When we arrived at SCOTUS, I was positively bubbly over every little thing. Luckily for me I was travelling with one of my professors and two fellow classmates who are also crazy SCOTUS nerds. Parallel parking between the justices' official cars? Too much to handle and it was only the beginning. Once we took the elevator up to the main floor, my classmates and I had the biggest, goofiest grins on our face. Turning the corner and seeing the giant statue of John Marshall was just surreal. For the three of us, it was our first time at the Court and we were so lucky to have our professor who seemed to know EVERY person in the building from the reporters to the members of the Supreme Court bar and even a few justices.
Before we went into the courtroom to watch the oral arguments we HAD to take a picture with John Marshall. You can see that we still had the goofy grins about an hour in to our visit. Note: I'm the furthest to the right.
Before we went into the courtroom to watch the oral arguments we HAD to take a picture with John Marshall. You can see that we still had the goofy grins about an hour in to our visit. Note: I'm the furthest to the right.
We were extremely fortunate to be able to watch the high profile case of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. If you care to read about it here is the Oyez overview and a NYTimes opinion piece. To be honest, I still don't know how I think the case should come out. Either way it's heartbreaking. I was surprised to see during the arguments many of the justices reclining back in their seats and the amount of little jokes they made. As expected, Justice Thomas didn't make a peep and Justice Alito was pretty quiet too. Justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Scalia were by far the most talkative on the bench.
After the argument, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Robert's assistant. We even got to meet the Chief Justice himself which was a total surprise. To say that I was in shock would be an understatement. He was extremely kind and even asked us what we thought of the argument. Afterwards, we toured his office, which contains the couch that John Quincy Adams died on and this famous portrait of George Washington. We also made stops in the robing room and the conference room where the justices hash out the cases and decide who will write the opinion and any dissents. I loved hearing all the history behind the building, the traditions that the Justices have, and a little bit of SCOTUS gossip.
At the end of the day, I was so inspired by what it means to be a lawyer and to be a part of the legal system in this country. No matter what at what level of the judicial system, it was humbling to remember that there are real people with real interests involved. Do I want to be a Supreme Court justice? Nope but I will forever be in awe of the Court's majesty.
After the argument, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Supreme Court by Chief Justice Robert's assistant. We even got to meet the Chief Justice himself which was a total surprise. To say that I was in shock would be an understatement. He was extremely kind and even asked us what we thought of the argument. Afterwards, we toured his office, which contains the couch that John Quincy Adams died on and this famous portrait of George Washington. We also made stops in the robing room and the conference room where the justices hash out the cases and decide who will write the opinion and any dissents. I loved hearing all the history behind the building, the traditions that the Justices have, and a little bit of SCOTUS gossip.
At the end of the day, I was so inspired by what it means to be a lawyer and to be a part of the legal system in this country. No matter what at what level of the judicial system, it was humbling to remember that there are real people with real interests involved. Do I want to be a Supreme Court justice? Nope but I will forever be in awe of the Court's majesty.
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