Supreme Court and More!

Most days here in DC start out with a Metro ride. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of riding DC's Metro system, here's what it looks like in the cars. It's a very nice public transportation system...clean and easy to use. This morning, we left fairly late so we actually had almost a whole car to ourselves. Time for pictures!

Most of the stations are underground. Here we are on our long escalator ride to the surface...

...on our way to hear oral arguments at the Supreme Court!

We even got to see a protest. These people are protesting abortion. There's almost always someone outside the Court protesting abortion. If they spent as much time promoting abstinence and birth control as they did protesting, they might actually accomplish their goal of having fewer abortions. Just a thought.


We had reserved seats to hear the case Nken v. Mukasey. (Warning: the following section contains detailed political-geek information. My feelings won't be hurt if you fast forward to the next photo) This was an immigration-related case. The background for the case was that an immigrant from Cameroon had overstayed his visa and appealed for amnesty in the US on the grounds that he would face political persecution if he returned to Cameroon. He said he had been arrested and beaten twice before for his pro-democracy activities. He also married a US citizen and has a child who is a US citizen. Immigration cases are not adjuticated through the regular court system, but they can be appealed to the US circuit courts. Nken did this after he exhausted his appeals through the immigration court system. The circuit court that heard the case ordered that he be deported to Cameroon while awaiting his appeal. Other circuit courts hearing similar appeals have allowed the person to remain in the country while waiting for the appeal. The basic question the Supreme Court was trying to answer today was whether the law allows for "aliens" (that's what the legal system calls them) to remain in the country while they wait to hear the outcome of the federal appeal.

Watching the arguments live was AMAZING!!! I've read about the Court and even visited the building, but I've never seen an argument in person. We made it through two sets of security screeing and got our seats in the first two rows of the public seating area. The room started to fill up with dark suits in the ten minutes before the arguments began. At 1:00 on the dot, the Marshall pounded on the table and we all stood while the justices took their seats. They looked so small compared to the size of the room!

The attorney for Nken had 30 minutes to make her case. She only got about two minutes into her statement when she was interrupted by Chief Justice John Roberts with the first question. The questioning kept coming and she was grilled by Roberts, Scalia, and Souter. I think she did a pretty good job, though, especially given how intimidating it would be to stand there in front of them. The lawyer from the Solicitor General's office (I didn't ever catch his name) also had 30 minutes. He only made it a minute into his case before Justice Souter interrupted him with his first question. He also faced quite a grilling, but much more from Bryer and Ginsburg and a little from Roberts.

Probably most interesting (since even I didn't understand much of the legalese they used) was watching the personalities of the justices. Justice Alito, the most recent addition to the Court, looked completely bored. He started the case leaning his chin on his hand, then stared at various points in the room (not at the lawyers, mind you), and finally, leaned back in his chair and appeared to be sleeping. He didn't ask a single question. At the other end of the room, Justices Thomas and Breyer spent most of the case passing notes and giggling. Thomas, as usual, didn't ask any questions. Breyer, seemed to be sleeping at one point, but suddenly perked up during the second half, absolutely grilling the SG lawyer with one of the longest "questions" I've ever heard. It was some sort of hypothetical situation. Really, I thought he was sleeping.

Roberts was the most engaged in the case, by far. He asked the most questions and kept both lawyers on their toes. On either side of him, John Paul Stevens (the oldest one on the Court) and Antonin Scalia (the most conservative, and many say, the smartest one on the Court) asked a few questions, but generally sat quietly. They did at least look like they were paying attention, though at one point, Scalia was leaned so far back in his chair that only his eyes and nose were visible. Justice Ginsberg, the only woman on the court, looked and sounded like a grandmother. She looked teeny-tiny up there. She also asked a few questions that sounded more like she was thinking out loud than asking an actual question. Justices Kennedy and Souter asked a bunch of questions and didn't do anything particularly noteworthy or weird.

There were a few moments of polite laughter (like when Roberts said in regards to the prospect of the alien being sent back before the appeal, "well, if they're killed, their case is probably not in that good of shape.") but I wouldn't call anything funny. Overall, though, it was very cool! Now, we just have to wait to see what they decide. I don't think you'll hear much about this case in the news since it looked like only one reporter was there to cover the case :)

Okay, if you tuned out the political stuff, you can come back now!
After the case, Brian and I headed over to the Natural History Museum. We saw these ugly hissing cockroaches that put Hawaiian cockroaches to shame. Yuck!


We also found the skeleton section. Here's Brian getting stabbed by a fish.


Brian had the most fun in the rocks and minerals section. Here he is getting a close up look at the crystals.


Pretty crystals!

We took a pit stop on our way home to pick up a geocache on the mall and also caught a nice sunset shot of the Washington Monument (which, incidentally, is where we're headed tomorrow).

Off to bed for us...the week is starting to catch up with us old farts :)