Saturday School

There are a great many things I like to do with my weekends. Sleeping in is high on that list, usually followed by general waking laziness. What I do not like doing on a weekend is anything even remotely related to school. This includes reading, writing papers, or even driving past the law school. Today I was willing to make an exception to a rule I usually only discard during finals. The college of law I attend is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. As part of the festivities, we have had the opportunity to have Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on our campus, dedicating new buildings, getting honorary degrees, and basically lending legal street cred to our humble institution. This morning the law school sponsored a special Constitutional Law "class" featuring Justice Ginsburg. Can I just say it was amazing? Justice Ginsburg is a personal hero, not only for her thorough and searching legal analysis and contributions to American jurisprudence, but also because of her incredible and tireless dedication to advancing the common good. The woman is brilliant. And she has used that brilliance to help others throughout her entire life. She personifies what my idealistic former self aspired to when I first started law school. Listening to her speak, I felt the faint stirring of a vaguely familiar excitement; one that I used to feel when I thought about using a legal education as a means to make the world a better place. Today as she patiently fielded questions from students (some of them thought-provoking, others considerably less so) on topics ranging from constitutional interpretation, to federalism, to judicial activism, I found myself getting excited again about being a part of the legal profession. It's been a while since that has happened. When I grow up, I want to be just like Justice Ginsburg.