Breathe Deeply

As I finalize preparing for my fall Appellate Writing and Advocacy course, and I think about our new moot court teams this year, I have been considering what makes for a top-notch oral argument.

One basic, and sometimes overlooked, concept is how to breathe when presenting an argument. This is something I think about, because I have spent a lot of time over the years singing in choirs. Anyone who has sung in a choir or done any voice training has heard about “diaphragmatic breathing.” This type of breathing supports the vocal cords fully. It’s also pretty close to the type of breathing taught in yoga classes.

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Egypt & the Take Care Clause

In the course of recent debates over how to respond to the events in Egypt, many have pointed out that the central legal question is whether Section 508 of the Foreign Assistance Act obligates the President to cancel hundreds of millions in U.S. military aid. Reports have now emerged that the Administration has quietly decided to suspend aid on a temporary basis, but without deciding that a coup has occurred. Putting aside the complex policy questions at stake, I want raise a couple of points on the relationship between this decision and the President’s duty under the Take Care Clause, and suggest that the President has a statutory and constitutional obligation to go one step further and cancel military aid, unless Congress passes a new law overriding the current statute.

Here’s what Section 508 says:

None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this Act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree: Provided, That assistance may be resumed to such country if the President determines and reports to the Committees on Appropriations that subsequent to the termination of assistance a democratically elected government has taken office.

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Wisconsin Cell Phone & Driving Laws

Most of us have seen campaigns against distracted driving, whether on billboards, radio broadcastings, or TV commercials. This year AT&T ran several commercials detailing the stories of distracted drivers or of their family members and how they are coping with the consequences of the driver’s actions. The commercials were very sad and somber.

However, despite these types of campaigns and state laws that outright ban cell phone use while driving or particular types of cell phone usage such as texting, it is all too easy to spot other drivers more preoccupied by whatever activity they are doing on their cell phone than driving. Social media and the hundreds of cell phone applications available only add to the temptation of multi-tasking while driving. For example, such temptations as tweeting, posting a picture on Facebook, or joining the “latest” craze and video blog (vlog) exclusively present themselves to today’s drivers. Vine and Instagram allow users to upload short videos to capture the user’s thoughts/moments in life, and many users seem to enjoy showing their followers whatever is happening on the road or in the car while the driver continues to drive.

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