Don't Be a Fashion Square: Finding the Perfect Barrister's Ball Look

Monica Sandu '24
Co-Executive Editor

It’s early February, and the fashion event of the Law School year is rapidly approaching. With Barrister’s Ball on the horizon, I found myself staring into my closet for what to wear this year. I could choose between my maid of honor gown from my sister’s wedding a few years ago, the suit I wore to OGI, or (worst of all) the dress I wore to Barrister’s last year. What’s a fashion-starved law student to do?

Thus began the panic for the perfect outfit. When I first began thinking about this article, I envisioned myself venturing through little shops and finding gems that were both stylish and affordable. I desperately wanted this to be more than just saying “shop online,” but my efforts appeared thwarted at every turn. It’s hard to find a store in Charlottesville that carries clothing elegant enough for Barrister’s, affordable enough for a law student, and with enough variety to accommodate a wide range of styles and preferences. So, rather than this being a guide on where to look, here are some tips and tricks on how to choose the right outfit for you, whether that’s in a brick-and-mortar store, through the clothing swap at the Law School, or online.[1]

Though often overlooked, the most important step in formalwear shopping, especially online shopping, is having accurate measurements. There is no such thing as true standard sizing, and formalwear sizes often differ from your typical clothing sizes. Furthermore, the same number will differ across brands, and even across styles, within the same brand. A few good measurements to start with are the chest or bust, waist, hips, leg length, and shoulders. You can also measure your arm length if you plan to wear long sleeves. Hold the tape measure such that it sits comfortably around your body, not so loose that it cannot stay up but also not as tight as it can go. Formalwear fabric often has very little give, so make sure that you would be comfortable wearing something that sits as the tape measure does. Round up to the nearest half inch. If you don’t have a tape measure, you can use a length of string, ribbon, or floss and then find your measurements against a ruler. When in doubt, size up. It’s easier to fix a loose fit with safety pins than it is to spend the night horribly uncomfortable in something too tight. Reference the manufacturer’s size chart and online reviews.

The next step is to simply be aware of your plans for the night. Will you be hitting the dance floor for every song? Planning to both pre-game and post-game? Or do you just want to show up for some nice pictures and an evening out with friends? No matter what you choose, make sure that your outfit is one that you feel comfortable in the whole night. If you want to wear high heels, for example, I would recommend bringing a spare pair of flats as well. Your feet will be thanking you later. I would also recommend avoiding clutch purses unless you’re alright with either leaving them unattended on a table or having to hold them the entire evening.[2] Try to break in your new shoes a few days before the big night; otherwise, they will almost certainly pinch and cause some unpleasant blisters. Carry band-aids and tissues with you in case of emergency. It also wouldn’t hurt to have some extra hair ties and anything else you might want to use to freshen up. And remember to bring a sweater! It’s cold out there.

Somebody with more knowledge about fashion than me could probably tell you all about choosing the right colors and styles, but my philosophy simply says that if you like it, wear it.[3] Channel your inner Marie Kondo. What makes something the “right outfit” is if it makes you happy.[4] Barrister’s is a time to treat yourself and live it up in all your finery. No matter what you wear, wear it with confidence and have fun! In the immortal words of ANNIE the Musical, “You’re never fully dressed without a smile!”

---
ms7mn@virginia.edu

[1] When ordering online, be sure to check the expected delivery dates. Amazon often lists things as “Prime eligible,” but then you only get Prime delivery on certain colors or styles. There may also be additional delivery fees for certain dates.

[2] One advantage of bringing a large bag with you is that you can carry home a lot more of the free firm merchandise offered at Barrister’s.

[3] I wore a bright lime green dress to my Junior prom. Live your dreams.

[4] And if it falls within the limits of the venue’s dress code.

Feb Club: A Storied Tradition

Sai Kulkarni '23
Production Editor

By now, you’ve probably heard of Feb Club. Hopefully, you went to one of the wonderful parties this past weekend and got to enjoy the company of your fellow law students. You might even be asking yourself, “Why am I reading yet another article about this thing that brings out the most wild instincts of LawHoos when I could be doing my readings and learning instead?” Well, first of all, chill out, gunner, it’s not even Week Four of the semester yet. But here’s the thing: I am going to add to your knowledge base. And hopefully, I even get you to go to these events as well. I want to take the time to explore some history, detail my experience, and talk about the goals of Feb Club. 

The earliest records I can find about Feb Club come from the ’80s, when someone decided to host a “Feb Club Eve” party that was New Year’s Eve themed. Creative. But from discussions with a few alumni friends of mine, I was able to find out where the current iteration of Feb Club comes from. As many things at this institution so often do, it has its basis in some prejudice. Some time ago (those I spoke to were unsure of the specific year), there was a degree of open exclusion of minority students at parties within the month. To ameliorate this, Feb Club was made into a series of events hosted by different affinity groups to foster the spirit of inclusion. Given the importance of February as Black History Month, it makes sense to strive for some understanding and inclusion in our pursuit of the party spirit this month.

Pictured: White Lotus Party Attendees.
Credit: Ethan Brown '25.

Inclusion can often feel like a term that falls on deaf ears at our Law School, with so many people having baked-in belief systems and the constant empty promises from administration. But UVA Law is the school of “collegiality.” Put another way, we are the party law school—even a basic Google search will point that out. But using that reputation to bring students together, at least at face value, seems like the most efficient way to go about it. I don’t have any misconceptions about reality, though. I know that simply attending BLSA’s semester kickoff event at Zocalo two weekends ago (which was an amazing experience) isn’t going to magically fix the prejudices within the student body. But making sure that everybody attending these events knows the purposes driving them will at least—hopefully—be a step towards a better reality.

In my experience, Feb Club has taken on another meaning as well in the wake of the pandemic years of 2020–21. After a time when we could only be with a small group of people and were so isolated from society, such an event was a boon, not only to socialize but also for mental health generally. Large crowds certainly aren’t for everyone, and it’s why we see a similar crowd of people out during Bar Review every week. But the idea of getting to bond with other law students is a great one. The 3L class especially is so used to being in small groups from our first year that we often default to spending our time exclusively with said small groups. It’s only natural—most adults only have small friend groups. But meeting people from different years, backgrounds, and student orgs has absolutely given me a feeling of closeness to the student body as a whole, and I’m sure others can say the same. Feb Club provided me that opportunity last year, when I got to connect with so many people I had yet to meet. The event that took its place two years ago—Summer Series—introduced me to the LawHoo culture. I’m sure if you take the chance to join the Feb Club festivities, it will do the same for you.

In a time of our lives when we are stressed and busy and feel the weight of the anticipation of “real life” hurtling towards us, something like Feb Club is, at least in my opinion, necessary. From keggers in Spies to Bar Review to 3@3, we have a big tradition of partying at this school. At times, I’m sure those students that don’t drink or who are older can feel left out, and that’s completely understandable. But this month is a time to come together for all students, even those who aren’t about that #partylyfe. Events like Barrister’s have non-drinking options. The weekday events provide an opportunity for far more chill interactions. All in all, Feb Club provides a series of opportunities for togetherness outside of the hallowed comfy chairs of Scott Commons. For 3Ls, this is one of our last opportunities to make the lifelong connections that will keep us sane throughout the tough early years of firm or PD life. For 1Ls and 2Ls, Feb Club provides the opportunity to build community. Whoever you are, dear reader, I hope you come to at least one event and experience this month. I know I’ll be there, so at the very least, you can enjoy seeing me fall apart as I progress through my Iron Man attempt.

---
omk6cg@virginia.edu

The Midway Toast: Two 2Ls Get Sentimental over Champagne

Darius Adel '24
Staff Editor


“I’ve always said I’m here for a good time, not a long time. So it’s nice to be able to celebrate these milestones.” - Dennis Ting ’24

It’s hard to believe that many of us 2Ls are halfway done with our J.D. To memorialize this milestone, the Law School put on a midway toast for the Class of 2024. Even after the event, it still hasn’t set in that we have just halfway to go. In a lot of ways, things have moved faster than I had ever expected. Part of me dreaded putting my life on hold for three years to get this degree, but looking back at the last year and a half, there has been more growth than anything.

“It seems at the same time too short and too long.” - Tristan Deering ’24

This toast was meant to celebrate both our individual achievements and the progress of my class as a whole. In honor of the achievements we went through, I decided to interview some of my classmates and get their insights on the toast and how they feel about all the progress we have made. Some students didn’t know what to expect, while others were just glad to have an excuse to get out of the library to eat and drink with friends. Most everyone felt at least somewhat positive about the toast and what it meant to be halfway done with their J.D.

“Really excited about the personal party pack.” - Nik Pham ’24

While I don’t want to make this into a full-blown review of the event itself, I will say that everything was pleasant. The individual party packs of charcuterie fare were a nice touch, since no one had to awkwardly wait in a line. The Dean’s speech wasn’t too long and got the point of the event across. While it was a bit jarring to go from class to the event and then straight back to reading case law, the effort put into the toast was much appreciated.

“What if I don’t want to be a lawyer? [Jokingly]” - Rowan Adams ’24

Most everyone I spoke to had a great time talking and reconnecting, but for the most part, the sentiments were bittersweet. Many of my fellow 2Ls spoke to me about how, despite the school’s efforts, they actually felt a bit disconnected from UVA Law compared to our 1L year. While I agree that many of us don’t go out as much since the sections have been dissolved, that does not necessarily mean that there is a lack of connection. As Dean Golubuff alluded to in her speech, 2L year is a transitory period where we students get to explore and find experiences that interest us. We get to pick out our own classes and build our own schedule. While our connection to our sections or UVA Law as whole may weaken, our bonds to the ones we choose to spend our time and energy with can grow deeper.

“I literally just arrived forty-five seconds ago.” - Grace Zipperer ’24

While I saw quite a few sad faces reflecting on the fact that we only have a year and half left, I heard a lot more students busily making plans with friends they hadn’t seen in quite some time. When we started law school, much of our time was scheduled out for us. Our classes were set. There were specific section and school-wide events that we were expected to go to. Even time spent studying at the library before and after class was more or less a given. Freedom to choose is a beautiful thing for those of us that don’t want to make UVA Law our sole identity. What I heard from my classmates is that the downside of that freedom is that many of us then gravitate towards staying in our comfort zones and keeping a small circle. Now, if you want to see your friends, you have to consciously make time on your calendar. Gone are the days where you would see the same set of classmates taking the same exact classes as you five days a week.

“I like free food.” - Alexander Chen ’24

 I enjoyed my time at the Midway Toast, and I think most everyone else did, too. It gave us an excuse to come together, reminisce, and look to the future. Someday soon, many of the close friends will just be memories, so it’s more important than ever to make this coming year and a half special. I don’t know if being halfway done with law school is really something to celebrate, but just seeing the people I love all together in one place made it worth it to me.

