HawaiianSon's Blurty

Oral arguments, a federal Judge, and a US Supreme Court Associate Justice.

I'm leaving tomorrow night to the University of Washington for a few days to participate in a moot court competition. Oral arguments. agh! Last year I loved it, this year - well, I'll have to see how it goes. Different issues, unknown judges and I actually have to compete unlike last year's Appellate Advocacy class.

Nerve racking indeed, but I'm going to have to have some fun. We've got three teams this year; 3 females and 3 males. One team member is Cathy another is Sonny. Actually, the three of us are on different teams, but in the sense that we're all representing the William S. Richardson School of Law, we're on the same team.

Unfortunately, I'm going to miss out on most of our Jurist-in-Residence Program, which officially begins tomorrow. Today however, I was able to sit in on the Honorable Myron H. Bright, the senior judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit as he spoke to class full of students today. Fascinating man. I'm also going to miss out when U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy teaches our Constitutional Law class this Thursday. But I briefly heard him speak today.

Tomorrow morning our student organization, 'Ahahui O Hawai'i will be doing the following oli.

Ke Lei maila ‘o Ka‘ula i ke kai ‘eā

Ke mālamalama ‘o Ni‘ihau ua mālie ē

A mālie pā ka īnuwai lā

Ke inu maila nā hala o Naue i ke kai

No Naue ka hala, No Puna ka wahine

No ka lua no i Kīlauea.

There was much debate as to what was the most appropriate oli for this event. Our Hui is giving both judges some makana. One will be the Larsen v. Hawaiian Kingdom DVD. We'll also have some books for them also. Let's pray that they learn a more accurate history of the Hawaiian people and their government than they may currently know.