Law Schools

1L Gets Statutory Tattoo And It's Awesome

And if they repeal the law, the tattoo will still be awesome.

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(image via Getty)

Normally, I warn 0Ls and 1Ls against picking their “practice area” before they know anything about the practice of law. Law school is not like college, you don’t “major” in anything. And it takes half a career to develop a true practice area specialty. You go to law school to be “a lawyer.” You graduate from law school trying to find “a job.” If you end up having a particular interest in one kind of field of law, that’s great. But your career is going to have a lot more to do with whether you end up working plaintiff’s side, or defense, or for the government, or with an appellate practice, or whatever. The army of lawyers working for Geico are filled with souls who said “I’m really interested in Constitutional Law” when they were applying for law school.

All that said, passion is good. Having an idea of what you want to do with your life is good. And I just can’t mock a 1L who is willing to literally tattoo that passion on her own body. As seen on Twitter:

I mean, homegirl even tattooed a mouse cursor hovering over the statute. How can I not love that? I know I’m supposed to be Mr. Cynical Internet Man, but getting a Stat Tat (let’s make that a thing) is endearing.

We reached out to Miers about her art. Here’s how she explained it:

I am currently a 1L at Santa Clara Law. Since I was a kid, I was always fascinated with the Internet because, being born in the 90s, I pretty much grew up with the beginnings of it. I discovered the Internet Archive and would spend long nights messing with the Wayback machine or downloading/reverse engineering retro games and viruses. I was your stereotypical Internet geek. Fast forward, I got a degree in computer science, and along the way discovered Santa Clara Law Prof. Eric Goldman’s Technology and Marketing Law Blog which turned me on to the niche field of Internet Law. Before law school, I spent time reading and learning as much as possible about the field. I decided to go to law school to follow in Prof. Goldman’s footsteps and become the next Internet Law expert. As I said in my tweet, I aim to lead the next generation of Internet defenders.

Why the 230 tattoo? …

With all the controversy regarding fake news, biased algorithms, sex trafficking, and targeted censorship, it’s easy for regulators to push an attractive message to amend or even repeal 230. Often, the message is that 230 was established to protect the big tech players, those of which we’ve been taught to fear and hate. But the real truth is that without 230, we’re actually opening the doors to more censorship, less creative content, more shuttering of web services, less free speech, more malicious botting, more fake news, more digital borders, and if anything, less small companies and more big tech. If we don’t allow Internet companies to innovate and moderate then we’re destined for a world with less choices and more trolls.

So the tattoo was a way for me to express my passion and commitment to this field but also to start a conversation. If you ask people my age about section 230, chances are they haven’t heard of it. I want people to ask me about my tattoo so that I can advocate for less emotional and more informed decision making about our Internet.

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People on Twitter have already come at her over the seemingly inevitable reality that Republicans will eventually succeed in their efforts to repeal Section 230, and that she’s going to be walking around with a dead law on her wrist. She has a response for that:

What can I say, I’m rooting for her. There’s a 90 percent chance that the crushing reality of trying to find employment with a Santa Clara law degree mangles her dreams and the only conversation she’s starting is about why she always wears a wristband to her client’s bail hearing… but I’m hoping for the other way. I’m hoping she gets good grades (Christ, she’s only a 1L, she hasn’t even taken her first set of finals yet) and her rare passion for this issue hooks her up with some kind of FCC job and thirty years from now President Faceooglezon the First is appointing her to write the Restatement of Internet Law codex.

She cares. If I was as real as I claim to be, I’d get the entire 15th Amendment tattooed over my black ass. She gets to win the internet for at least a day.

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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