Three-page docket sheets are so great! Really! Because, see, if you look at a 7-page docket sheet and think to yourself, I took Criminal Law, I can do this, you are wrong. (You meaning me, not you.) Today was Day 3 of Project Triage, and we're moving from 90% designing a database and 10% creating a database to, oh, 30% designing a database and 70% creating a database.

I used to work for a place that prosecuted prosecutors for violating the US Constitution (malicious prosecution claims, illegal removal of children from their families' homes based on unwarranted allegations of child neglect, leaving children in foster home placements where they know children are being abused, etc.). But how soon I had forgotten what it's like to read a case record where, at every fifth entry, we look up at each other, frustrated, yelling things like: "There have been thirty-six court appearances, all but four of which were continued because the defendant's counsel did not show up," and "Um, this guy died in prison in 2003, but it says he was arrested in 2004?"

Last night, I meant to write a posting about the fun parts of being down here. It is, after all, spring break. And the most special aspect of this peculiar city is that its residents all know so much of it is screwy, but they still love it. The music scene is great, the food is unspeakably decadent (I have eaten my weight in jambalaya), and the attorneys supervising us (from the recently barred Meg, who is infinitely patient with us, to the attorney some of the students are calling "the Crocodile Dundee of civil rights") are so DARN cool.

The highlight of today was a suprise greeting by federal District Judge Jay Zainey, every inch of whose courtroom we used today. The courtroom is without carpet due to water damage (surprisingly, not Katrina-related!) but it suits us just fine. Judge Zainey was incredibly warm, and told us stories of his days as a criminal defense attorney in Louisiana, well before Katrina. It's not every day law students get impromptu afternoons with district judges...