F@#k You Nina Totenburg!

It was a big day in the Bates household. Ryan went to DC on Saturday to attend the hearings for his first case as a "real" lawyer and it was a biggie! He is on the "less rights for the indigent" side of Rothgary v. Gillespie County that was heard in front of THE Supreme Court. (Some friends assumed it was a Texas Supreme Court case, just to be clear...).

So, all day I was watching The Volokh Conspiracy and the New York Times and other sites to see if there was any interesting reporting about it. Ryan had called in the morning and said he was "going dark" for a few hours (they can't take electronics into the courthouse), so I was all a twitter. My co-workers undoubtedly rolled their eyes when I posted that he was there and his case was being heard (get back to requirements analysis already!).

Then came the drive home. I love Nina Totenburg on NPR. Her soothing radio voice and "break it down for the masses" writing style is great for a girl like me who's breadth of legal knowledge is wholly encompassed by Law and Order. I was so looking forward to hearing about Rothgary v. Gillespie County and the pivotal fight to determine when you actually get a lawyer when "you have the right to an attorney".

An aside here. Ryan was in the midst of writing his brief for the court and asked me some "as a citizen with little or no legal knowledge" questions pertaining to his case. I like to think I helped him out by being so blase about my understanding of legal representation. (I'd like to note, that when Ryan decided he wanted to go to Law school, I figured I would "lawyer up" at the slightest provocation or even an illegal hang-nail... he's free, so why not?)

So, hoping my 20 minute drive would coincide with ms. totenburg's summary of my hubbie's legal career, I jumped in the car to get the kids. Minutes later... there she was! Woo hoo! Lay it on me sister, explain to me what has engrossed my husband for night after night and was the cause of my mad rush across town to pick up both boys before the day care starts charging by the minute!

Nina then tells some very boring story about how Fox Broadcasting is appealing some draconian implementation of the "7 dirty words" law. And how they want to overturn.. blah blah blah. The salacious information in the report was that it was about the usage of the F word and S word on live broadcasts. And Cher and Nicole Richie's poor choice of public language was causing a multi-billion dollar company to shell out a few bucks. While I believe this issue is mostly ridiculous on both sides (Nicole Richie is setting policy? v. Who the hell cares?), I was especially outraged when Nina wrapped up her reporting with nary a mention of when your right to legal council attaches! That bitch!

Well, I can't really change her reporting, but I am anxiously waiting for the Volokh Conspiracy to post their analysis (as promised). By way of compensation, perhaps if the Democratic primary election could come down to some sort of legal battle (with Obama winning in the end, of course), that would make up for this slight. That would make my hubby happy.