“I’m invigorated for the second half.” - Landon Garfinkel ’24

“I wish this was on Friday.” - Fernando Mercado ’24

Nikolai Morse '24
Managing Editor

I am a deeply sentimental person. I love traditions and rituals, which make me feel a sense of connection from our present selves to generations past. I get teary-eyed whenever I watch a Disney movie.[1] I am genuinely enthralled and gripped by all manner of motivational speeches, commencement addresses, and Charges to the Class.[2] I am overjoyed at ceremonies which bestow recognition on people’s achievements—even when I have no idea what they mean! For example, while I just recently found out there is apparently an honor society at UVA called “The Raven Society,” my lack of comprehension in no way dimmed my happiness at recognizing the names of our classmates on the list of their new members. I firmly believe we should celebrate our progress, remember our setbacks, and make sure to take time to reflect on how far we have come and where we want to go from here.

Last week, UVA Law’s tradition of marking our halfway point provided all of us in the Class of 2024 a moment to pause and reflect during our otherwise-busy schedules. For some, it may have been the first time they saw many of their sectionmates since 1L year. Seeing the familiar faces of those with whom we endured our first cold calls, Bar Reviews, and law school finals makes it difficult not to think of where we started, and where we are now. So, having prefaced my own sentimentality and at the risk of committing the cardinal sin of boring the audience, I’d like to briefly share some of my thoughts upon reaching the halfway mark.

First, I am weekly—if not daily—reminded of how fortunate I am to be at this Law School. Having worked for nearly six years before coming to UVA, I was lucky enough to work with some incredible individuals. But never have I seen an environment that is so filled with people who are as interesting, thoughtful, motivated, engaged, and kind as my classmates and the faculty and staff of UVA Law. Their kindness reminds me how easily we can positively affect someone else. Their intelligence humbles me and helps grow my own understanding. And their hard work drives me to push myself and always improve.

Second, our community is remarkably (brace yourselves) collegial. While of course this word is overused to the point of being a cliché, at moments like this it is worth remembering that  clichés only become clichés because they are true: because they express something that is both so plainly obvious and at the same time remarkable, that it bears repeating, over and over. While there have been sharp disagreements and divergent views on important issues during our time here, we should be proud of both the way in which we express our disagreement and our willingness to speak up when we feel it is important to do so. As our nation has become more divided and polarized, and our civil discourse less respectful, we should appreciate that here, people from a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and political standpoints get along so well. And we must do everything we can to protect and continue this culture.

Third, the amount and kinds of opportunities we are presented here is absolutely staggering. Whether it be the fact that professors who are genuinely famous teach courses to 1Ls, or the amount of clinics and dizzying array of courses we can choose from, we are all truly privileged to be here. In my experience, when you begin working, you have hardly any time to explore entirely new subjects, let alone to delve into them. And so with our remaining time left, we should be thoughtful about how we spend it. As Dean Goluboff said, we ought to think of everything we would still like to do, and challenge ourselves to branch out into unfamiliar territory. We owe it to ourselves and our communities to become the best, most complete, and diverse versions of ourselves that we can be.

As I thought about the Class of 2024’s remaining time at UVA Law, I was reminded of a quote: “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”[3] The trouble with being in an incredible place like UVA Law, surrounded by such incredible people, is that it can’t last forever. But until our time here ends, we owe it to ourselves, and to each other, to make the most of every day that remains.

[1] Top ten Disney tearjerkers, in order: (1) Coco, (2) Up, (3) The Lion King, (4) Toy Story 3, (5) Lilo & Stitch, (6) Moana, (7) Big Hero 6, (8) Encanto, (9) Wall-E, and (10) Bambi.

[2] If you have not yet watched Professor Nelson’s and Dean Jeffries’s Charge to the Class on YouTube, I highly recommend them. Also, for those of you who had the fortune of taking Torts with Professor Barbara Armacost, I am sure you’ll agree that her midterm and end-of-term speeches were truly inspirational, and full of advice that I have thought of frequently since our first semester.

[3] Yes, I heard this at a high school graduation speech, where the speaker attributed the quote to Abraham Lincoln. No, I have not confirmed that this actually came from Lincoln and not Dr. Seuss’s third cousin. Yes, I know how groan-worthy a corny, possibly wrongly-attributed quote is. I told you I was sentimental!

How to Save Money & Live Better: A Guide to Charlottesville Grocery Stores

Caleb Stephens '23
Technology Editor


We’ve all been here at least one semester now, and it’s time to get an opinion on one of the most relevant questions of our day. Which Charlottesville grocery store is the best? Fortunately, the Virginia Law Weekly is here to answer your questions and review the closest and most popular grocery stores of Charlottesville.

Kroger

Barracks Kroger. We all know it. We’ve all been there. Many of us probably have a Kroger card. Kroger, in general, is pretty solid. It has a good assortment of items, and reasonable prices on average. In particular, if you catch an item you need on sale, you can really save a lot. Kroger store-brand items also are pretty solid, although the two of which I am most fond are the canned lima beans and the deluxe ice cream (Death By Chocolate or Vanilla Bean, consistently on sale for $2.50 a carton). Unfortunately, the Barracks Kroger is the worst of the three Krogers within easy distance. The new Kroger app is very annoying, and you have to use it to get some advertised deals, so beware of those sale prices. In general, Kroger is there. It’s not as cheap or well-stocked as Walmart, but it’s got good produce and store-brand products, and it runs good promotions.

Most of what I said about the Barracks Kroger also applies to the Hydraulic Kroger (yes, the one almost literally across the road). However, the Hydraulic Kroger tends to be a bit better stocked, cleaner, and less crowded, and it has a gas station. Sadly, it is also a little bit sketchier, probably thanks to the VABC it shares a parking lot with. The clientele is also, strangely, almost solely Charlottesville natives, rather than the college students that shop across the street. This probably says something profound about college students, but I’ll let you draw your own conclusions. 

Then there’s the Rio Center Kroger. This one is much less sketchy, since the wooded area in front of the Dollar General was turned into a bank(? I think?), and the parking lot does have a historical marker in it. This Kroger is the best stocked, cleanest, and, sadly, furthest from Grounds.[1] It is the one I’ve had the most success in returning glass milk bottles to for the bottle deposit, so that’s worth keeping in mind as well.

Walmart

If you continue down Seminole Trail, you finally get to the Walmart, which is the cheapest option. Unfortunately, the Charlottesville Walmart is one of the worst Walmarts I’ve ever been in. It tends to have trouble keeping items in stock (thanks, college students), stuff tends to be in the wrong place (college students, ugh), and it tends to feel crowded (again, students). The parking lot is also tiny and, mysteriously, always has at least twenty cars in it, even at 5 a.m., two hours before the store opens, which definitely contributes to a feeling of unease. The staff are mostly competent though, and there are at least two cashiers that manage one of the self checkout lanes who are exceptional.[2] That said, it’s a distinctly unpleasant experience, although it may be worth the amount saved by its customers. Whenever possible, I visit the Ruckersville Walmart instead, which is one of the nicest Walmarts I’ve ever visited.[3]

Aldi

For those of you who like store-brand food, Aldi is pretty cheap, but the amounts are smaller. Almost everything will be Aldi brand, but it tends to be pretty good.[4] If you’re on a tight budget, that’s not bad, but if you want to buy in bulk, there are better options. Unfortunately, it’s pretty far out, and its organization is somewhat lacking. I’ve been told by Aldi reps that this is intentional, as they try to keep the staff low in order to keep down costs, but it does come at a price in both appearance and shopping experience. For those of you who have never visited an Aldi, it’s a cheaper, non-organic Trader Joe’s with a better floor plan.[5]

Lidl

Lidl is extremely similar to Aldi but is both newer and closer, and a bit more organized. I think the frozen section is slightly larger, and the “random junk” aisle is definitely more stocked. It’s not bad for a different experience, but it is still more expensive than Walmart generally. Again, if you catch something on sale, or you want to buy in smaller quantities, Lidl is a good option, but the real seller is the pretzel rolls. Lidl has a fresh bakery section, and the bread is reasonably priced (frequently less than a dollar) and often still warm. It’s worth the occasional visit just for the bread.

Food Lion

Food Lion is kind of like Kroger, but it feels more like a Winn-Dixie or Piggly Wiggly.[6] The ambiance is a bit nicer than Walmart’s, but the prices are a bit higher too. They seem to have the same sort of arrangement as Kroger, where everything is normally a bit high, but they run regular sales. That said, their disposable bags are blue, which is a solid choice, and their branding is on point.

Harris Teeter

Back on likely more familiar territory, Harris Teeter is very close to Grounds. Funnily enough, both Harris Teeter and Kroger are owned by the same parent company. That said, they’re pretty different. Harris Teeter is kind of like a more upscale Kroger, with prices to match. Fortunately, they have a good student loyalty program, with a regular 5 percent discount for college students with their loyalty card.[7] Unfortunately, their prices tend to be more than 5 percent higher than Walmart’s (and, generally, Kroger’s). I do hear that the bar at Harris Teeter is quite the deal, but it also tends to actually have regulars, so watch your step.

Wegmans

Wegmans is in a different class. If you shop there, you’re probably either rich or have no idea how much you’re getting in loans. For my fellow Floridians, it’s like a nicer Publix crossed with a Whole Foods or Fresh Market.[8] I really like Wegmans. It’s the only place I could buy bulk couscous (until Walmart started carrying it sometime during winter break). That said, it is not cheap. Beware the luxurious experience, for it may prove too enticing.

So, why should you care where you shop? Well, for one, as the fine folks over at financial aid have doubtless tried to tell you multiple times, the more money you owe now, the worse off you’ll be later. Saving money on shopping makes sense, especially when the products are practically identical. Of course, that’s not all there is to shopping. The experience is also worth something, but it’s up to you to determine the monetary value. Market research demonstrates that where students shop heavily influences their decisions for the rest of their lives.[9]So think carefully before you just pick a default option: It may be where you shop for the rest of your life. As for me, I’ll keep splitting between the options above, while buying everything I can from Sam’s Club and Costco.


--- cs8ws@virginia.edu

[1] Yes, I know, it’s probably not a coincidence.

[2] Seriously, I’ve seen them guiding people into place like a NASCAR pit crew.

[3] Or, if you’re willing to drive about thirty minutes, the Gordonsville Walmart is also excellent.

[4] Shoutout to the 3L who got an excellent charcuterie board in the random junk aisle at Aldi. It is really nice, if you’re a charcuterie person.

[5] Also, they’re owned by the same company.

[6] I have no idea what to reference here if you aren’t familiar with those. Good luck, and maybe try visiting somewhere in the South sometime.

[7] This also applies to law students, in case you’re wondering, and it’s not very difficult to get a card.

[8] For people from elsewhere: I don’t know. I feel like you’ve probably been to a Wegmans before, though.

[9] Source: my undergraduate Marketing degree, where we talked about this effect all the time.

Survivor Jury System vs. The American Jury System

Anne Reyna ‘23
Staff Writer

Pictured: This is what justice looks like.
Credit: TV Insider.

After forty-three seasons, Survivor is very much still alive and kicking. For those of you who have kept up with the popular reality show, please email me and let’s hang out. For those of you maybe just now getting into the franchise because of some popular seasons being put on Netflix, wow are you in for a wild ride. And for those of you who are like, “Wow, they’re still making that one deserted island reality show, and this random girl is still talking about it?”: Yes, they are, and yes, I am. The show is just as spectacular as it was that fateful first airing in the medieval year of our ancestors, 2000.

