it was above 40 degrees and not raining), so Nick and I took off on the bikes for a few hours before dinner. When we want a short loop we usually go over Juanita Drive and back home via the Sammamish Slough. This time, I took Nick on a ramble through Issaquah and Bellevue. Our trip even included a stop at the local Buddhist Temple in Redmond.

We started from home and went down West Lake Sammamish Road before heading west on Newport Way. The route pictured here, would be better for folks meeting at the Velodrome at Marymoor Park. It takes you clockwise around Lake Sammamish, something of a novelty.

When you’re done, you’ll have 25 miles and 1400+ feet of climbing under your belt. Not bad for a not-rainy afternoon in December.

Older African-Americans in awe but on edge

My Environmental Law professor is featured on MSNBC today talking about 50 years of racial integration in anticipation of the first black president. He has an amazing background, including being SU’s first black professor. I quibble with their characterization of his classroom questioning as “pleasant but pointed,” however. Let’s just say one of the adjectives is correct. 

Are you sitting down?

CNN is reporting that a Bush appointee actually did something right for once. Attorney General Mukasey sent a stinging message to the Bureau of Immigration Affairs, saying its ruling against granting asylum to a woman who has undergone FGM is flawed. (You might recall that I wrote about this topic in the spring for my legal writing class.)

Read Mukasey’s full letter to the court.

Now this is my kind of judge

What do you do if you’re a Tacoma, Washington judge and a lawyer files a 465-page racketeering lawsuit you don’t have any interest in reading?

You write a limerick, of course!

“Plaintiff has a great deal to say,
But it seems he skipped Rule 8(a).
His Complaint is too long,
Which renders it wrong,
Please rewrite and refile today.”

Of course the English-major geek inside of me went nuts when Judge Leighton drew a rare comparison between Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In his four-page order granting the defendant’s motion for a more definite statement, he wrote that brevity, in addition to being the soul of wit, is the soul of a pleading. “The Court recognizes the tension between Rule 8(a), which requires a ’short and plain statement,’ and Rule 9(b), which requires the party state his claim with particularity,” wrote Leighton. “The Complaint does not correctly balance this tension.”

So how did the voluminous complaint break down? For starters, Judge Leighton noted that the title to the complaint is eight pages. (Eight pages!!!) Next, the plaintiff uses eighteen pages to list six defendants. “On page 117,” wrote Leighton, “Plaintiff embarks on an odyssey through his claims for relief. While the Court understands that asserting 54 claims requires some space, the 341 pages used to do so is unreasonable.”

It’s good to read the Old Texts now and then, unless you have access to YouTube

The full text of the Declaration of Independence is below for your Fourth of July reading pleasure. For a spiced up version with a little bork-bork, meep-meep, check out this lead-in video:

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