First Midterm
So I just had my first law school midterm, sort of. It counts (unless one totally hoses it and does well on the final) and it was formatted like the tests I will be taking, but I’m sure it was a bit dumbed-down. Still, it had its challenges.
Mostly was the fact that it consisted of only two multiple choice questions and a long essay question. Not much room for not knowing your stuff there. In my case (and at least one of my classmates said the same after), I had a different difficulty: one of the multiple choice questions seemed way too imprecise to be able to answer conclusively. I could easily have argued for two of the answers, maybe even a third if I wanted to break a sweat. But the weight of the questions makes the essay far more important so if I got one multiple choice wrong, I got it wrong, and it won’t kill me…
…unless I hosed the essay, but I think I did fine on it. Basically it was an imaginary situation where Soldier of Fortune magazine ran two ads that got them in trouble. One was anti-Obama (in a very cartoon-y way) and the other was a classified ad by a former Navy SEAL who offered to “take care of your personal problems, permanently,” for $15K and who was hired by a guy whose ex-wife was later killed, presumably by this guy. The mag was then being sued by Obama for libel and by the surviving children of the woman killed for wrongful death. We were asked to write a memo, as an assistant to the attorney for the magazine, with suggested arguments for the motions to dismiss (each case) and an analysis of our chances of getting dismissals.
I said we had a very strong chance for the libel to be dismissed, but the wrongful death was unlikely…and cited two cases we covered in class for each (NYTimes, v Sullivan and Hustler v Falwell for the libel/public person issue–though it’s mostly the first– and Brandenburg v Ohio and Rice et al. v Paladin Enterprises for the other). Wrote several pages, discussed what I thought the other side would offer for their arguments, etc., but did not fill the blue book and finished with plenty of time to spare. I wasn’t the first done, but I was one of the first and I was writing by hand, which had to make me slower than many of the computer-users (mine isn’t compatible…will be getting new Mac before Fall trimester is too far gone). Reminded me of when I took my Masters exams–hope I do as well! 
I’m sure my answers were relatively laughable to anyone who has already been through law school. It’s amazing how little we know even though we as a society think we understand the law at least somewhat. But, considering how this class is formulated and what we’ve read so far, I think I did okay.
We’ll see. Now, I have to read and brief some right-to-die cases for class tomorrow.