It's hard out here, for a Bill

Con Law students have a multitude of cases to read tonight, so I have to make this blog brief. I'll just cover what I did today, and avoid too much opinion. I'm sorry, but I'm really strapped for time. Other posts won't be this short.

The first half of class was spent examining cases involving abuse of Executive Power. It seems that the argument of "necessity" is often made by the president's defense when tried in a criminal court. The most prominent example of this we read was of Truman's seizure of steel mills during the Korean war. The workers were scheduled to go on strike, so Truman sent his Secretary of State, Sawyer to take control of production. The Supreme Court deemed this unconstitutional, because only Congress has the power to produce laws to regulate commerce.

At lunch, I attended a "college talk," where an admissions counselor taught us about writing personal statements. She gave examples of cliche essays, as well as successful ones. We also engaged in short writing exercises on common topics, and then shared our work with the student sitting next to us.

The second half of class was a lecture on the process by which a bill is ratified by Congress. I never realized how ludicrously hard it is for a bill to get passed. A bill can get bounced around from committee to committee and branch to branch, literally endlessly. I feel bad for those little pieces of legislation. 

After class I studied for a while, but at 5:45, I went with Morvarid and Aurea on an RA led trip to the Bodies Exhibition. Morvarid had mentioned this place in her list of  the top 15 places to see in New York. It was really informative. The level of preservation on the bodies was astounding. I had to keep reminding myself that these weren't statues.

After touring the museum, we took a little time to stop by Pier 17, to take photos.

Thanks, Morvarid, for telling us about the exhibit

I found one, mom

Now, I'm back in my dorm, and I need to start to reading, so I can get more sleep tonight. I had a fun day, but I can't go into much more detail right now. I haven't had time to write the other college reviews yet, but I'll probably do that this weekend.