Blogger Went a-Courtin'

I finally got around to visiting a trial-in-progress this week.

It was the first time I had so much as set foot in the spanking new Richard Sheppard Arnold Federal Courthouse. It's a thing of beauty, inside and out (once you get past the airport-style security, complete with shoe removal). I have a professor who is fond of saying that courtrooms should be designed to invoke a sense of, "My God, something important is going to happen here." Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, nothing particularly important seemed to be happening there when I visited. I sat in on about ninety minutes of testimony from a state department of education official about monitoring and compliance procedures. It was not exactly the stuff of Law and Order, but I was struck by how closely the real thing resembles the mock trials I've participated in at school. I'll have to go back when something with a little drama is being litigated.