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The California Bar Exam

— Update —

Here’s a little chart to make things easier to read. The number of test takers is in blue. The passing percentage is in green.

— End Update —

A few things to note:

In the last decade, the percentage of people taking the summer bar exam has increased by 12% and continues to go up.

Judging by the peaks and troughs of the summer passing numbers, with more people passing in the last 3 years the Bar Examiners are apt to make the test even harder.

Note: the reason the winter passage rate is so low is likely because there are repeat test takers from the summer who still haven’t cracked the test.

??Bar Results from the Cal Bar website.

Date of Total Number Total Number Total %
Examination Examined Passed Passed
2010 February 4226 1569 37.1
2009 July 8667 4888 56.4
February 4084 1368 33.5
2008 July 8637 5330 61.7
February 4533 1797 39.6
2007 July 8151 4571 56.1
February 5167 1900 36.8
2006 July 8908 4616 51.8
February 4798 1872 39.0
2005 July 8343 4072 48.8
February 4520 1810 40.0

Civil Sidewalks Ordinance / Sit-Lie Law Fails at Board

Not surprisingly, the San Francisco Supes rejected Newsom’s sit-lie law, the so called “Civil Sidewalks Ordinance” 8-to-3:

For: Supervisors Sean Elsbernd, Michela Alioto-Pier, and Carmen Chu

Against: Supervisors Eric Mar, David Chiu, Ross Mirkarimi, Chris Daly, Bevan Dufty, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, and John Avalos

Thanks for nothing Haight-Ashbury Supe Mirkarimi. Now it’s up to the citizens of the city to decide what they want to do with their sidewalks. How about, instead of an ordinance, the City hands out clubs, maces, and shillelaghs? Let the residents figure it out. Gonna be a long summer.

From The Chron.

Overheard in Bar Review

A grocer in New Ulm, Minnesota, a predominantly German-speaking town, ordered coffee from a New York seller. When the shipment arrived it became clear that rats had “infiltrated” the packages of coffee while in transit. The grocer then wrote the following letter of complaint:

Schentlemens in New York:

Der last two pecketches ve got from you off koffee was mit rattschidt gemitz. Der Koffee may be gute enuff, but der rattsdurds schbeels the trade. Ve did not see der rattschidt in der sambles vich you sent us for examination. It takes so much time to peck der rattsturds from the koffee. Ve order der kelen koffee and you shop schidt mit der koffee; it vas a mushtake, YA? Ve like you to schipp us der koffee in van sak und der rattschidt in a udder sak. Den ve mix it to suit our kstorner.

Write please if ve shudt shipp der schidt bak and keep der koffee or if ve shudt keep der schidt and schipp der koffee back or ship der whole schidten verks bak. Ve vant to do rite in der madder, but ve don’t like dis rattschidt bizziness.

Mit mutch respeckts,
Karl Brummenschidt

From Professor David Epstein.

No. 61727-054

Fuck my victims, [Madoff] said, loud enough for other inmates to hear. I carried them for twenty years, and now Im doing 150 years.

The thing about unbelievable quotes that really sell a story is that their effectiveness comes from our aching desire that they were actually said.

From New York Magazine’s piece “Bernie Madoff, Free at Last”.

Bending the Law

In all this preparation for the California Bar, one can’t help but find absurd iterations of common law torts and crimes:

Assault: an intentional act creating a reasonable apprehension (knowledge) in the plaintiff of immediate harmful or offensive contact to the plaintiffs person

Flashing a gun to intimidate someone (which they are aware of)
Trying to punch someone in the face (which they are aware of)

Battery: an intentional, harmful or offensive touching on the person of another

Beating someone with one’s fists
Knowingly giving someone an STD
Poking a hole in a condom to get someone pregnant

Burglary: felonious entry with the intent to commit a felony therein

Statutory rape

entry with intent to do some other crime

Overheard in Bar Review

“It’s necrophilia that’s what it is, and none of you wants to do necrophilia publicly during the bar.” — Offer Termination

“There’s no masturbation in contract law, it takes two people to make a contract.” — Contract Formation

“You say ‘yes’. You say ‘no’. You don’t say ‘boo turkey’.” — Acceptance

Conjoined Twins Illustrated

“Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons exhibiting dicephalic parapagus conjoining — Illustration by Bill Watterson”

“Conjoined twins as an ill omen — Illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle“

Part one in an inspired series.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

It seems that appellant consumed one plug of his purchase, which measured up to representations, that it was tobacco unmixed with human flesh, but when appellant tackled the second plug it made him sick, but, not suspecting the tobacco, he tried another chew, and still another, until he bit into some foreign substance, which crumbled like dry bread, and caused him to foam at the mouth, while he was getting sicker and sicker. Finally, his teeth struck something hard; he could not bite through it. After an examination he discovered a human toe, with flesh and nail intact. We refrain from detailing the further harrowing and nauseating details.

The thing, truly does, speak for itself.

Pillars v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 117 Miss. 490 (1918).

Overheard in Bar Review

“Kid puts on flammable pajamas, jumps in bed and lights a cigar — he goes up like a roman candle.”

The Last Time the Third Amendment was Invoked

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Custer County Action Ass’n v. Garvey, 256 F. 3d 1024 (10th Cir. 2001). The property Petitioners sought to protect was the airspace above their land. As the court extrapolated through a slippery slope argument, Petitioners would have the United States military seek consent from every individual or entity owning property over which military planes might fly, and then design its training exercises to utilize only that airspace for which permission was granted, or else risk Third Amendment liability. The 10th Circuit court was unwilling to extend this kind of Third Amendment protection:

Judicial interpretation of the Third Amendment is nearly nonexistent. The crux of any such claim, however, is whether the nature of the asserted property interest falls “within the ambit of the Third Amendment’s proscription against quartering troops ‘in any house, without the consent of the Owner.'” Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957, 961-62 (2d Cir.1982). Citing Engblom v. Carey, Petitioners argue that “[b]ecause a private party has rights to the airspace above his or her property … the United States military may not appropriate such property interests during peacetime without the property owners’ consent.” This argument borders on frivolous.

Engblom v. Carey, 677 F.2d 957 (2d. Cir. 1982), is the only significant challenge based on the Third Amendment since the Constitution was ratified in 1788. During a strike by New York prison guards, National Guardsmen were brought in as scabs to serve in their stead. Striking prison guards were removed from employee housing to make room for the National Guardsmen. Some of those evicted prison guards filed suit alleging violation of the Third Amendment. Ultimately, the majority held for the government — no Third Amendment violation. Though, the court did provide a test for all future Third Amendment violations.