Half Way Through the First Week.

Today was a relatively uneventful day. Emily, Margaret, Valerie, and I all got breakfast together and ate outside. In the morning is the only time the weather is nice enough to permit an outdoors meal. The food on campus is pretty weak, but I have found that most of the vegetarian options seem to taste better. I think I will be eating the granola the next three weeks for breakfast...

Eating outdoors!

At 10 AM Emily and I left for class, like usual. Today was just as interesting as the last. We discussed cases primarily involved with the Executive and the Judicial branches. The first case was between a steel company and President Harry S. Truman. In the case, Truman took over a steel plant through an executive order in order to keep the plant operating during the Korean War. The Supreme Court ruled that the office of the President did not have the privilege to make and create laws, and that by passing an executive order the President was creating a law. Therefore the order was unconstitutional and the plant was handed back to the original owners. The second case was about a sexual harassment scandal involving Bill Clinton. The woman who was harassed wanted to take Clinton to court even though he was the President. Clinton tried to push the trial back to after his term ended because the weight of the trial would negatively affect his ability to be president. In the end the court ruled that the trial could not be pushed back. I really do love our class, and our instructor, Luke, is so engaging and funny that he makes the class ten times more interesting  I am learning so much and I always look forward to returning to class to talk some more. 

Emily working hard to figure out all those cases.

In the afternoon session we had our first experience with a two hour lecture. Luke apologized profusely for making us sit through it, but he set some framework down for us that needed to be done. We discussed different methods of interpreting the Constitution, the different court systems in the US, how cases are taken up by different courts, and how each branch of government checks and balances the others. This class is preparing me so well for AP Government this coming year, I know I will feel like an expert the day class starts!

Emily and Margaret stole my drink...

The only cool picture I took in Soho.

In the evening I headed into Soho with Margaret, Emily, and Valerie. It was an RA sponsored trip so we all took the subway together. After eating a delicious burger we started looking for stores to shop in. Sadly it was after 8 and all the stores seemed to have already closed. Walking around the area was nice, but it was disappointing because we had hoped to buy some souvenirs. In the end we went back to Columbia where I am now writing my blog and finishing up the last cases I have to read for tomorrow!