Senior Government Classes Visits U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

On November 4, the senior class visited the United States Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The 9th Circuit is the largest and most active of the 12 regional Courts of Appeals and is housed in the historic Federal building on 7th and Mission. The building was built in 1905 and survived the 1906 earthquake and fires. Our visit was hosted by Kathleen Butterfield, an attorney at the Court. The visit included a tour of the building and courtrooms, designed in an impressive ornate style intended to impress visitors with the importance and gravity of the business conducted there. The class sat in on the oral arguments for three cases, the most intriguing of which presented the issue of whether the police are required to get a search warrant before downloading evidence from a suspect’s computer when the suspect is sharing that evidence on LimeWire. The class had read and discussed the case beforehand and observing the lawyers argue the case was great and gave the class pointers on how to argue their own cases in the upcoming TMS Moot Court. The highlight of the tour was sitting down after the hearing with the three judges on the panel for a question and answer session.