Today we got an email sent to the entire law school community reminding us that what we say on the internet can seriously affect our job prospects in the future. The email made references to multiple law students and lawyers who had posted something dumb on a blog or said something bad about another person in a seemingly anonymous forum and then subsequently gotten fired or not confirmed for a seat on the bench, etc. Basically, the email made me fear email, internet, and ever using my keyboard again.
None the less, I decided to press on with the blog. Because I am not a bad person and while my entries may laugh at legal cases, they do not (or hopefully do not) offend people. But let me just put out there now that if you are a person who plans on suing me in the future, please stop reading this blog now because I don't like you very much and I think you should find some other website on which to amuse yourself.
Now on to the important things.
For my property class today we read 4 cases related to who has possession of foxes, whales, ducks, and a baseball. Obviously I am leaving out details of the cases and simplifying things here but in the middle of class I was sitting there, furiously typing notes, listening to people make incredibly intelligent comments over whether a whale who sinks to the bottom of the ocean is the property of the whaler who killed it and how does this relate to foxes and is killing foxes in the public good and how does all this relate to a headmaster poising himself outside a school with a shotgun to scare away students (seriously) ...
and I took a step back and just thought - what the heck are we doing here?!?!? I mean, I followed the logic and the discussion and I DO understand why these cases are significant, but property rights to a fox you are chasing down the beach? Why did you even bring that case in the first place, you 19th century litigation-happy fox killer?? Was it worth that much effort? And did you realize, in bringing that lawsuit, that you would be forever studied by law students around the country and in turn laughed at FOR said lawsuit? Did you??
And isn't it funny that this ancient case about foxes was later referenced in the court decision over the Barry Bonds baseball that 2 fans fought over?
Moral of the story:
Foxes and Baseballs. So different... and yet both have inspired property lawsuits. I heart America.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment