A Day of Luck!

Today's class saw us looking into a couple freedom of speech related cases. The frist case was Schenk v. United States. It involved a man named Schenk, leader of the socialist party in Philadelphia  who was charged with trying to incite insubordination within the military under the Espionage Act of 1917. Oliver Wendell Holmes gave the unanimous opinion of the court. The court decided that because the pamphlets (which urged resistance to the draft because it violated the 13th Amendment) were sent to men who had been drafted, Schenk had the intent to cause insubordination. We discussed at length different methods of monitoring when speech should be illegal, including the bad tendency test and the clear and present danger test. Under the bad tendency test any speech that intends on causing illegal actions is in itself illegal. In Schenk v. United States, Holmes used this method to rule against Schenk. However, Holmes developed a new method, the clear and present danger test, in a later ruling in Abrams v. United States. In this case Abrams was charged, but justices Holmes and Brandeis dissented. Abrams was charged with trying to incite a revolution of workers within the United States to protest the US involvement in the Russian Revolution. In his dissent, Holmes declares that the intent of the papers was to support the revolutionaries, not to incite violence within the US. He also believed that because Abrams was an unknown publisher with a "silly paper", no one would likely listen to him so he posed no clear and present danger to the security of the United States.

Before we left for our excursions we had a meeting with the director of the high school programs at Columbia. We all introduced ourselves and told him a little bit about what we though about the program thus far. He seemed genuinely excited to hear how much we were enjoying the program and he took a nice photo with us afterwards.

In the evening after class I went on an RA sponsored trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the subway ride there I made new friends with a girl named Melody who is also in my Constitutional Law class. As the 1 train rolled down to 42nd street we got a surprise dance show on the train by a few kids playing "Moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5. It was certainly entertaining and made the train ride seem shorter. As we slowly made our way to Met I realized just how gigantic the whole museum atually was. It extends for hundreds of yards down the side of Central Park with its iconic stone pillars all around it. I walked with Melody throughout the museum covering the classic Greek and Egyptian art exhibits to the Civil War in photography  and the Arms and Armor exhibits. Finally we took the elevator to the top of the Met to visit the rooftop garden. We were lucky because they had literally just reponed the garden when we arrived due to a party that had been happening earlier. The roof provided a stunning view of the tops of the trees in Central Park and an incredible view of the skyline of the city. I took some fantastic photos and was finally ready to return back to the dorm.

But the day was not over yet. In fact the highlight of my day was yet to come. As we arrived at Grand Central Station to transfer to the S line, we noticed lines of people along the walkways taking photos. We all rushed over to see what the commotion was about. It turned out Anne Hathaway was filming a movie in the subway tunnels! We all stood around like the annoying paparazzi we tell ourselves we would never become, and took photos of her. When the train came we piled into the window seats so we could keep photographing. She laughed when she saw all the people shoving their faces and cameras against the windows to take her picture, but when she saw me waving at her, SHE WAVED BACK! Probably one of the more exciting things that has happened to me, and a moment I will not soon forget. Today was a fantastic day full of surprises and I am excited to visit NYU and the 9/11 memorial tomorrow.