The Eyes of the Law: Justice Ginsburg at Georgetown
One of the great things about going to law school here in Washington, D.C., is access to the U.S. Supreme Court. If you're at Georgetown Law and want to watch a SCOTUS argument, you can just stroll on over to One First Street.
And sometimes the mountain comes to Mohammed. Justices of the Supreme Court regularly visit Georgetown University Law Center. For example, last November, as reported in these pages, Justice Antonin Scalia paid a visit.
Today his considerably more liberal counterpart, fellow opera lover Ruth Bader Ginsburg, graced GULC with her presence. From a tipster (who took the iPhone picture at right):
Justice Ginsburg just left an admitted students event at GULC, a discussion about U.K./U.S. comparative law. Also in attendance was Lady Hale of the soon-to-be U.K. Supreme Court.Justice Ginsburg was very dignified. She was wearing a brown suit -- it looked like a carpet -- paired with white stockings and yellowish shoes.
Best part: when she whipped a copy of the Constitution out of her pocket and read out the Equal Protection Clause!!!
I had my Con Law book ready for her signature, but she snuck out a side door right afterwards.
For the Article III groupies among you, a little more description of the event appears after the jump.
From our mole in the audience:
That's Ginsburg on the left, a GULC dean in the middle, and Lady Hale -- with her hyper-awesome English accent -- on the right. She told stories about the lack of ladies' "loos" when she first joined the court, after Ginsberg told a similar story. Said Lady Hale: "Everyone has a bathroom story."The discussion included a question, right off the bat, from Justice Ginsburg to Baroness Hale, about titles (ignoring the moderator's planned discussion topic). Then they told anecdotes about being females on the high courts, then rambled a bit about how the new UK Supreme Court will work.
It went on for about 90 minutes. Then Justice Ginsburg dashed off, leaving me high and dry -- with a Sharpie and an unsigned Con-Law book ;(
Don't despair, tipster. Maybe you can bring your Con Law book to RBG's husband, Georgetown tax professor Martin Ginsburg, and see if he can take it home to the Watergate for her to sign?
Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond [Wikipedia]
(30) Comments
bill clinton to SCOTUS after hillary is elected.
first?
GULC's "media coverage & the courts" seminar is going to SCOTUS next monday to meet with Ginsberg ... she's really making herself available to GULC students, pretty cool
in a make believe world where hillary clinton could actually win the general election - i wonder if she'd give a SCOTUS position to Obama? I also wonder if he'd take it after the hatchet job she and Bubba have done to him.
I feel bad for well known government officials who are always getting papers and books shoved into their faces to autograph. Aren't autographs for teenage girls swooning over boy bands?
The justices all (except for Souter who is anti-social) go to the various top law schools regardless of whether they are in DC or Ann Arbor or Charlottesville or Boston or NYC (and so on.)
6:35 - you are a total pirate. All the NINJAS know that BC was disbarred following hummer-gate.
Mohammed is at a Catholic law school? Awkward.
I think Justice Ginsburg always has that copy of the constitution in her pocket! When I was a student at GULC I went to several "teas" with her and she was always whipping it out. She's generally a very personable person. And yes, 7:24 - they visit you at other schools - but I think only the DC school students ever have the distinction of having a supreme court spouse bake them a cake for the meeting with the Justice (true story - Marty is a fabulous baker and always makes something for the teas!)
A grand total of zero Supreme Court justices visited campus when I was there. Thanks for nothing then-Dean Areen.
I would rather go to a top school where one day I can say that I went to law school with a USSC justice.
I saw Justice Ginsburg deliver a speech at the NYC Bar Association in 2001 or 2002. After she spoke, she took her seat in the front row next to her husband, and Madeline Albright delivered the keynote. During Secretary Albright's speech, RBG nodded off no fewer than four times. Her husband kept poking her in the ribs so she'd wake up.
Cutest thing I ever saw.
Guys in my law school used to see SCOTUS justices speak all the time, it was no big deal.
What was so wrong with the House of Lords being the final court of appeal in the UK?
Bloody Tony Blair was always trying to make the bloody UK more like the US.
Big Deal. Pepperdine has Chief Justice Roberts coming to judge moot court finals and speak at our annual dinner.
You know what, Tom Harkin, we're going to New Hampshire and South Carolina, and Michicgan, and Oklahoma, and Missouri, and California, and then we're going to Washington, D.C. to take back the White House... YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAYYYYYAAAAH!!!!
Dear 8:58 -
On behalf of the readers of this blog, I would like to thank you for letting us all know about your distinguished law school's moot court competition. But at the end of the day, you go to Pepperdine. Please refer to the post "Lawyer of the Day - P'ta Mon" for guidance on possible employment upon graduation.
Where is "Charlottesville" and what law school is there?
Weil special bonus to anyone who has heard a SCOTUS Justice say anything intelligent at one of these photo-ops. The "message" invarialby consists of a dumbed down version of "buy low, sell high," and "don't piss into the wind." Sure makes me want to want go to GULC.
i so wish i went to Pepperdine.
Big deal. Guys in my highschool used to see Justices speak all the time.
Ginsburg is hot in those white stockings!
She may as well sign the Constitution as she is so intent on rewriting it.
7:25,
The state of Arkansas suspended BC's law license for five years after "hummer-gate." That suspension has expired and BC is now eligible for reinstatement. He resigned his membership to the SCOTUS bar under threat of disbarment but he was never disbarred, you pirate.
That should be Baroness Hale, Lat. Lady Hale would be correct if she were the spouse of a life peer and not one in her own right.
George Washington University Law School has had Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito and Justice Breyer come to the school over the last 3 years. The first two actually judged our con law moot court finals.
Being in DC really makes a difference. On top of that, we get non-legal dignataries like Al Gore, President Musharaf (an anti-legal dignitary), etc.
Women who went to GULC in the 80s also have bathroom stories. GULC was all-male until sometime in the late 60s or early 70s, and there were not enough bathrooms for the women students. They finally "converted" an out-of-the-way men's room to a women's bathroom, but didn't do a great job of notifying the men, like by removing the urinals. There were a number of us who came out of stalls, only to find a classmate peeing away.
Big effing deal... who cares what lecture is going on at gtown?
George Washington University Law School has had Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito and Justice Breyer come to the school over the last 3 years. The first two actually judged our con law moot court finals.
Being in DC really makes a difference. On top of that, we get non-legal dignataries like Al Gore, President Musharaf (an anti-legal dignitary), etc.
HILLARY I WHANT YOU TO BE THE PRESEDENT
HILLARY I WHANT YOU TO BE THE PRESEDENT.
HILLARY I WHANT YOU TO BE THE PRESEDENT.
georgetown is a complete dump/TTT of a law school.
i'm sick of people who go there saying they go to a good school.