Our last day in Washington D.C. was upon us. I put on my black suit one last time. Adjusted my tie in the mirror, hey, I was getting good at this tie thing. I was getting ready for a memorable day. I was going to meet a Supreme Court Justice, one of the most powerful people in the world.
Walking around the capital area on our trip, we walked by the Supreme Court building a few times. The long, white columns out front make it a very prominent building. It was like nothing compared to actually walking up the steps, walking through security and delving inside.
Our class was escorted through another security checkpoint and into a private room. It was a very formal room, podium up front and paintings lined the walls. We were seated, all looking around the room, taking it all in. Our class had developed a series of questions for Justice Scalia, we all were nervously re-reading our questions and talking quietly amongst ourselves. Upon waiting another five minutes, we all heard the footsteps coming down the hall towards us. He’s here. We all quickly stood and awaited the Justice.
The room was quiet, nobody in our class dared utter a sound. As Justice Scalia walked in the room, it was as if the breath was sucked out of my body. He was shorter than I imagined, but still the air of confidence preceded him. He walked up to the podium, took a quick look at our class, and started talking.
It essentially was a question and answer session for the next hour. We could not talk about specific ongoing cases, but we could talk about historic ones. I was immersed in the conversation, it was such a surreal moment. Before we knew it, our time was up. Justice Scalia wrapped up his thoughts, and we took a group photo with him, and he was on his way.
Walking out of the Justice Building, we all were on top of the world. What a great experience! We got to dig into the mind of a Supreme Court Justice, not something this rancher from Shasta County gets to do on a daily basis. We were back to the hotel with big smiles on our faces, picked up our luggage and then off to Reagan National Airport to catch an evening flight out.
Boston here we come!
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