I've been having a little trouble with the blogger program... but I guess I'm back online again!

I can hardly believe that I only have about 3 weeks of school left in my law school journey. And then in about 6 weeks, I shall become a married woman.

NO WAY! My law review article was cited in an amicus brief (i.e. "friend of the court" brief, not one of the parties to a case) to the U.S. Supreme Court! My topic concerned the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a federal statute that basically requires prisons to accommodate prisoners' religious exercise, and its constitutionality under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Basically, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit had ruled that RLUIPA violated the Establishment Clause. (A few other federal appeals court had ruled the other way, saying it didn't.) The prisoner in the Sixth Circuit case (who argued that RLUIPA is constitutional) petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. Since it's the Supreme Court, it only grants something like 1-2% of the cases that ask for review. So when certain groups (other than the parties themselves) are trying to get the Supreme Court to hear a certain case that they think is important or concerns them, they submit these amicus briefs in hopes that they can convince the Court to bite. And one of these briefs refers to my law review article!

Who would've thought?!?!

Oh yea - a "brief" isn't underwear, it's basically a written argument submitted to the court, advocating for something. Nor is it particularly short... in fact, these documents tend to be quite lengthy.

You know when there are those moments when you read a verse, or hear a song and then suddenly - CLICK. Epiphany! Scales dropping from the eyes! It just makes sense in a way that never did before. Hallelujah!

Yahweh (U2)

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take

Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break

-------------------------

"I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy." - Jesus, John 16: 20-22

It's been a little while since I've taken the Myers-Briggs personality test. I talked to one of my law professors about it, which prompted me to go back and look at it again. Historically, I've found myself to be an ESTJ.

However, I think I've moved over to slightly more "I" (as opposed to "E") and "N" (as opposed to "S".) That means I remain solidly in the "T" and "J" camps, but depending on how I feel at the moment, I can end up an ENTJ, an ISTJ, or even an INTJ! (Supposedly, C.S. Lewis and Jane Austen were both INTJs... I would not be ashamed to be among that company.)

Obtaining entirely accurate results in so-called personality tests is difficult in large part probably because we can't avoid the fact that, when we choose answers, they are a reflection of our own self-perception, and not how others perceive us. However, I think this inaccuracy can be mitigated when the test, such as Myers Briggs, attempts to measure our preferences rather than our abilities. That is, not that you act perfectly like the personality type, but that this tends to be your more natural disposition or the functions that you prefer to use most often. "E" types enjoy many social interactions, but this doesn't mean they can't sit down and spend quality alone time... it just takes more effort for them than the "I" types. Also, "S" types are also capable of abstract thought, but it is not as natural as the "N" types. And so on, and so forth.

Looking over the descriptions of the different types, I'm guessing I'm a good mix of ESTJ and ENTJ.