Monday is here! Yeah! NOT!!

There are a lot of things that are going through my mind as I make my way through law school. I suppose that this is a result of never doing things the easy way. Prior to starting school, I had a job that required me to be away from home 3-4 nights per week. I am now home every night. I was living in a studio, and I moved to a duplex owned my older brother. I also have a roommate. Finally, I had a pretty good job, and I gave it up to pursue my goal of becoming an independent patent litigator. Now, most people would approach any one of these event with trepidation and dread. In my infinite wisdom (HA!), I decided to do everything at once. Just when I think that I can’t handle things anymore, I am able to put things into perspective with a little help from my friends. All of the worries and troublesome aspects of my life seem infinitesimal when compared to some of the struggles faced by some of my friends and family. In deference to their privacy, I will not elaborate further. Many of you will know that I am talking about you. I hope that my complaints and whining within my blog don’t seem too trite. I think that the sense of perspective that all of you have provided me has been extremely helpful. Know that I am thinking about you and praying for all of you.
OK, enough of the serious stuff. What happened to the Artful Blogger today? Well, Constitutional Process had us discussing the separation of power between the federal government and the states. There has always been some contentiousness among the states and the feds concerning the extent of power the federal government has under the 10th amendment and the enumerated powers of Article I in the Constitution. The Supreme Court has swung like a pendulum through the years. John Marshall, the first Chief Justice, was a Federalist comrade of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. He favored a strong central government, and his decisions during his time often came down on the side of his leanings. After the Civil War and through modern times, the court has always come down on the side of states’ rights. While many of their decisions seem to be designed to protect states rights, at other times it seems as if the court is avoiding having to rule on controversial issues by hiding behind the 10th amendment. One of the legacies of our esteemed deceased Chief Justice Rehnquist will be this states rights leaning.
Lunch was a little less stressful. I met up with one of my former colleagues from Bio-Rad and the new person who took over for me when I left the company. They bought me lunch from Cosi. Over a very quick lunch, I gave my replacement the run down of the territory and (hopefully) provided some insights on how the territory is set up. I also tried to give pointers on how to cut down on traveling. I know many of you are probably rolling your eyes right now (the Artful Blogger giving advice on cutting down on traveling? RIGHT!).
The afternoon Civil Procedure class was painless as well. We were looking at the rules for amended pleadings and what happens if you change the party names on a complaint after you have filed it with the court. Although this class seemed to be boring at first glance, I look forward to it now. The professor has some great insights into the legal profession and he shares a lot of things that are not in the text. While he is considered our most hard-nosed teacher, I think that the class is slowly beginning to have a grudging respect for him.
After Civil Procedure, I worked with my group in Legal Analysis trying to complete our assignment for Thursday. It turned out all right. The next few hours were spent in the library trying to finish my reading for tomorrow. I am excited about Torts tomorrow because we will have our discussion on medical malpractice.