Oral Argument

I had a terrifying but incredible opportunity this morning! Tuesday at the end of class, my criminal law professor called on me and another girl to prepare oral arguments for class the next day. We were to be appearing before the Supreme Court of North Carolina. I was the defense counsel for a woman who shot her husband while he was sleeping--it was an actual case from 1988. The facts were horrendous. She suffered from battered wife syndrome. He had beaten and abused her for 20 years on a daily basis. He never worked a day in his life but forced her to prostitute herself daily in order to financially support him. It was awful. The problem with her assertion of self defense is that the threat needs to be imminent...but he was sleeping. So, my argument was that when you consider her situation suffering from battered wife syndrome, the threat from her husband WAS imminent and that during the violent attacks, she is incapable of defending herself. I said that requiring her to act in this violent moment or not at all emphatically denies her the right to self defense.

Professor Butler described the case as the worst we'd see in our three years of law school. So, needless to say...I was a little nervous. Wednesday I came to class ready to give the argument, but we ran out of time and so it was post poned till today, Thursday. AND...it went really well. Seriously, it was easier than I thought it would be once I got up there. I was actually excited about it. The difficult part was afterwards because the class (of 110 future lawyers) got to ask us questions for ten minutes. But, I survived--and Professor Butler even said that he thought this was one of the best arguments we've had in that class yet!! And, one of the other students in our section came up to me afterwards, and sked: "Carly, is there was anything you don't do?" He then told me that he was leaning the other way on the issue but some of the arguments that I made really made him think. So, yay! It's over...but I learned that I really enjoy public speaking and oral arguing.

Glamorous Night in Georgtown at Washington Harbor

I went out with some girls from school on Saturday. We thought it would be fun to dress up fancy and go out to Georgetown! We ate at this nice restaurant in Washinton Harbor. The fountains behind me are in the courtyard at the harbor and the restaurant is off to the right facing the fountains. It was so much fun!! Later in the evening my roommate and I went to an lds area singles activity at the Marriott by the National Zoo. It was a movie night - all the wards had made a short video and then they had a dance afterwards. It was ridiculous and I felt like I was 14 yrs old again....so we didn't stay too long. After that we went to my friend Travis's house cause it was close by and he was having a party. It was fun --we met a couple guys who love Zion's National Park! They are going there this summer and were raving about how beautiful it is in Southern Utah. It was funny because I've been trying to convince Travis that he needs to take a trip to Utah and here were two of his friends raving about it. Count that--3 things we did tonight!! So proud of ourselves for getting out and away from our homework/studying for finals...which are in 3 weeks by the way...crazy!

Tour of the West Wing

We got to go on a tour of the West Wing last week! This was super cool because you can't just sign up for a tour through your senator--you have to know someone who works at the White House to get a tour. A friend of mine is a speach writer for President Bush and he was giving a tour to a family of 4 and there were 2 free spots, so he called my roommate and I to see if we wanted to come. Lucky us! We saw the Oval Office!! Which was amazing! I heard that when the president is working in there it can get messy with papers strewn about everywhere but that they clean it up for him to bring tours through and then put every piece of paper back exactly where it was so that when he comes back, it's just the way he left it. We got to see the roosevelt room and the room where the cabinet meets. I learned that it's the Navy that feeds the president his meals every day. We got to see the door of the situation room which is where the president goes when there is a crisis that needs his attention. And while we were standing there, someone came out of the room so I got a small glimpse inside...couldn't make out much, but there was electronic screens mounted all over the wall that I saw with info running across it. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the actual West Wing...but this is me right outside the door. Notice the presidential seal above.
This is me in the rose garden. The flowers are more to the left so you can't see them in this picture, but that is the oval office behind me. While we were outside, the president's dog Barney came scampering past. It was cool!
This is from just outside the west wing looking east at the main part of the White House.
This is me in the press briefing room. They don't let you go behind the podium anymore so I had to pretend like I was answering questions from the floor.
This is actually taken from the Indian Treaty room in the Old Executive Office Building which is directly west of the White House and is where all the people who work for the president have their offices. It is a gorgeous building! This is me posing for pictures for the electorate! :)