For those of you not familiar with the show, contestants, also known as “castaways,” are split into different tribes and camps, usually in a tropical setting. As a tribe, the castaways must weather the elements, build shelter, make fire, and gather/hunt for food for the entirety of the game. While doing all of this to survive, the castaways must also compete in grueling physical challenges to win immunity powers and other luxury rewards ranging from yacht parties to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Throughout the course of the game, players are voted off by their fellow tribe members, one by one.

Now here’s where things get really interesting. At about the halfway point, the voted-out players become the jury members, who ultimately go on to vote for and decide the winner of the game. That’s right, the people you schemed and plotted against—and subsequently went through hell with while facing the true villain of the story, nature— will ultimately have your fate in their hands. And this is where I make my case, your honor. I’ve been silent too long, but the time has come for me to speak my, and soon to be everyone else’s, truth. The Survivor jury system is in every way superior to the United States jury system, and it’s about time we talk about it.

When the U.S. legal system gaslights us into believing we have rights, such as the right to a trial made up of a “jury of our peers,” what they really mean is a jury made up of a bunch of randos[1] you’ve never seen or heard of before. Survivor, on the other hand, guarantees us this right. The Survivor jury members know the other contestants better than most of you know your next-door neighbor. They already know what it’s like to live with you, to break bread with you, and to fail and succeed with you, and they have a pretty good idea of your integrity and trustworthiness. At the end of the game, when the final tribal council begins, they are not just hearing about your case for the first time. They experienced in real time your actions and decision making. They are your true peers and equals in the game.

My next favorite part of the Survivor jury system is that it eliminates any unnecessary intermediaries, which would be referred to as “lawyers” in the U.S. system. The jury members get to question the remaining castaways at the final tribal council head-on. There are no gimmicks, no ploys, and no tactics from other actors. At the end of the game, you are forced to turn and face your peers that you have wronged and to take their questions. And if they don’t like your answers? Too bad. Jail, immediately.[2] The final contestants also get to hear what the jury is really thinking and get to respond or change their arguments in real time based on their reactions. The jury is not some black box like we see in the U.S. but is instead composed of active trial participants.

Next, every final contestant is compelled to testify for themselves. Everyone knows that if you don’t take the stand at your own trial in the U.S. system, you are hiding something. Whatever technical reason you have for not testifying, the jury and your God care not. The jury and final contestants can even interrupt each other and engage in heated debates. And for those of you like, “Isn’t this just total anarchy?”: No, of course not. There is a host who plays judge, and his name is Jeff. Everybody loves Jeff, so it’s fine. 

Lastly, from the moment you enter the game, you know you’re on trial with your peers, and anything you do or say can and will be used against you. Unfortunately, in the U.S. legal system, they don’t inform you that this is a rule until you have already been arrested and they finally read you your Miranda rights. At least in Survivor, you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into from the jump.

Now, am I suggesting that every time a crime is committed, the U.S. should gather twelve other people and ship them off to a deserted island with the defendant? Yes. Thank you for your time.

---
agr5ag@virginia.edu

[1] Random individuals you have had no previous interactions with, e.g., “Who invited the randos?”

[2] In this case, jail is just not winning a million dollars.

How to Avoid Studying to Study Better

Caleb Stephens '23
Technology Editor


If you’re like me, or most law students, you want your life to be easier. You want to have less back pain (thanks, LSAT, CollegeBoard, UVA Law chairs, and speedbumps), more free time (thanks, law school), and a healthier diet (thanks, inflation and carbs). You want your hands to cramp less when taking notes, you want to spend less time trying to figure out what your mad scribbles say,[1] and you want to remember the fifty million things you have to do. Indeed, the forces of darkness are, as they say, arrayed against you.  

Fortunately, you have the Virginia Law Weekly on your side with a list of Life Hacks for Finals Season.

First, disclaimer, disclaimer, blah, blah, no liability, blah, blah, by continuing to read you agree to hold Virginia Law Weekly, the Technology Editor, and your mom not responsible for any emotional, physical, or social injuries which may be incurred in relation to the following unsolicited advice. Any and all lawsuits will be in the exclusive jurisdiction of the District Court of Petty Complaints.[2]

Standing Desks
My advice begins with the recommendation of standing desks, which are great. Also, stupid expensive. Good luck. Fortunately, most modern workspaces will provide one upon request, lest they get slapped down with a lawsuit. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help you right now. As a savvy Goodwill and Dumpster Co. shopper, and in my hallowed role as the Technology Editor, I suggest searching for either a portable lectern (like those in some of the classrooms), a good tiltable music stand, or just studying at the standing desks on the second floor of the Law Library. Personally, I use a music stand, which is perfect because you can raise, lower, and tilt your textbook to whatever height and angle you want.[3] There are also folding tray tables which can also be adjusted to different heights, which is what I used before obtaining a music stand. I hear book stands are also an option, but I have no direct experience with them. Of course, if you do have a way to get a fancy standing desk, go for it. Just remember, if you balance your expensive electronics on a standing desk, be much more careful of it falling over.

Wobble Boards
Have you taken the advice above and found a way to stand while reading? Are your feet/knees/legs tired of standing? I have a solution for you. The humble wobble board, obtainable at many mass retailers, can solve your standing woes and keep you on your toes.[4] “But wait,” I know you’re thinking, “won’t I fall off?” No. You probably won’t. And if you do, it’s really not a big deal. Just don’t wear slippery socks on a plastic board, and you’ll be fine.[5] If you start falling, just…step off. The wobble board also keeps your core engaged and reduces foot fatigue when used.

A pack of tennis balls
If you don’t have some, pick some up from Walmart. You can use them to work on your back by placing one between your back and the wall and moving side to side. Also, they’re tennis balls. You can learn to juggle, you can bounce them off the wall for softball practice, and you can accidentally break your expensive flatscreen when one starts ricocheting around the room. The possibilities are endless.

Microsoft To Do
Yes, I am going to recommend a Microsoft app. Yes, Microsoft is generally awful. Yes, this is (shockingly) actually good. Microsoft To Do is just an app that gives you a checklist with reminders. Why is this any good? Because you can just swipe to make a To Do item from your Microsoft email (which we all have from UVA). It lets you set reminders for later, and do all kinds of nice organizational things. The main key is creating checklist items from your emails that remind you to do them later, which is great for those alerts for events or automated Canvas alerts.

Whiteboard
Basic whiteboards are a lifesaver. Put one on the wall in your room, and write what you need to do on it in different colors. I recommend using Command Hooks to hang one. There’s nothing like literally writing notes on the wall and having them hang there in front of you every time you walk in or out. Engaging more of your senses really can help you remember things better, and the act of standing and writing on a whiteboard gets your creative thinking flowing—like Vesuvius about to destroy Pompeii.[6]

Your backpack
Seriously, use both straps. If you don’t, you’ll probably have back problems before very long at all. Unfortunately, I know of no successful cases against casebook publishers for making them too unwieldy, so take care of your back now. I know the messenger bag looks cooler, and is cooler, but the classic backpack, as long as you use both straps, will be better on your back.

If you take all of this advice, I can’t guarantee you’ll be better off. You might try to catch a tennis ball, slip on your wobble board, knock your standing desk into your whiteboard, and create a cascading chain reaction around your room. Or you could see a dramatic improvement in your mental and physical health. It could be either one, so good luck. One final tip is to take the time to straighten up your study area. Typically, having a clean area to study improves your mental state and helps you focus. I always straighten up my living space and make my bed before taking an exam; I find it helps my focus significantly. Try it; it may work for you as well.

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cs8ws@virginia.edu

[1] I still have no idea what “Apopo intts” means, despite having written it on a line by itself at some point in Admin last year.

[2] Good luck getting cert this late in the term.

[3] As long as you aren’t really tall—sorry, former basketball players.

[4] $5 at Five Below, around $13 on Amazon. Mine came from Amazon, but I don’t think the quality particularly varies.

[5] I have worn those really soft wool socks on a plastic wobble board because my feet get cold. Yes, I’ve fallen off. I, too, like to live dangerously.

[6] Too soon?

A Beaver Blood Moon Paints the Night Sky

Darius Adel '24
Staff Editor

Pictured: The Blood Moon.
Credit: CNN.

You may have missed it, but we experienced the Beaver Blood Moon this month. It happened on Tuesday, November 8, early in the morning, and was one of the scariest things I have ever seen. That blood moon is the last one we will see until 2025, so I made a point of getting up in the middle of the night to catch a glimpse of it. I probably could have admired it through my bedroom window, but I decided to go the extra mile.

I drove north, following Barracks Road. It was around four in the morning, so the streets were pretty empty. After pulling off on a side road, I got out of my car and looked up at the night sky. Being out alone in the middle of a field late at night was already pretty scary, but watching the slow eclipsing of a red moon made it so much worse. I’m glad I got to witness it in an area without light pollution, but next time, I’ll definitely bring a friend.

I’m not sure what it is, but people just love looking into space. There’s something really primal about looking up and seeing the moon and stars on a clear night. So, once I got back to the safety of my apartment, I went down a Wikipedia blood moon rabbit hole.

First off, why was this month’s lunar event called a “beaver” blood moon? Supposedly, every November full moon is called a Beaver Moon in honor of those river rodents that go into hibernation this month. Personally, I would have preferred a Bear Moon if we were going with hibernating animals, but then again, I’m not part of the lunar cult they have up in Washington.

The fact that they went with beavers makes little sense to me, but one look at the moon three weeks ago would make anyone understand why they use blood to describe it. I wouldn’t say that it looked bloody per se—it was more of a bright orangey red. But, the thing was definitely scary, and I get why our ancestors wanted to put a sinister label on it.

In Hindu folklore, the blood moon during the eclipse is supposed to be a literal bloody moon. The demon Rahu stole and tried to drink the immortality elixir, amrita. The sun and moon were alerted to this, and Rahu’s head was cut off before the amrita got past his throat. Rahu’s body died, but his head did not. Rahu’s head now chases the moon around. When Rahu catches the moon and devours it, that is a lunar eclipse. When the moon exits through Rahu’s severed neck, it’s covered in that sweet demon blood, hence the red tinge.

In Mesopotamian mythology, a blood moon represented a celestial attack on their current king. Since the Mesopotamians were pretty savvy when it came to astronomy, they could predict when a blood moon was going to happen. Before the lunar eclipse happened, they would swap the king with a body double, Parent Trapstyle, to take whatever violence the stars had for the head of the kingdom. After the blood moon ended, the king would come out of hiding and take back his position.

It’s cool that the Mesopotamians could predict the blood moon to protect their king, but not everyone used that knowledge for good. On Columbus’s last voyage to the New World, he found himself in need of food for his crew. The native Jamaicans welcomed him, but after six months of hosting, their patience wore off. Columbus knew a lunar eclipse was approaching and so told the natives that God was angry with them and would cause the moon to disappear. When the eclipse occurred, the natives freaked out, and Columbus promised to appease God. When the eclipse ended about forty minutes later, he took all the credit and tricked them into sending him vast sums of wealth in exchange for God’s forgiveness. Truly a horrible dude.

