If “fair” means every person in the United States is represented, and every representative has voting power, then we definitely currently do not have that. To supplement the fact that none of the U.S. territories or D.C. have voting representation in Congress at all, Pew Research has reported that “The U.S. House of Representatives has one voting member for every 747,000 or so Americans”. This is because the number of House seats has been capped at 435, a result of the Apportionment Act of 1911. There is a way to make Congressional apportionment in the house “fair”. Making D.C. and the territories into states and giving them voting representation in Congress would effectively give a voice to those citizens who currently do not have one. This could have been done by the Congressional Appointment Amendment, originally proposed in 1789, however, it was not ratified by all of the states and remains that way. However, as the U.S. House of Representative states, “over the last century, congressional districts have more than tripled in size—from an average of roughly 212,000 inhabitants after the 1910 Census to about 710,000 inhabitants following the 2010 Census”. It would be most beneficial to expand the number of seats in the House, however, the constraints associated with the number of seats added, including money and space, could make that impractical.

When we first got to the Ohio Supreme Court, I was surprised by how unassuming the entrance was. I expected more grandeur, but the inside definitely looks like somewhere the Ohio Supreme Court would be convened. I was disappointed that we weren’t going to be able to see the court convene live because of the upcoming elections. Every election year the court stops hearing new cases months in advance in case one or more of the judges is replaced and a case runs long. The risk they won’t be there to see the case through is too great. So instead, we watched a previous case on tape. The ruling came down to the definition of what a “road” actually was, and whether or not it included the “berm” as part of what caused the fatal accident that killed a teenage girl. I was intrigued, but not really surprised, that the ruling of such cases comes down to such a trivial portion of text that was ironically rewritten in order to provide more clarity. As I watched, I wondered what would have happened it even one word had been changed. Would it have changed the conversation? Would the case have even made it to the Ohio Supreme Court? I was also surprised by the lack of people in the courtroom. I suppose since they were just opening statements it would have been expected, but I was thinking that at least some of the rows would be filled with family members or press et cetera. Overall it was a cool experience, but personally, I preferred our trip to the country courthouse.

Justice Kennedy’s presentation on Tuesday night was really interesting, however. I was really surprised by her public speaking ability; I don’t consider judges real “politicians”, so I didn’t really expect her to talk like one. Her speech was very inspirational though, and I really admired how she gave examples in her life as to how she overcame challenges she had to face while getting to where she wanted to be in her career. She also admitted she made some mistakes and doubted herself a lot on the way to where she is now, but she made it regardless. Some of the problems I face being in college now is not knowing what I want to do and thinking that some of my goals are unreachable. I also don’t like to let myself make mistakes, even though I know they aren’t always bad.  It was really comforting to hear that you can start out in a field completely unrelated from where you’ll end up and still be satisfied with your life. Her speech really helped me think about what I want to accomplish with my life and how I want to get there, but now I know it’s okay to make mistakes/ choose a path that may not necessarily be my first choice.

I interviewed Todd Borgerson for my Mentor Profile. Todd is a 2nd year PSL student, but he is also involved in USG and in training to be a tour guide for the university. One of his favorite traditions is the Gateway Film Center’s “Groundhog Day” marathon. It entails watching Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day” for 24 hours straight in order to win movie tickets for a year. He wants to take the whole mentor group in February. His favorite thing about PSL is the 50-foot long banana split, and he became a mentor this year because he wanted to help 1st-year students in their transition to college and into PSL.