If I had to say one thing that is different from my life pre-clerkship and now, it would be that I am no longer surprised by Court decisions... Cases look a whole lot different when you have the entire legal file before you, and when you've mulled and debated the issues involved within chambers and/or with other clerks. Mainly, this is because of the intense scrutiny afforded to the entire legal file. IMO, once the J is satisfied with his/her conclusion, it seems like the rest of our time it spent justifying, nay, bolstering that opinion to make it as robust as possible. Not earthshattering, I know, but once debate ceases, justification ensues. Sometimes, "there is no debate." It's a nastly slide down from "what is the right decision?" to "we are right because..."
If I could visit this record more closely, I would ask how part of a sidewalk across the street from a public school is actually part of school grounds? Or, at what point a student, who is dismissed from formal school activities for a period of time, is far enough removed from the school building (or, in the alternative, the purpose of the dismissal is far enough removed from an educational purpose), to cause a disconnect between that student's actions and school-sponsored speech?