Why does the moon actually turn red during the eclipse? I wish I could write my own fanciful explanation for it, but I have to maintain some semblance of journalistic integrity.[1] When the moon passes through the earth’s shadow during a lunar eclipse, the only light that reaches it goes through our atmosphere. The refraction of light causes the red color, which we then see when it reflects back off the moon.

Like I said before, the next blood moon isn’t until 2025. If you didn’t see this one, definitely catch the next one. The hi-def pictures you see online just don’t do it justice. We spend most of our lives thinking about issues that only really affect our little speck of the cosmos. Sometimes it helps to look outward just a little bit.    


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dsa7st@virginia.edu

[1] The blood moon’s color actually comes from the celestial body’s soul. During an intersection of the sun and moon, we as mere humans are better able to read its energy auras. The fact that the moon has a red aura is a result of its low energy state, since it is only getting sunlight indirectly.

Ranking Seasonal Hershey's Kiss Flavors

Monica Sandu '24
Co-Executive Editor

Pictured: Candy Cane Kisses.
Credit: Giant Foods.


The time has come. Halloween can no longer hold back the floodgates. Seasonal marketing has taken over. Even now, store shelves are overflowing, ready for consumers such as myself to impulse buy their daily dose of dopamine. While seasonal flavors are not exclusive to wintertime,[1] I took it upon myself to create a definitive ranking of Hershey’s Holiday Kiss flavors for all of your dessert needs. Is this article just an excuse for me to eat copious amounts of chocolate in an effort to distract myself from my impending finals? The world may never know

Candy Cane – 10/10

It’s basically just peppermint bark in the shape of a Hershey’s Kiss, and I love it. It’s the perfect balance of sweet, minty, and slightly crunchy from the candy cane pieces inside. While it may not be the best if you’re not a fan of white chocolate, it’s certainly my favorite (and the inspiration for this article).

Mint Truffle – 10/10

Another mint one? Yes, please! It tastes like an After Eight if it were slightly sweeter and shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss. It delivers on what it promises and isn’t too pretentious. However, I still prefer the Candy Cane, so this takes second place.
 

Hot Chocolate – 9/10

I really like this one! It does have that hot chocolate flavor rather than just that of a Hershey’s Kiss, and it’s filled with marshmallow-flavored cream! It’s also rich and melts in your mouth easily. A definite go-to. It does get one point deducted because I would have liked more marshmallow flavor.

Cherry Cordial – 6/10

Sadly, this does not actually contain any cherry liqueur like a real cherry cordial would, so it automatically gets some points docked. In fact, there is no cherry inside at all. Instead, the fine print on the packaging calls it a “cherry cordial crème.” Needless to say, I was skeptical going in. I would have liked for it to have some hint of sourness. Instead, it was almost overwhelmingly sweet. However, it does smell just like a cherry cordial, so it gets points there.

Sugar Cookie – 5/10

This one feels like a knockoff version of the Candy Cane—white chocolate, crunchy pieces—but has none of the flair to really put it over the edge. I like the red and green cookie pieces and the overall flavor, but there is a food coloring aftertaste that takes it down a point.[2] I feel like it would work well in a thumbprint cookie or on a crunchy pretzel. I also just like white chocolate, so I’m biased.

Hugs[3] – 2/10

A milk chocolate center covered in white chocolate. Pretty basic, not much to say. It may work well in baked goods, but I’m not entirely sure, given the fact that the center is creamy, while the outside is more solid, so the chocolate may melt at different temperatures.

Kissmas – 1/10

This is literally just a plain Hershey’s Kiss, but with a Christmas Tree design on the wrapper. One point solely for the pun in the name. Otherwise, I could see it being fun in a large candy bowl at a party or if you like plain Hershey’s chocolate, as long as you don’t mind immediately throwing away the one thing that makes it special. It may also be a decent stocking stuffer if you’re confident it won’t melt above the fireplace.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas – 1/10

Yes, this one is real. It’s another plain Hershey’s Kiss, but with the Grinch’s face on the wrapper and the word “Grinchmas” on the paper insert. I gave it plus two points for nostalgia, but minus one point for the use of nostalgia as a soulless marketing trick.

Almond – 0/10

Why. They just shoved a whole almond into a Hershey’s Kiss.
 

Plain – 0/10

Absolutely no creativity. The only thing that changed was the wrapping, to red and green foil, instead of just silver.[4] The “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” commercial notwithstanding, there is nothing interesting about these beyond their decorative use. They don’t even get a fun name—they’re just kind of there.

(Dis)Honorable Mentions:

Hershey’s Bells—you can’t just break off the point of the Hershey’s Kiss and call it an entirely new product!



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ms7mn@virginia.edu

[1] It was only upon researching for this article that I learned that there is, in fact, a Pumpkin Spice Hershey’s Kiss.

[2] Perhaps this is a tactic to get you to keep eating them—so you drown out the aftertaste.

[3] These technically don’t say “Kisses” on the packaging, but they’re Kiss shaped and were on the same display as the others, so I am taking the liberty of including them as well.

[4] I don’t know why they didn’t do silver and gold wrapping instead, but hey, who am I to judge?

A Look Back on the PILA Auctions

Sai Kulkarni '23
Production Editor


A few weeks ago, the student body of the Law School were able to take part in a time-honored tradition: the PILA silent auction. For many of us, it was a chance to dress up in our fanciest outfits and take some much-needed respite from the impending doom of finals. We got to dance the night away at next-door Darden and take advantage of their fancy facilities that we get to peek at with envy throughout the year. The night was a ton of fun and the dance was followed up by an after-party at Rapture that last as long as it took for people to get hungry, tired, and realize that they had responsibilities. While a fun night is usually enough to get a feature in this paper,[1] that is not the main focus of the night. The PILA Silent Auction is, along with the regular auction during the week preceding the dance, a fundraising opportunity (through ticket sales and winning auction bids) for the eponymous organization: The Public Interest Law Association.

During the week, students and faculty get the opportunity to bid on such fun items like getting one’s name featured in the Libel Show or getting to play poker with professors. While the Silent Auction is home to some of the most extravagant items like box seats at a basketball game. The winning bids on these items are donated to PILA to aid in scholarships and summer stipends for students who work public interest jobs. It makes sense that professors bid on these items during the audible auction; they are fulfilling their obligation of giving back to the students and the Law School community after long, prestigious, and often lucrative careers. But it seems even more important that so many students, most often those pursuing private sector careers, are also bidding on these items.

Entering public service is daunting on its face. Lawyers in that space are working jobs that are just as—an arguably more—intense than law firm jobs. Despite this, there is a monumental difference in pay. None of that is news to anyone in the Law School. But more than being dauting, the idea of paying back loans over time and, for many students, additional familial obligations can make the choice of entering the public sector not even a choice. These auctions and the efforts of PILA generally play a major role in easing that burden for the students who need it most. When students who are going to law firms, and especially students who come from more privileged backgrounds, give back through these auctions, it helps out public interest students in a way that feels social. UVA Law is absolutely a party school so having so many students come together in a large party where even the act of buying a ticket helps out is a great collaborative effort. Props to the PILA board for using this opportunity to raise over $40,000 for public interest law students. One might say that the event was even a demonstration of our favorite word here at the Law School: collegiality.

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omk6cg@virginia.edu

[1] I point you to 90% of my ramblings in the Law Weekly last year.

Letter to the Editor: On "Collegiality"

Letters of interest to the Law School community may be sent to editor@lawweekly.org. Letters may be published at the discretion of the Editorial Board and are subject to editing for grammar, style, and clarity, but not content or viewpoint. The Law Weekly does not necessarily endorse the content or viewpoint of any letter herein published.


Collegiality. What is it? Tl;dr, it’s a nebulous concept at best and a tool to perpetuate discrimination against some of our Law School’s most vulnerable people at worst. Everyone I have asked about what collegiality means gives a different answer. Is it waving at a peer in the hall with a smile? Is it sharing notes when someone misses class?

For my past three years at UVA Law, it’s meant being tame and polite in the face of blatant homophobia and transphobia. It’s being told to “bite my tongue” when someone shares a transphobic article on my Con Law class’s Zoom chat justifying depriving trans children of medically-necessary gender-affirming care. It’s being “placed on notice” by my peers on Reddit when we organize a protest against Dallin Oaks–a man who oversaw the enforcement of electroshock and vomiting aversion therapy and other means of intimidation against the queer community. It’s not being able to share how I truly feel about a Scalia dissent in class because I would be just another triggered leftist snowflake. It’s only getting barely a quarter of the Law School to sign onto a Lambda petition asking for people to support us.[1] It’s been people campaigning for homophobic and transphobic politicians like Glenn Younkin showing up to queer spaces like Halloqueen.

Now, it’s an expectation to be “civil” when homophobic and transphobic speakers keep on getting invited to UVA Law with open arms. The Federalist Society at UVA has invited Erin Hawley, the senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), to speak on November 15. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated the ADF as a hate group, and rightfully so, in my opinion. ADF has pushed for recriminalizing queer people, defended sterilizing trans people, and advocated for denying us participation in pretty much every aspect of society.[2] Fed Soc’s event is happening during an existential threat for queer people, trans people in particular. Every year during my time at UVA Law has been dubbed the worst year for queer people in terms of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, which has largely been targeted at trans people and trans youth in particular.[3]

This is the context for Fed Soc’s event. I’m sure the justification is going to be about free speech if it hasn’t already been raised by the time of writing this op ed. If we’re really about free speech and having all viewpoints represented, why isn’t a pro-queer person at this event? 

I’m not a spokesperson for all queer people, but I’m tired and so are the vast majority of my queer colleagues. Real @#$%ing tired, if I’m being quite honest. I don’t know how I can put this into perspective for those who have not experienced the oppression queer people currently and historically have faced. That’s because there is no comparison. There is no queer equivalent of Dallin Oaks. There is no queer equivalent of the ADF. Conservatives in this country have not been subjected to having electrodes placed on their genitals or having fingers forced down their throats to stop being conservative. Conservatives as a class are not being called groomers and pedophiles on a national stage, don’t have entire groups dedicated to their sterilization, and don’t have their very existence up for debate. This is what we, as queer people, have experienced and continue to experience.

I’m all about free speech as much as the next person. I truly think it is essential for our democracy, which the past few years has shown is more fragile than any of us could ever have imagined. But we keep on inviting, platforming, welcoming, and celebrating the most vitriolic—and frankly evil––speakers to this Law School, and expecting queer people to behave “collegially.” What does collegiality mean to me? Stop expecting queer people to be collegial if you can’t even do so in the first place.



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bwj2cw@virginia.edu

[1] Spencer Haydary was the president of Lambda Law Alliance at UVA for the 2021-22 school year, and does not currently speak on behalf of the organization.

[2] See, e.g., Southern Poverty Law Center, Alliance Defending Freedom, (https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/alliance-defending-freedom (last visited Nov. 5, 2020, 10:11 PM).

