WE MADE IT!

Okay so mission impossible wasn't so impossible after all! We left our house at 5:15...got to the Supreme Court at 5:25...and found out we were the FIRST ONES THERE! Our group got numbers 1-5 to get into the courtroom...excellent...

The 4 hour freezing wait was totally worth it...we all bundled up in our blanket (some how all 5 of us managed to keep warm under one blanket haha...the gaurds thought we were crazy)...the line got longer and longer as the morning went on. Okay, so I guess I should explain how getting into the Court works. There are two ways to get in to see oral arguments. The first (and legitimatley cooler) way is to be invited by the justices, or be special guests of someone getting sworn into the Supreme Court Bar that day. You get to sit in the cushy seats if that happens.

The public is a different story...you have to wake up early (or not so early, depending on how interesting the case is to general society) and wait outside on the plaza...nothing extremley exciting happens until about 7:30ish when they hand out "the numbers"...it helps the gaurds keep track of how many people in...but "doesnt garuntee a spot"...technically all 75 numbers could get in, or no one could get in depending on how many private guests come...but usually about 50 or 60 people make the cut!

As I said, we were numbers 1-5, so we had a good shot of making it...and did we make it! We had the best seats the public could get...front row (kinda haha) and we could see everything. At 10am on the dot, the justices entered the chambers...it was AMAZING to see these people in person! I mean, you see pictures of them and hear their voices in arguments and such...but to see them and see them grill the lawyers is great...just like the White House, you have so much respect for what goes on there...

The case we saw was Indiana v. Edwards...so fascinating, and pretty easy to understand. It was about a man (Edwards) who was judged to be comptent to stand trial, but was refused the right to represent himself b/c of his various mental illnesses. He was arguing that if he was competent to stand trial, he should be competent to represent himself...so today the lawyers argued various components to this case...what competency means....if it is fair to have two standards, or if there should be just one...what the responsibility of trial judges should be if there people such as Edwards are allowed to represent themselves...what happens if a trial becomes farsical...etc...

It was incredible to hear what the lawyers had to say and the questions that were asked by the justices...I loved it...its definitley up there with my White House journeys and now all I need to do is go see the Capitol and then I have all three branches of government covered!

So yeah, that was my morning...awesome...haha if you want to hear more let me know...I can tell you all about the trial in more detail...trust me! Miss you all!