DC--NYC Trip Day 4

Last day of the National Lawyers Convention started with a panel on second look doctrines enabling people and legislatures to overturn judicial decisions. Then on to an administrative law presentation on Chevron. Lunch afforded the best discussion an infinitely fascinating discussion between Michael McConnell (my legal hero) and Richard Posner about judicial decision making. McConnell is an originalist, while Posner is a judicial pragmatist who believes judges should make decisions based on their best policy estimations. The back and forth was lively yet restrained (both have great respect for each other). I learned Posner believes the Bill of Rights is "fluff." (An audible gasp echoed through the crowd with that statement.) Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

The rest of the day consisted of a debate on congressional regulation of judicial education trips authored by Russ Feinstein (D-Minnesota). Feinstein sent his aide Robert Schiff to defend the proposal. Poor Schiff, he was sorely outmatched by DC Appeals Court judge Raymond Randolph and UCLA professor Eugene Volokh. They pointed out the obvious problems with Feinstein's proposal, and exposed the fact Schiff didn't actually know what his bill meant. It was like watching two cats bat around a mouse before they dismember and devour it.

Final address was Antonin Scalia's. He spoke for approximately thirty minutes about originalism before taking five or six questions. Turns out his favorite operas are La Traviata and Madama Butterfly. Good stuff. And with that, the Convention was over. Three intellectually stimulating days that will keep me going for another year.

After the Convention, we all picked up dinner at an indian restaurant in Pentagon City.

Dressing Your Child

One of the greatest pleasures about having a child is dressing him -- I say "him," not because I'm a sexist who masculinizes all speech, but because we actually have a boy. And possibly the greatest part about dressing your child is you can dress him in anything, and I mean anything. Just think about the clothes we put on our kids: outfits full of monkey, giraffes, elephant, and every domesticated animal excepting the alpaca (although, I'm sure Peruvian parents are all about alpaca laced onesies). Moreover, any color (including taupe for heaven's sake) is acceptable on any child.

One interesting phenomenon in our "dress your kids in anything" universe is the political statement onesie. Parents are now wont to dress their children in a onesie sporting whatever political fad statement rules the day -- e.g., "Go green" or "Barack's my guy." I guess this is a natural extension of earlier times when parents would pin "I Like Ike" buttons on their child's overalls.

In any case, we (well, I, mostly) have decide to join the political baby fray with the following onesie:

I couldn't resist. My friend Shannon and I were IMing one evening, and he linked me to this. I had to buy it. When I told Demaree about it, she asked: "What if Elliot turns out to be a liberal?" I replied, "Well, it obviously won't be our fault."

So, there you have it: the politicization (or better yet, the Scaliazation) of our child has officially begun.