[3] See, e.g., Matt Lavietes & Elliott Ramos, Nearly 240 Anti-LGBTQ Bills Filed in 2022: So Far, Most of Them Targeting Trans People, NBC News, Mar. 20, 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/nearly-240-anti-lgbtq-bills-filed-2022-far-targeting-trans-people-rcna20418.

Massive Chess Lawsuit Analysis: Defamation

Jacob Smith ‘23
Professor Liason Editor


Welcome back to the biggest chess legal battle of all time: grandmaster Hans Niemann’s defamation suit against current chess world champion Magnus Carlsen, streamer and grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, the website Chess.com, and others—a suit that was instigated by Magnus’s accusation that Hans cheated at the Sinquefield Cup. Last week’s article introduced the bare bones of the dispute and analyzed whether the defendants would be dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction. To recap, my opinion is that the Missouri court has jurisdiction over Magnus and possibly Chess.com, but probably not the other defendants. This week’s article digs deeper into the allegedly defamatory statements.[1]

Choice of Law

Missouri choice-of-law considers four factors: the place of the injury, the place of the conduct causing the injury, the location of the parties, and where the relationship between the parties is centered. The state with the most significant relationship is presumed to be the state where the injury occurred.[2] In a case involving “widespread dissemination” of the defamation, “the most important consideration in choosing the applicable law is the residence of the party allegedly defamed,”[3] under the theory that reputational harm hits you hardest where you live. Hans resides in Connecticut, so Connecticut law may apply. Missouri law is an alternative possibility, given that the St. Louis Sinquefield Cup and Magnus’s withdrawal from the tournament remain at the center of the lawsuit.

The defendants might argue for Connecticut law so they can invoke Connecticut’s anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) statute. In certain defamation cases, the anti-SLAPP statute allows for a “special motion to dismiss” where the court conducts an expedited hearing, can consider affidavits, and awards attorney’s fees if the case is dismissed.[4] But even if Connecticut law were to apply, there is a circuit split about whether anti-SLAPP statutes are procedural or substantive. If the court thinks they are procedural, they will not apply to cases, like this one, brought in federal court.

Defamation Elements 

Hans’s complaint included other claims, but this article will just discuss defamation. The elements of defamation under Missouri law are “(1) publication (2) of a defamatory statement (3) that identifies the plaintiff, (4) that is false, (5) that is published with the requisite degree of fault, and (6) that damages the plaintiff’s reputation.”[5] Connecticut has a similar test.[6] Commentators seem to think the degree of fault is likely reckless disregard because Hans is a limited public figure for purposes of chess.

Most of the elements are not seriously contestable. Those in dispute should be first, whether the statements were false, and second, whether the defendants recklessly disregarded the possibility of falsity. The defendants can also raise defenses. In particular, they may argue that a defamatory statement was a statement of opinion, although such a statement is still actionable if it “could reasonably be interpreted as implying objective facts provable as false.”[7] The opinion defense will likely be a major focus at the motion-to-dismiss stage, since you can’t very easily prove truth or falsity on the pleadings.

Accusations of Cheating

Magnus’s allegations of cheating may well survive a motion to dismiss. Magnus withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup—a very unusual step—and posted a video of a soccer manager saying, “If I speak, I am in big trouble.” These steps, combined with the heightened tournament security measures that Magnus allegedly requested, clearly conveyed the claim that Hans had cheated. Magnus did not explain at the time why he thought Hans cheated, but he later asserted that Hans’s progress as a chess player “has been unusual” and that he “wasn’t tense or even fully concentrating on the game in critical positions” in beating Magnus.

A defamation claim based on Magnus’s allegations of cheating is likely to survive a motion to dismiss, as David French and Sarah Isgur have argued on the podcast Advisory Opinions. Magnus could be seen as stating an objective fact, and even as recklessly disregarding the possibility that he was wrong, given the scanty proof he has made public and Hans’s allegations that he had good reason to resent losing.

Accusations of Lying

Magnus, Chess.com, and Hikaru also all accused Hans of lying. After Hans admitted to a limited amount of online chess cheating, Chess.com stated on Twitter that it had shared evidence with Hans that “contradicts his statements regarding the amount and seriousness of his cheating on Chess.com.” Chess.com later doubled down on the accusation in their seventy-two-page report. Hikaru agreed with Chess.com that Hans was not being fully transparent about his prior cheating. Hikaru also called Hans’s analysis of his game against Magnus “complete nonsense,” in essence calling Hans a liar. Similarly, Magnus tweeted, “I believe that Niemann has cheated more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted.” All those statements involve assertions of objective fact that could get past a motion to dismiss if a judge finds it plausible that the defendants could have acted with the “actual malice” required for speech involving a public figure.

Conclusion

It looks like Missouri or Connecticut law will apply. Further, there is a good chance that defamation claims against Magnus, Chess.com, and Hikaru survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, assuming personal jurisdiction over the defendants exists. I believe motions to dismiss are due next Monday, so, soon, you will be able to weigh the defendants’ legal arguments yourselves.

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js3hp@virginia.edu

[1] I am not a lawyer, so do not rely on the claims made in this article.

[2] Winter v. Novartis Pharms. Corp., 739 F.3d 405, 410 (8th Cir. 2014).

[3] Fuqua Homes, Inc. v. Beattie, 388 F.3d 618, 622 (8th Cir. 2004) (citing Elmore v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 673 S.W.2d 434, 436–37 (Mo. 1984)).

[4] Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-196a.

[5] Turntine v. Peterson, 959 F.3d 873, 882 (8th Cir. 2020) (citing Overcast v. Billings Mut. Ins., 11 S.W.3d 62, 70 (Mo. 2000) (en banc)).

[6] Gleason v. Smolinski, 125 A.3d 920, 947–48 (Conn. 2015).

[7] Smith v. Humane Soc’y of U.S., 519 S.W.3d 789, 800 (Mo. 2017) (en banc).

Dragonflies: Blue Skies and Dead Bugs

Jonathan Peterson ‘23
Co-Executive Editor


You’ve likely encountered the subject of this article. Perhaps it was in your garden, perhaps it was while fishing, perhaps it was just on a walk. What you likely did not realize is that you encountered the most efficient and successful predator on Planet Earth.

Hunting Success

When dragonflies choose to hunt, they are unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Birds of prey, like peregrine falcons, are typically what we think of as the peak of aerial hunting. Their success rate, or the percent chance that they catch their target, sits at roughly 25 percent. Lions, one of the most formidable land predators, sit pretty at about 30 percent. And African painted dogs are at the peak of land predators when it comes to efficiency, blowing their competition out of the water with a staggering 67-percent success rate.

Dragonflies, however, are another story altogether. When a dragonfly takes wing, its success rate is as high as 95 percent. So, what enables these tiny death machines to be the coldblooded killers that they are?

Physical Traits

Dragonflies have remained relatively unchanged for the last 300 million years. In terms of their physical traits, the only one that has changed substantially is their size—they used to be much larger.[1]

The first key to dragonflies’ success is their direct flight muscles. Unlike many other insects, which have indirect flight muscles, dragonflies can independently control each of their four wings. This enables them to beat their wings in multiple different patterns, or “phases.” Different phases allow for different forms of flight. In fact, not only can dragonflies fly over thirty miles per hour, depending on the phase, but they can also fly in all six directions.[2] This makes them both one of the most maneuverable animals in the world,[3]and the fastest flying insect on the planet.

They can reach these high speeds thanks to a special, pigmented section on the leading edge of their wings called a pterostigma. This pigmented section of the wing is heavier than other, similar segments of the wing. This acts as a counterweight and, at high speeds, provides stability. Essentially, it prevents the leading edge of the wing from fluttering.[4] This small feature enables dragonflies to fly somewhere between 10 and 20 percent faster than they would otherwise be capable of.

Dragonflies also have the largest compound eyes of any insect, giving them full 360-degree vision. Their eyes are made up of over 30,000 ommatidia, or smaller, hexagonal eyes. These 30,000 smaller eyes make up the larger compound eyes they are a part of. Further, different parts of the dragonflies’ compound eyes are sensitive to different wavelengths of light. For example, the top of a dragonflies’ eyes—the part that faces the sky while they fly—is more sensitive to shorter wavelengths like blues and ultraviolet light. The middle and lower portions of the dragonflies’ eyes are sensitive to a wider spectrum, giving them a better sense of overall color when looking at something beneath or in front of them. There is a very real reason for this—when flying, their prey often appears above them. By being sensitive to shorter wavelengths of light, like blues, the top of their eye is better able to see prey items contrasted against the blue sky—the prey stands out more because the dragonfly is better at seeing blue. And dragonflies typically encounter predators, mates, and other cannibalistic dragonflies either directly ahead of them or beneath them. Being able to see a broader spectrum of colors in those ranges allows them to identify friends and foes much more quickly, while maintaining the ability to see prey items above them easily.

Maybe She’s Born with It

All these physical traits are not the deciding factors in what makes dragonflies such successful hunters—they are merely constituent factors. Dragonflies bring these lethal skills together in such an effective way thanks to how they process the world.

There are two methods of aerial hunting: tracking and interception. Of the two, interception is the far more complicated and rare method. Tracking involves chasing down a target and using speed and agility to overwhelm them. It is incredibly physically taxing. Dragonflies, with their speed and agility, would certainly be incredible trackers.

Interception, on the other hand, is a predictive method of hunting. Interception involves seeing an animal’s path, predicting where the animal will be at a given time, and meeting the target there. In humans, interception is a learned trait. Try intercepting a softball in the outfield and you’ll realize just how hard it is. Or watch a three-year-old chase a soccer ball—it’s comical how poor we are at it. However, in dragonflies, interception is hardwired into their nervous system. This means that their motor system (how dragonflies move their body) and nervous system are wired together, allowing dragonflies to, essentially, do geometry instinctively. Not only this, but their heads independently and synchronously move with their body as they fly to keep their target within the appropriate range of vision.[5] This head movement has also been shown to be what I refer to as instinctual geometry.

Conclusion

I hope this article will give you a newfound appreciation for dragonflies—they are beautiful animals with a complex and intriguing physiology. And perhaps I’ve also given you something else to be thankful for this November: the fact that meter-long dragonflies no longer exist.



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jtp4bw@virginia.edu

[1] I’m talking meter-long dragonflies here. Absolute units.

[2] Up, down, left, right, forwards, and backwards. I’m unsure whether dragonflies can reach equivalent speeds in all directions.

[3] Only a few other types of flies and hummingbirds can fly backwards.

[4] If you hold onto the edge of a piece of paper and try to swing the entire piece through the air, it will flutter at the leading edge. Thepterostigma essentially enables the wing to slice through the air, as opposed to fluttering, like that piece of paper.

[5] Top, middle, or bottom.

