have you read the patriot act?

Yesterday I went to visit some friends from high school. My friend lives in a very liberal college town populated almost completely with hippies. Until this weekend I thought I was a pretty liberal guy. I expected some hostility from the hippies for being in law school. I thought I would be able to deflect the hostility by explaining my intentions of becoming a public defender. I was wrong. I learned this weekend is that neither extreme of the political spectrum likes public defenders.

As I approached the party I was greeted with the scent of burning grass and people smoking "something" out of a glass pipe. My friend inquired as to whether I was going to "narc" on them for smoking pot. I reminded my friend that I want to be a public defender. I pulled out my bottle of 12 year old single malt and sat back to watch the stoned hippies make asses of themselves. Unfortunately all the guys decided they needed to take their shirts off. Then two of the girls followed (this sadly was also unfortunate). I poured myself some more scotch.

They topic of being a public defender came up (in their drunken/high state the concept of being an intern seemed to have escaped them). Drunk/high shirtless hippie #1 decided to explain to me the problems of our justice system. He explained that I was a horrible person for defending child rapists and murders. He repeatedly took issue with the fact that even if a client admitted guilt it was still my job to defend them. I explained that at that point the job of a defense attorney is not to "get the guy off" but to make sure the state proves their case. I said something about protecting our constitutional rights and he went off. He asked me which of our constitutional rights were still left. I offered an non-exhaustive list including free speech, freedom of religion and (albeit dwindling) a right to privacy. I had somehow misplaced my scotch and was entirely to sober for what followed.

This is when he took his opportunity to teach me search and seizure law. That semester of criminal procedure was apparently a waste of time. He explained that warrants are no longer needed. I responded by asking him why the police still get them when conducting searches if they don't have to. This is when he got in my face and yelled "HAVE YOU READ THE PATRIOT ACT?"

Now I dislike the patriot act and pretty much everything the Bush administration has done. I'm familiar with the "sneak and peak" searches that the patriot act authorizes. I have a huge problem with this, but they still require a warrant, an albeit meaningless warrant, but a warrant nonetheless. This explanation just angered the increasingly inebriated hippy. At this point he told me I was naive and that our system of justice was horrible. While our system does have many flaws it seems far better than the systems in the rest of the world. He said he was familiar with all the other systems in the world because he was a political science major. (I knew at this point that I would be unable to match him in a battle of wits. I can hold my own against a psych major, a philosophy major, or even an English major, but never a poli sci major. Such intellect.) I asked what sort of system he would suggest we use instead, perhaps one similar to the Germans with a more active judge. My favorite part of the evening followed. His response:"Well, um that's a good question and I should have an answer for you."


Other highlights from the hippies:

1. Hearing the hippies talk about how great it was that someone went around the town spray painting all the SUV’s with “gas guzzler” and other such remarks.
2. Getting glared at for eating chicken.
3. Being told that a shiraz and syrah are made from different grapes by a person drinking wine from a box.