Law School In Trump’s America

Ed. note: Please welcome Shane Ferro to our pages. In this column, she’ll be questioning the basic tenets of equality in America under the law.

The fall of 2016 was an interesting time to start law school. It’s bad enough as a former journalist/news addict to try to get through 1L in an election year — but that election year. I finished my first semester of school wondering if the rule of law would still be standing by the time I graduated, or whether I should just quit then.

But then in the spring I took Con Law! I was hoping it would teach me to have faith in the federal judiciary to bring us back from the brink. Instead, I learned all the different ways that the American government has rationalized society’s racism and exploitation over the last few centuries.

What Even Is AI ‘Competence’? It Depends.

Takeaways from a Legalweek panel on evolving malpractice risks.

By Jeremy Barker

Over the last two years, I’ve learned mostly that legal does not equal moral, and it’s dawned on me that the law really is just a dirty mud fight for 1) money (usually), or 2) the faintest shred of dignity (and only if you’re a citizen).

Let’s be honest, though. I have no idea what I’m talking about. I’m not going to sit here and tell you I know the law. I’m just some kid with two years of school, seven highlighters, and a Westlaw password to my name. However, I pay gobs of money for the pleasure of sitting around thinking about what the law should be. Here is a random collection of thoughts I’ve had about the law over the past two years:

So the whole idea “courts get to decide if laws are valid or not” thing was really just… one day a guy decided that was how it was going to be, and everyone else kept following him. I hope that works out for us.
As far as I can tell, the Supreme Court decided Brown, and took it upon itself to oversee forcing schools to integrate for about 20 years, and then it just… stopped? Cool.
It’s only been a couple generations since we were basically fine with internment camps!!! And Korematsu was… never… overturned???
Weird that it’s fine for laws to be racist as long as some guy doesn’t yell from the legislature or city council floor “WE’RE DOING THIS BECAUSE WE’RE RACIST!!!”
Man, have you ever read some of the cases our whole immigration law precedent is based on?
Note to self: Never put anything in your car. Like, ever. (Especially if anything = drugs or guns!) Never put anything in anyone else’s car. Preferably just never get in a car.
Is there a land use case in the whole darn casebook that isn’t at its heart about keeping either poor or black people out of the neighborhood? (No.)
[*takes one family law class*] Hoo boy… never get married. And if you have to get married, never get divorced.