First few days with Justice Alito

Wednesday we had our first day with Justice Alito. He quickly qualified his lecture by telling us he is not a professor, but he was an amazing teacher. His ‘lectures’ are more like the law classes I am used to, with lots of questions and no solid answers. He is (mostly) careful not to interject his own opinion. Although, it is easy enough to tell the argument he favors, his name is on the opinions. After class we made our way into Kehl, Germany to watch the semi-final game against Spain. We got to the venue—a large open area similar to a small concert—about two hours early to get seats. The place ended up getting incredibly packed, but everyone was nice and would move (especially if you were carrying four beers). Germany lost 1-0.

Thursday we talked with J. Alito about the second amendment. It was very pressing because there are few cases on the second amendment and two have recently come down, including one written by J. Alito. The talk was very interesting although many of the students are still hesitant to participate. I answered two questions the first day (both wrong), and have more trouble refraining from talking to avoid being ‘that guy.’ After classes I had planned to go swimming at the hotel, but while waiting our TAs came down and invited a few of us to go to dinner/drinks with our Criminal Law professor who is leaving after Friday. Our professor has a sometimes difficult accent (he is originally German) and is off to China for a three month teaching fellowship. We walked to a nice little place where I tried a tarte flambee with camembert cheese, which had quite a rank taste. I ordered a ‘biere morocco’ thinking it would be a nice dark beer. It ended up being beer mixed with soda that had a pink color. My TA poked fun at me, asking if it was mistakenly given to me instead of the girl in our group. The dinner was nice and our professor suggested the UN Office of Drug and Crime enforcement as an interesting career for international criminal law. On the way back to the hotel we came upon a light and music show of the cathedral, in combination with German children singing the world cup song. It was a neat experience, plus the cathedral is amazing all the time.

Friday we talked about the 8th amendment and how it can be interpreted: without or without international law, with/without judges’ opinions, and how to weigh objective evidence. As usual it was an interesting talk, and I managed to remind J. Alito’s of one of the ways the majority (the liberals side) viewed the objective evidence, although he was unwilling (time willing) to analyze the point. I also managed to answer a question correctly. It’s Friday afternoon and I hope to go swimming if possible because it’s very hot here. I am missing home but there are only 10 days of class left. I hope I can continue to get the most out of my time here, and I am looking forward to a nice weekend of doing nothing, except some reading.