The Hora: Living History Through Dance

Monica Sandu '24
Co-Executive Editor



The term “hora,” along with its variants “horo” and “oro,” comes from the Greek “χορός” (khoros), meaning “dance.”[1] It is a category of folk dance found throughout the Balkans and in many Jewish communities. [2] While each culture has its own version, the hora is generally an up-tempo dance where the dancers link arms and dance in a circle. In Romanian, this is referred to as “playing the hora,” describing the dance’s joyful nature. Hora also refers to a large social gathering where, fittingly, the hora is danced. It was the heart of a village’s social life and became known as the occasion where young people would go to hopefully find their future spouse.[3]

A typical Romanian hora begins with a couple of beats of instrumental, allowing for all the participants to get a sense of the music and pace. The dancers form a circle and either join hands or put their hands on each other’s shoulders. They begin by moving counterclockwise, taking three alternating steps forward, starting with their left foot (left-right-left).[4] Some dances continue this pattern around continuously, while others have the dancers pause, stomp their feet, and go back the other way. Often, dancers will raise their arms and contract the circle, then lower their arms and enlarge the circle while spinning around. The pace and steps can be varied to land on the beat, in double time, or even quadruple time for the very adventurous. There can be an unofficial leader whose movements direct the changes in size and/or direction of the circle, but oftentimes, changes arise spontaneously out of the group feeling the music and improvising. Because everyone typically knows all the constituent steps, they can be combined in endless ways. Some toes may get stepped on and shoulders bumped together, but it’s all part of the fun!

Pictured: Children in Moldovan folk costume dancing the hora.
Credit: https://noi.md/md/news_id/220979.

While a hora can be danced to most any music, there are also many songs specifically composed to be a hora. For Romania, perhaps the most famous and historically significant of these is Hora Unirii (“The Hora of Unification”). It was composed to commemorate the 1859 unification of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldova, which together would form the start of modern-day Romania.[5] Its lyrics are taken from a poem published three years earlier, whose first stanza calls out: “Let us go hand in hand, those with a Romanian heart, to spin the hora of brotherhood, on Romanian soil.”[6] Music bolstered the rise of Romanian national identity in the 19th century by analogizing broad political changes to the hora, a symbol of community known in every village in the land.  

The hora, in all its variants, continues to play a prominent role as a symbol of cultural identity. In the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest,[7] for example, Israel placed second with the song “Hora,” whose chorus proclaims: “And also the Hora, the one with the Hey, its voice still rises, its voice has not been silenced…Its song fills my heart forever!”[8] When Serbia hosted Eurovision in 2008, following its win the previous year (which coincided with its debut as an independent country[9]), it chose the song “Oro” to represent it as the host entry, singing of a mother’s lullaby.[10] And in 2009, when the contest was hosted in Moscow, Moldova sent the hyper-energetic “Hora Din Moldova,” which, despite being primarily in English in the studio version, was performed on stage entirely in Romanian.[11]

The hora is a staple at weddings and on New Years’ Eve. It is danced at festivals and whenever there is folk music playing. Its purpose is to get people moving, to make people feel good and to come together as a group. There is even a traditional Romanian embroidery pattern depicting hora dancers with joined hands.

If you’re interested, come to Caplin Auditorium on Thursday, November 10 at 6:00pm to learn the Romanian hora for yourself! We dance to celebrate. We dance to connect with our past, our present, and our future. Hai la hora![12]


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ms7mn@virginia.edu

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hora_(dance)#Romania_and_Moldova

[2] Id.

[3] https://folkdancefootnotes.org/begin/hora-romania/

[4] https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hora

[5] https://jurnalul.ro/special-jurnalul/cum-a-fost-hora-unirii-un-manifest-politic-muzical-602309.html

[6] https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hora_Unirii

[7] Eurovision is an international song contest that takes place every year in May. Countries who are members of the European Broadcast Union send artists to represent them in one of Europe’s biggest televised events. Think of it as a battle of the bands where countries, rather than just individual artists, compete for glory. The songs must not have been released prior to September of the previous year and must not have been previously performed outside of the Eurovision context.

[8] https://lyricstranslate.com/en/%D7%94%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%94-hora.html

[9] Serbia had previously competed as part of both Yugoslavia and later Serbia and Montenegro.

[10] https://lyricstranslate.com/en/oro-oro.html

[11] This was seen by many as a rejection of Russian influence in Moldova in favor of celebrating Moldovan culture and identity.

[12] Romanian: “Come dance the hora!”

Letter to the Editor: On Protests & Social Change

Letters of interest to the Law School community may be sent to editor@lawweekly.org. Letters may be published at the discretion of the Editorial Board and are subject to editing for grammar, style, and clarity, but not content or viewpoint. The Law Weekly does not necessarily endorse the content or viewpoint of any letter herein published.

The United States is far from equal. Its institutions are not just or fair. But many of the atrocities of the past are in the past because of the actions of protestors.

Protestors played central roles in achieving the 40-hour work week, earning women’s right to vote, and in the civil rights movement. Protestors will play central roles in achieving equality for our queer community, the liberation of Palestine, and the abolition of prisons and the police.

A few weeks ago, I helped organize a protest of an event in which Bob Good spoke to the UVA Law community. Jonathan Peterson wrote in this publication on the protest; he did a good job summarizing Bob Good’s ideology, so readers can look there if they want to know more.

Yet by aiming for objectivity, the article failed to capture the nuance of my stance on protest, the role of protest in our community and in society at large, and the relationship between protest and free speech. I worry that Jon misinterpreted my position; his article may be read to suggest that I want to stop some speakers from coming.

I want to first clarify my position on speakers at UVA Law. I will defend free speech with the best (and worst) of them. The use of power to silence an opponent is a tool of fascism. Those in power at the Law School—administrators and professors—have no right to stop someone from speaking.

When I protest speakers who advocate for oppression, like Bob Good, I am not protesting the Law School for letting him speak. I am protesting the students who invited him and I am protesting Bob Good himself.

Every member of the Law Republicans who did not actively disagree with the organization’s decision to host Bob Good should reflect on how they have harmed their community. By filling the room with these students’ peers and then abruptly leaving, our protest intentionally ostracized them. Hopefully this led members of the Law Republicans to question why they platformed someone so harmful to so many of their peers. Perhaps their reflections will lead them to a different conclusion the next time someone like Bob Good asks to speak at the Law School.

The protest also intentionally disrespected Bob Good. For some reason, Bob Good thought he had an audience at our Law School. My hope is that when 40 or 50 students at an elite Law School went out of their way to disrespect him, Bob Good felt a little bad. We wanted to make clear to Bob Good that we don’t like him, that we don’t like his views, that we don’t respect him, despite his role as our representative. We wanted to make clear to Bob Good that, if he wants our respect, he must change.

A central purpose of protest is social change. Even a small protest—just a few dozen students on a weeknight in a law school classroom—can lead to a better world. Protests find power in collectivity. Protests invite others to join in that collective power, strengthening it. Protests unravel the assumptions institutions like law schools depend on—that change can only come about via pre-set avenues, through debate, through education, through voting.

Social change happens when enough people fight to make it happen. It happens when individuals and groups labor for something they cannot see, that does not seem possible, but on which their lives depend.

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wg4dt@virginia.edu

There's More Beyond the Corner: A Charlottesville Bar Review

Sai Kulkarni '23
Production Editor


Last year, I wrote an article with a few other writers on this paper about each Bar Review location. I absolutely stand by that, as it was a well-written article. But I wanted to discuss some of the lesser-known spots in the city. There are, of course, a lot of great places for food, but there are also some great places to grab a drink with a friend or two. Of course, this being a small town, there are only a few bars anyways, so you have likely heard about these places if you are a 2L or 3L. But these are places I didn’t know about during my 1L year, and I hope that by talking about them, I can encourage the newer students to give these places a chance and get away from the usual Corner, Kardi, Miller’s, and Rapture circuit. As a note, because of state laws, there are not really any pure bars in Virginia that do not also serve food, so just remember that as we go through. Some of these places are also known as good eateries.

Downtown

These are some of the more well-known spots, but I want to give a shoutout to them anyways. The first is a classic: the Whiskey Jar. This spot provides a lot of types of its titular drink but also provides a wide range of beers and mixed drinks. Half indoors and half outdoors, it’s a nice sit-down spot during the week. During the weekends, you can get your usual “stand at the bar” ambiance, with much less waiting time for drinks. It’s definitely an older crowd, but that’s what you go here for. 

The next stop is the newest addition to the Downtown Mall, Cville Brightside (right next to Whiskey Jar). This upstairs bar has a limited number of tables, but it is the ideal spot to go to for a Miami Vice. I went there with a large group of 3Ls at the start of the semester, but they were very accommodating. While the décor could use some work, the drinks and accompanying bar food are fantastic.  

A bit of a newer favorite for me is Umma’s, which is just off of the Downtown Mall. This place has a nice, covered outside bar, with a standard uncovered section and an inside section with plenty of space. The real draw is that on Saturday evenings, it doubles as a gay bar. It’s nice that there is some degree of diversity here in town. 

Just over from Umma’s is South Street Brewery. Another relatively well-known spot, this is the ideal location for watching sports—especially now that the Champion Grill near Trader Joe’s has shut down. South Street Brewery has, as the name suggests, a large selection of beers—just the ideal sports bar location.

Pictured: The Quirk Hotel Rooftop.
Picture Credit: Quirk Hotels.

Main Street

There are plenty of great places to eat and drink on Main Street. Obviously, the most well-known is the Quirk rooftop. This bar provides a great view, top tier ambience, and a wide range of mixed drinks to make any Instagram story pop off. But there are some other great places nearby. Tavern & Grocery is a great dinner spot with a fantastic Sunday brunch option. The real winner, though, is the speakeasy in the basement: Lost Saint. I don’t want to say too much, so I will just recommend that you take the chance and head down there; it’s worth it. Blue Moon Diner provides the ideal location for some “hair of the dog” on Saturday, with greasy food and drinks to hold you over. Both Oakheart Social and Little Star are far more restaurants than they are drinking spots, but I would absolutely recommend them if you are looking for high-class cocktails and excellent food. 

Miscellaneous

All of us spend plenty of time at Kardinal Hall—it’s the unofficial Law School bar at this point. But if you are in the neighborhood, make sure to check out Random Row next door. It’s a much smaller spot, but with a few craft beers and an outside area, it is a bar worth enjoying, at least while it isn’t snowing. In the same neighborhood is Dairy Market. I’m sure all of you have taken a trip there, but don’t miss out on the brewery tucked away inside. As my friend Alayna Choo ’23 will tell you, it's a great place to get some work done while having a nice drink. 

Finally, I can’t write this whole article without talking about the dirtiest dive bar in the city and the one place you can guarantee you will find me partying at (other than Co-Executive Editor Jon Peterson ’23’s house), Dürty Nelly’s. I would prefer if swarms of 1Ls didn’t show up there. I would prefer to keep it a secret forever. But it is my duty to pass it down to the years to come. The drinks are perfectly matched with the vibe. It is absolutely a bar for locals, with a very homey atmosphere. The bouncers are friendly, and the bartenders are quick. If you are looking for a place to relax during your time at the Law School, consider DN. But just stay away on Wednesdays. Those nights belong to me.

