moment of panic and the UCC

I have been having a really good couple of days. I received the glorious blessing on Sunday of an extensioin on my legal writing memo till Friday, which made work more relax and my life a lot less harried.

Work at the bar has become much more leisurely, as I have grown to get to know the staff and the way things run. When you get down to it, a bar is a bar, a martini is a martini. The computer system was the worst learning curve, and I quickly have become acostumbed to that. Oh... And the money is terrific.

I seemed to misplace my cell phone yesterday, but I refused to get out-of-whack about it... I had a very limited area of space I could have lost it in, so i figured it would turn up. I got an email this morning though from a law-school administrator telling me to call my father. I pretty much freaked out. I ran out of the class room, figuring that my Grandfather had died, and Dad was trying to get ahold of me to let me know... Actually, the Uof M campus had found my phone in their parking lot and called the "Dad" entry. Pheewww. That had me worried.

The reason that I was at the U in the first place was that I went to a Same-Sex Marriage debate at their law school. It was quite interesting really, and I ended up making a "contractual model" argument for marriage in the face of the two models offered up. The Defense Alliance guy (anti-SSM) said that the courts have never granted the right to "marry whomever you want," (the companionship model of marriage) but rather that the State Interest in marriage lies in the foundation of stable familes for the burden of child-rearing. Since SSM fundamentally doesnt have the burden of child-rearing, there is no state interest in it.

Interesting argument, really... Except it forgets that Marriage is largely a contract. In the "Contract Model" I proposed, the state has an extremely large interest in stabilizing and establishing the union of two people who own property and accounts, may have children, and have entered into life-long partnerships. The State-Interest in this sort of policy is extremely strong... Think about the costs of divorce and child support... How much harder are these issues to establish justice if one party decides to leave after 40 years of shared venture.

Anyway, the Defense Alliance guy then referenced a book called, "From Sacrament to Contract." Interesting, I thought... Since the US government is NOT in the business of establishing and recognizing sacraments, but IS in the business of doing so with contracts. Then the D.A. guy said, "I wouldn't want the UCC (uniform commercial code) getting involved between me and my wife." My friend Meg leaned over and pointed out that in our Contracts class (1st year class) we had learned that the UCC only applies to the sale of goods. I pointed that out loudly, to much laughter. The D.A. guy responded, "You dont know my wife..."

Wow, that says a lot about how he views HIS marriage.

Go ahead, keep defending Britney's Vegas wedding. Im coming to get you... Two more years of legal education and I am REALLY going to kick your ass.