Title: Law Library Assistant
Library: Rockland County Supreme Court Law Library
Location: New City, NY
Website: http://ww2.nycourts.gov/courts/9jd/Rockland/rocklandlibrary.shtml
Five Questions:
1. Favorite weekend getaway? At the moment it’s New York City, as I recently took a job just north of there, although it’s not so much a full weekend getaway as a day trip on the train. For a weekend getaway proper it would probably be the Finger Lakes area, where I have lived for a time, and to which I grow more attached as the years go by.
2. Morning ritual? Recently I have been going to the gym before work. That sounds motivated, but I think I actually put in a little less effort than if I went after work, because I’m still waking up and watching the clock so I’m not late. So it’s probably an unconscious way of getting out of doing pull ups.
3. If you could change one law, what would it be? Probably I would overrule D.C. v. Heller, the Supreme Court decision that found a personal, as opposed to a militia-related right, to bear arms under the Second Amendment. It was a supposedly originalist and textualist decision, yet it found a personal right for the first time by dismissing half the text of the amendment. Even the NRA tried to keep it from getting in front of the Court. Whatever your personal stance on gun ownership, it was not a good decision in terms of Constitutional interpretation. Justice Stevens said it was the worst decision of his tenure, and I’m inclined to take his word for it.
4. Favorite quote? “In God we trust, all others bring data.” -W. Edwards Deming
5. Favorite item in your library? My coffeemaker.