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omk6cg@virginia.edu

November Is Here, It's Time to Get Your Act Together

Dana Lake '23
Editor-in-Chief


There is no time of reckoning quite like November. The fall is a busy time for socializing and professional networking, but hard deadlines are few and far between. “Oh, I’ll deal with that in November” is a common refrain across class years. Outlining, bar registration, job apps, the MPRE… nothing you need to worry about happens early in the semester. All is calm in August and September, with only the vague gathering of dark clouds on the horizon. The chill of October air might bring up reminders of those future problems, but you are still comfortably on the right side of Halloween. 

Then comes November. 

Halloween weekend rolls directly into the last month to start getting your act together, with nary a buffer week to sleep off your hangover. November is here, and it’s finally time to reap what you’ve spent the last three months sowing. I’ve been feeling really overwhelmed thinking of everything I have left to do before finals and the sweet release of winter break, and writing it out feels enough like working on it to delay my annual autumnal panic. So, here are some key November events to both dread and look forward to.


Daylight Savings ends November 6. 

It’s going to get DARK. We’re talking 4:30 p.m. sunset time, right around the corner. Try to maximize your morning dose of sunshine. If you are someone who is susceptible to seasonal depression, the time to start taking your vitamin D supplements was back in August, since it takes about three months for the nutrient to build up in the body.[1] The second-best time is now! You can set yourself up for a marginally better January, and maybe get some placebo benefits while you’re at it.

 
The PILA Silent Auction is Saturday, November 12…

The Silent Auction is the last big party of the semester. It’s a fancier affair than the usual SBA event, so start thinking through your outfit options. This will give you enough time to decide that you don’t like any of your clothes and can’t possibly re-wear your dress from last year like you were planning after all, so you can then make a totally necessary online order without having to pay those pesky rush delivery fees.


…and the fall MPRE is Monday and Tuesday, November 14 and 15. 

PILA weekend is going to be a busy time. Don’t leave your MPRE prep to the last minute, or you’ll be cramming the model rules in between green tea shooters at Rapture. It’s certainly been done before, but it doesn’t have to be you doing it.[2]Both Barbri and Themis have free MPRE prep programs—work through the practice problems over the course of about a week and go into the exam feeling ethical enough to practice in California or Utah. 


Outlining

Maybe this will be the semester you don’t wait until Reading Weekend to start outlining. Pay your club dues and get access to the curated outline banks they offer now, so you can start Frankenstein’s process of pulling together all the best parts of different outlines and supplementing them with your own notes. Exams begin December 12—that’s six weeks away, including Thanksgiving. Imagine the guilt-free stuffing and Black Friday shopping you can indulge if you’re in decent shape with your finals prep by then. 


1Ls: Job Applications and Major Memos 

LRW is the definition of a back-burner class for every 1L except the select few of you who plan to actually be good at your jobs. If you don’t understand the nexus test, or you’re not sure what fair use is, schedule a meeting with your writing fellow or professor now. Take your revisions seriously and set yourself up for success next semester so that you don’t have to do all your research a second time.

Applications for summer positions start getting serious in November as well. If you want to be a summer associate, especially in the Texas market, you want to apply early. Hopefully, you’ve met with OPP or the Public Service Office at least once by now to work on your resume, but a practice interview session can really help settle your nerves. Plenty of people apply over winter break and get jobs throughout the spring, especially for public service positions. But the anxiety of being an unemployed 1L is real. Being the last person in a friend group to get an offer can feel pretty demoralizing, and it’s a huge distraction from your other work. Do yourself the favor of at least charting your course and prepping your cover letters so you are ready to hit the ground running.



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dl9uh@virginia.edu

Ranking 1L Section Softball Team Sponsors

Sarah Walsh '23
Editing Editor


Thanks to the overwhelming success (depending on how you define both “overwhelming” and “success”) of the Virginia Law Weekly’s First Annual 1L Section Softball Team Name Rankings,[1] I’m back with more rankings involving 1L section softball teams. Specifically, I’ll be ranking the sponsors for each section’s softball team. Because 1L sections have significantly less choice in who sponsors them than they have in deciding how to name their teams, it’s more or less impossible to come up with any set of criteria by which to rank the teams’ sponsors. So, unlike my ranking of 1L team names, today’s ranking system—much like the law itself—will be based almost exclusively on vibes and my own personal opinions. Teams may receive bonus points for securing sponsors who I believe suit the section particularly well, but such considerations will not be the primary factors involved in my ranking decisions.

You may notice that while there are ten 1L sections, only six teams’ sponsors are included in today’s rankings. That’s because four sections are omitted from the rankings, since Sections A, C, G, and I don’t have sponsors for their teams—at least not according to members of these sections and/or their PAs. If this information turns out to be incorrect, then that’s on the sections, not me. Do a better job of promoting your sponsor next time.

Now, let’s get into the rankings.


First: Hill & Wood Funeral Service (Section F)

Better call up your sponsor, Section F, because you just killed the competition. Getting a funeral serviceto sponsor your team goes unbelievably hard. With all due respect to every other 1L section, there was no way this sponsor wasn’t going to win the top spot. Yeah, getting a bar to sponsor your team is cool, but it doesn’t say, “Don’t mess with my team” quite like being sponsored by, again, a funeral service.

In addition to the points that they receive for having what is unquestionably the coolest sponsor this Law School has ever seen, Section F also gets points for thinking outside of the usual bars/restaurants box with their choice of sponsor. The Hill & Wood patch on their jerseys, which goes far beyond the standard sponsor logo, notches the team and their sponsor some bonus points as well. And to top it all off, Section F’s sponsor fits their team perfectly. You could not ask for a better sponsor for a team named “F for Final Judgment.” After all, what is death if not the most final of all judgments? 

Second: Dürty Nelly’s (Section D)

I kind of feel like I shouldn’t be rewarding this section with a high ranking on this list after they, you know, sued me in the school paper.[2] However, I can recognize a cool sponsor when I see one.[3] I’m awarding additional points on account of the fact that the sponsor’s name uses the section’s letter, and because I can’t think of a better Charlottesville establishment to match the vibe of a team named “Public InDecency.” Way to overcome your below-average softball team name, Section D.

Third: Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint (Section B)

I’ll be honest, this has less to do with the sponsor itself and more to do with the fact that my softball co-captain is Jack Brown ’23, yet for whatever reason, neither of us ever considered asking Jack Brown’s to sponsor our team. I’m thus rewarding the BARbarians for doing what Jack and I weren’t smart enough to do ourselves. Having a bar chain as a sponsor for the BARbarians also weighs in Section B’s favor, as does the bar’s logo, which I would rank as being better than that of most of the other sponsors on this list. Plus, I’ve heard good things about their burgers.

Fourth: Starr Hill Brewery and The Virginian (Section H)

Props to Section H for managing to secure two sponsors, which I’m sure helped pay for their §H-printed booty shorts. These two bars/restaurants don’t really stand out in the sponsor crowd, but Section H made great use of their sponsors’ money. While the sponsors themselves don’t necessarily match Habeas Scoreplus’s vibe (remember, this is the team that kicked off their 1L Softball Tournament quarterfinal game against Section C by yelling “HOES!” at the top of their lungs), the booty shorts that those sponsors helped pay for certainly do.

Fifth: Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar (Section J)

First of all, this sponsor has a fantastic logo. Second of all, a couple Bar Reviews ago (specifically, the October 14 Bar Review), Crozet featured a band that, for at least ten minutes straight, played what sounded like a jazz version of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. The utter confusion that my friends and I felt at that Bar Review as we tried to figure out what we were listening to makes this otherwise-basic sponsor a solid choice for J’s and Confused, giving them a slight edge over the sixth-place sponsor.

Sixth: Three Notch’d Craft Kitchen & Brewery (Section E)

To be clear, this isn’t a bad sponsor—it’s just not a particularly notable one. While I personally love Three Notch’d, it’s not that distinguishable from sponsors like Starr Hill and Crozet. It also doesn’t help that I was completely unaware that Section E even had a sponsor (due to the lack of logos present on their team shirt) until I asked a member of the team about it.


Regardless of where your team’s sponsor landed in these rankings, I will note that as a 1L section—rather than some powerhouse Law School organization like Lone Star Lawyers—just having a sponsor is impressive in and of itself. And, more than anything else, I respect the sponsored sections’ dedication to getting others to pay for things on their behalf. It’s heartwarming to see the 1Ls embrace the summer associate lifestyle so early in their legal careers.



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saw8rc@virginia.edu

[1] See Sarah Walsh, Ranking 1L Section Softball Team Names, Va. L. Wkly., Sept. 21, 2022, at 3.

[2] See Complaint, 1L Section D v. Virginia Law Weekly, 75 U.Va. 5 (2022).

[3] Also, they called me a “lovely person” and “excellent softball captain” in their complaint, which I appreciate, even if they were effectively calling me a hypocrite at the same time. If you take nothing else away from this article (and honestly, why would you?), at least remember this: Ass-kissing works.

Massive Chess Lawsuit Analysis: Personal Jurisdiction

Jacob Smith ‘23
Professor Liason Editor


Do you follow chess? If not, let me alert you to the next big defamation lawsuit. Hans Neimann, a nineteen-year-old grandmaster, has sued Magnus Carlsen and other defendants for defamation (among other things), based on allegations that he cheated. This article introduces the chess mess and analyzes just one piece of the legal puzzle: Which defendants will get dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction?

Statement of Facts

Magnus Carlsen, the incumbent world champion, is Defendant Number One in Hans’s complaint. (An affiliated chess app, Play Magnus, is also a defendant.) After Hans defeated Magnus at the Sinquefield Cup, an elite St. Louis tournament, Magnus allegedly accused Hans of cheating during the tournament. Magnus then quit the tournament amidst circumstances that made his suspicions clear to the chess community.

The other defendants named in the complaint are Chess.com, its Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch, and Hikaru Nakamura. Hikaru is an elite chess grandmaster and my favorite Twitch streamer. While streaming, Hikaru reacted to the Magnus-Hans conflagration and shared his thoughts and conjectures rather extensively. Akiva Cohen, a lawyer who posts on Twitter, has suggested that it was a strategic blunder to include Hikaru, but as Reddit commenter suggested, Hikaru may have been added to the lawsuit just to shut him up.

Chess.com, on the other hand, reacted by banning Hans from its platform and tournaments and accusing him of lying about the extent of his cheating in online games. The website followed up with a seventy-two-page report that made claims about Hans’s disciplinary history with the website and collected evidence suggesting that he may have cheated at over-the-board tournaments.

