Austin’s Comments (group member since Aug 04, 2016)

Austin’s comments from the Phi Alpha Delta Book Club group.

I just finished the book (I was a bit apprehensive, thinking it would take me awhile, and I ended up reading it in two days. Two works days no less!). I was incredibly impressed with the writing and style. I had never read anything from Picoult before, but I am certainly a fan.

I was very impressed with how the legal system was portrayed. I thought the voir dire portion was very well done and accurate, really everything, down to how the judge and attorneys interacted (and how the attorney felt about the judge!) was accurate to my experiences as an attorney.

Beyond the legal aspect - I thought the book was incredibly topical especially given today's political climate - no matter which side of politics you're on. I'm very glad this was our book, because I'm not sure i would have read it otherwise.

I'm excited to hear other peoples thoughts (hopefully??)

I finished the first third or so of the book this weekend, and am enjoying it thus far (and look forward to the biography it teases is forthcoming towards the end of RBG's tenure!)

A few thoughts:
- Young RBG has excellent taste in literature - Secret Garden, Little Women and Nancy Drew.

- I found the following quotation by her husband really interesting - "Ruth is somebody who is simply not afraid of dead air time. If you ask her a question that requires a thought-through answer, she will stop, think it through, and then answer." I think this is something that is often overlooked in our profession (at least by young attorneys like myself) - when sitting in on court, I see attorneys afraid of leaving a pause as they sort out their thoughts to answer the judges inquiry. But if they had taken some time to get their thoughts together, their response would be much better.

- The Chapter remembering Scalia (And the Ginsberg-Scalia Opera) are great. I especially enjoyed the quotation from Scalia before RBG was nominated, as to who he'd want on the Court.

One thing I really took away from Supreme Courtship, is that despite the humor in it, it had an excellent message. I read this book during undergrad, again during my 1L year, and now again as a relatively new attorney working as a law clerk.

During each of those periods I was (or am) struggling with communicating, especially in my writing, and was writing in a way I believed sounded more intelligent and more appropriate for a law student or lawyer, rather than writing with my own voice.

I found during law school and now writing as a clerk, that like Pepper, you can try to build yourself up and write using big fancy "lawyerly" terms, but at the end of the day - the best way to get your point across is to do it in the way you feel most comfortable. I feel like the fish out of water feeling Pepper has throughout the book is one most feel at some point, especially during law school and when starting a new job or new field / area. And it's refreshing to realize even accomplished (albeit fictional) attorneys have those same issues.

“President of the United States Donald Vanderdamp is having a hell of a time getting his nominees appointed to the Supreme Court. After one nominee is rejected for insufficiently appreciating To Kill A Mockingbird, the president chooses someone so beloved by voters that the Senate won't have the guts to reject her -- Judge Pepper Cartwright, the star of the nation's most popular reality show, Courtroom Six.

Will Pepper, a straight-talking Texan, survive a confirmation battle in the Senate? Will becoming one of the most powerful women in the world ruin her love life? And even if she can make it to the Supreme Court, how will she get along with her eight highly skeptical colleagues, including a floundering Chief Justice who, after legalizing gay marriage, learns that his wife has left him for another woman.

Soon, Pepper finds herself in the middle of a constitutional crisis, a presidential reelection campaign that the president is determined to lose, and oral arguments of a romantic nature. Supreme Courtship is another classic Christopher Buckley comedy about the Washington institutions most deserving of ridicule."