When Hans filed his forty-four-page complaint, seeking at least $100 million in damages on multiple counts, he did so in Missouri. So, let’s talk civil procedure. Because Missouri has a long-arm statute, personal jurisdiction turns into a question of pure constitutional law. The two main paths to satisfy constitutional due process are general and specific jurisdiction, so I will analyze both.[1]

General Jurisdiction

Let’s start with general jurisdiction. None of the parties actually reside in Missouri. For the individual defendants, that ends the analysis. For the corporate defendants, the question is whether their affiliations are so continuous and systematic as to render them essentially at home in Missouri under Daimler AG v. Bauman.[2] Both Chess.com and Play Magnus provide Internet chess services, which somewhat complicates matters. The Eighth Circuit appears to apply a three-part test to online businesses. First, it asks under the Zippo “sliding scale” whether the website passively posts information, is interactive, or enters into contracts that involve the transmission of computer files; second, it asks whether the quantity of contacts is sufficient; and finally, it asks whether jurisdiction would be reasonable and would not offend notions of fair play and substantial justice.[3]

Chess.com just might satisfy the Eighth Circuit’s test. Chess.com and Play Magnus subscribers pay for online services that include online lessons, which arguably places both of them in the highest Zippo category. Further, Chess.com has ninety-five million members, presumably including a good number of Missouri residents (though many “members” are not paying subscribers). The Play Magnus platform, in contrast, probably has fewer Missouri customers. The final “fair play” question is a messy combination of factors but doesn’t obviously rule jurisdiction out.

Specific jurisdiction

Missouri has specific jurisdiction if a defendant purposefully directed activities at the state, and the claim arises out of those activities.[4] Magnus made allegedly defamatory statements to organizers of the Missouri tournament, so Missouri has specific jurisdiction over Magnus. There is probably no jurisdiction over Play Magnus, however, because Magnus was almost certainly not acting as an agent of Play Magnus, as Cohen has pointed out.

It is hard to see how the other defendants could have targeted Missouri. Posting (or in Hikaru’s case, streaming) defamatory content so it can be accessed in Missouri is not sufficient.[5] The supposed defamation revolved around a Missouri tournament, but that doesn’t work, either. For example, the claim that Plaintiffs “operated from Unionville, Missouri, where they killed cats, sold infected cats and kittens, brutally killed and tortured unwanted cats and operated a ‘kitten mill’”—was held to not be speech aimed at Missouri.[6]

Conclusion

Putting the pieces together: Missouri should have specific jurisdiction over Magnus. It may have general jurisdiction over Chess.com but likely lacks jurisdiction of either kind over Hikaru and Play Magnus. Personal jurisdiction should be a big part of the motions to dismiss that are due November 14. Choice of law doctrine, the actual merits, and the arbitration clause in Chess.com’s Terms of Service should also feature in the motions, but I’ll leave that for a later article, or as an exercise for the reader.

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js3hp@virginia.edu

[1] I am a mere law student, so take this analysis with a grain of salt.

[2] 571 U.S. 117, 138–39 (2014).

[3] Lakin v. Prudential Sec., Inc., 348 F.3d 704, 710–13 (8th Cir. 2003) (citing Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc., 952 F. Supp. 1119, 1124 (W.D. Pa. 1997)).

[4] Johnson v. Arden, 614 F.3d 785, 795 (8th Cir. 2010).

[5] Id. at 796.

[6] Id. Yes, this is a real case.

NBA Player Kyrie Irving Promotes an Antisemitic Movie

Jack Brown ‘23
Sports Editor


On October 27, NBA superstar Kyrie Irving tweeted a link to Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America. This 2018 movie, based on a book of the same name, claims to uncover “the true ethnicity of Abraham” and contains numerous antisemitic conspiracy theories, including references to the antisemitic work, “The Hidden Tyranny,” which opens with the line, “Most Jews do not like to admit it, but our god is Lucifer.”[1] The book that Hebrews to Negroes is based on goes even further, ascribing the beginning of racism against Black people to key Jewish texts, quoting the antisemitic hoax, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,[2] and claiming that “Jewish Slave ships brought our West African negro or Bantu ancestors to slave ports owned by [Jews].”

Irving is not a stranger to promoting controversial ideas. From implying that the Earth might be flat, to publicly refusing to get vaccinated, to sharing a video of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones talking about the existence of a “New World Order,” Irving has been known for his fringe beliefs off the court almost as much as for his skills on it. In most of his previous controversies, Irving was unapologetic for his actions and views.  This latest incident seems to continue this trend,  with with Irving tweeting on October 29, “I am an OMNIST[3] and I meant no disrespect to anyone’s religious beliefs. The ‘Anti-Semitic’ label that is being pushed on me is not justified and does not reflect the reality or truth I live in every day. I embrace and want to learn from all walks of life and religions.”

Later that day, at a post-game press conference, Irving was asked about both the video of Alex Jones he had shared six weeks prior and Hebrews to Negroes. During his exchanges with reporters, Irving took issue with the idea that he was promoting the book by putting it up on his Twitter and Instagram, stating that while he did not at all support Alex Jones’s actions surrounding Sandy Hook, he agreed with the substance of the Jones video that he posted. When asked what his thoughts were on his team’s owner condemning his sharing of the movie, Irving responded, “[O]ut of all the judgment that people got from me posting . . . without talking to me . . . I respect what Joe [Tsai] said, but there has a lot to do with the—not ego or pride of how proud I am to be an [sic] African heritage—but also to be living as a free Black man here in America, knowing the historical complexities for me to get here.”

Irving then continued by stating, “So, I’m not going to stand down on anything that I believe in. I’m only going to get stronger because I’m not alone. I have a whole army around me.”

The promotion of antisemitic material by Kyrie Irving is not an isolated incident. Earlier this month, Kanye West tweeted, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con [sic] 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” 2021 had 2,717 reported incidents of antisemitic behavior, the highest number of incidents recorded by the Anti-Defamation League in the last forty years. Since 2016, the ADL has measured a consistent increase in antisemitic incidents, which had been declining over the preceding fifteen years.[4]

While the rise in antisemitic events does not have only one cause, rhetoric by high-profile figures like Kyrie Irving and Kanye West is certain to exacerbate the problem. The two possess massive audiences and have cultivated very dedicated online followings, who can be found defending Irving and West’s views all over social media. Social scientists have long agreed that for attacks to happen against an entire class of people, there first needs to be a campaign of hateful misinformation to prime populations, moving them towards violence.[5] In Germany, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and other sites of genocide throughout human history, spokespeople of hatred have always preceded the beginning of the physical violence.

Whether or not Irving’s tweets were sent with knowledge of the part they could play in normalizing violence against Jewish people, the fact remains that this behavior needs to be forcefully rebuked. While Irving sees no issue with sharing the movie—responding to a question regarding whether he understood that many saw the movie as antisemitic with, “It’s on Amazon, a public platform. Whether you want to go watch it or not is up to you”—sharing this movie with over ten million people is not an action that should be minimized. The responsibility for promoting those ideas to the public falls on him and him alone.[6]

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jwb4bb@virginia.edu

[1] “The Hidden Tyranny” is a booklet, published in 1978, that has become a staple of antisemitic literature due to its purported interview with a Jewish American, Harold Wallace Rosenthal, where Rosenthal admits to there being a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. This interview did not happen, with even Tom Metzger, founder of the White Aryan Resistance, admitting that the entire meeting was fabricated.

[2] “Using control of our money and the Mass Media, the European Jews gained control of our thinking.”

[3] Definition of omnist: “one that believes in all religions.”

[4] William Brangham & Rachel Wellford, PBS Newshour, Antisemitic incidents hit a record high in 2021. What’s behind the rise in hate? (Apr. 29, 2022).

[5] Alison Des Forges, “Leave None to Tell the Story”: Genocide in Rwanda (Human Rights Watch, 1999).

[6] There is an interesting discussion to be had about the role tech companies play by hosting content like Hebrews to Negroes. That is outside the scope of this article.

Over the Corn Wall

Darius Adel '24
Staff Editor


While Halloween has come and gone, autumn is still in full swing. The leaves are falling, fuzzy sweaters are coming out of the closet, and the threat of outlining is looming. Before you latch onto that last point, I think you should enjoy the season to its fullest, and that means going to a corn maze.

My personal favorite is the Blue Ridge Mountain Maze. It’s a relatively close drive from Charlottesville, and you can tackle the maze at night. Trying to navigate a giant maze in the dark can be a bit scary, but that’s half the fun. Take some friends with you and make a night of it. If you’re feeling competitive, you can race each other to the end of the maze, but personally, I like making the whole thing a group effort.

Last time my friends and I tackled the maze, I brought a little souvenir home with me. I found an ear of corn near the exit that had fallen off its stalk. Instead of leaving it to the corn goblins, I took that puppy home. Channeling my newly-acquired Virginia energy, I decided to plant some of the kernels and see if they would grow.

I had never grown corn before, and in case you haven’t either, I’ll give you a tip: Don’t plant corn in November. As a spoiled Californian, my instinct is to plant things wherever and whenever. Virginia’s first true frost, which came a week after my sowing, killed my corn sprout immediately. Luckily, I was able to replant some kernels I saved this last summer, and they have grown beautifully. However, that early corn death led me to ask the question, “What can I plant and grow in mid-November?”

Charlottesville is in USDA Hardiness Zone 7a, which is a category of plant hardiness defined by our general climate conditions. Basically, our zone dictates what plants we can grow and when. While avocado and tomato plants may be out of the question during a Virginian November, we still got a lot of options. Are you looking for a superfood to keep you healthy over the holiday season? Kale is a great option. It is very cold-resistant and grows fast enough that you may be able to harvest some before the end of finals. An old wizened shamaness on the Appalachian Trail even told me that the frost makes the leaves even sweeter.

Not a health nut but want a vegetable that delivers flavor? Garlic is your best bet. In fact, this is basically the perfect time to plant the vampire bane. The fun part about growing garlic is you don’t need to buy seeds from a garden store (shout out to Fifth Season Gardening on Preston Avenue, next to the Dairy Market); you can just toss in some of those lil baby cloves you get when you buy a whole head of garlic. The amount of garlic you get from peeling them is simply not worth it, anyway. I usually plant them directly in the ground, but you can get them started by wrapping them in a wet cloth and waiting for roots to sprout.

Spinach may seem a bit boring, but if you plant it in November, like I did last year, you’ll have a huge harvest once the snow melts. I mostly just chucked the leaves into disgusting-looking smoothies, but maybe you’ll find a better use for them. Although I have never made them, Kronk Pepikrankenitz’s famous spinach puffs are supposedly pretty easy to make, as long as you don’t burn them.

There are a ton of other crops you can plant over the winter, like asparagus, beets, brussels sprouts, radishes, etc. I haven’t tried all these out in Charlottesville, but they are all snow resistant and should be fine in our 7a climate. Growing plants should be fun, so go on and experiment a bit. No one reading this article depends on a crop yield to survive, so who cares if you mess up?

Most of you don’t have a yard where you can grow plants. That’s okay; I got you. All the crops I mentioned above work great in planter pots. All besides corn, I suppose, since corn stalks have really deep roots. My friend Tristan Deering ’24 blessed me with that little tidbit. He’s not an elderly shamaness, but he’s close enough. You can have a horticultural wonderland on your tiny apartment balcony. All it takes to start is a container, some good soil, and seeds you can probably get for free.[1]

Law school has a nasty habit of making its students feel out of touch. People are likely to neglect their hobbies, lose touch with loved ones, and delve deep into the highly insular legal profession. So take every opportunity you can to go to that corn maze with your friends, touch some dirt, and start your own garden.

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dsa7st@virginia.edu

[1] Check out our local seed library at https://cvrl.net/seedlibrary/.