Author: Abigail Thomas (Page 3 of 4)

October 19, 2019

It was a pretty temperate day, neither too warm nor too frigid. I took off from my house at almost 5:00am to run 20 minutes for the train to the ferry. I finally arrived at CityTech at about 7:15am. Although, It would be another 5 hours before we would reach Albany at approximately 12:15pm. I spent the bus ride there riding with three other aspiring women. Once we arrived at Albany and had a quick lunch it was time to proceed to court.

We arrived at the courthouse somewhere around 1:40pm. Check-in through security was pretty routine for a government building. I was warned not to open up my gummy bears in the court room. Darn! All I need is to get sanctioned for contempt of gelatin. Inside the building reeked of tradition, order, and formality. From the mural on the central ceiling to the filigree woodwork in the court room. I wish I had not worn my hearing aids all through the ride, as prolonged usage weakens their effectiveness. Something that precluded my participation in the conversations Latasha-Nicole and Marlo would have with Mr. Spencer (court of appeals public information person) and Officer Shevlin before the trial. We had managed to get into the court room early thanks to Latasha-Nicole and Marlo and their effusive nature. They attracted the attention of Gary Spencer. Gary Spencer, the public information officer, after showing us in proceeded to give us a brief historical synopsis concerning the court, followed by a short lived Q&A session. It did not take long before picture taking and historical narrative led to 2:00pm. When the words “Hear ye, hear ye” ascended everyone to their feet and all the justices except Judge Fahey entered for the initial proceedings. He would later creep in as the appeal against PSC was convening. The attorneys from the first contestant, David Burke, were kept anxious by the continual inquisition by the judges. The first two trials were extremely long winded and technical. With a lack of excitement being replaced with legal verbosity.  The last appeal was certainly shorter and less verbose than the early combined appeals against PSC. But People versus Brown was certainly a match to see. Justices progressively leaned on both sides heavily. At one point you could have sworn it was a heavily contested game of tennis. With both sides posturing to get that one last shot over the net to break the tie.

After the court was finally adjourned, we went to tour the state capital building. I believe professor Espinosa’s intent was to have us witness our great state legislature in action. As we walked through the building we began to see more and more anti-choice protesters relaying signs against Cuomo’s late term abortion law. To which my thought was, “I have a bad feeling about this”.  We attempted to access the chamber through the second floor. Only to find the elevators kept bypassing it. I started voicing my thought that it could be intentional, that the protests could be blocking our access and the elevators weren’t stopping on that floor for that reason. We finally found out, through attempting to access the second floor by the stairs,  my assumptions or something relatively close to them, was indeed what was going on. After bopping around the capital building for an hour or so more. Appreciating the architecture and the informative historical displays, it was time to get back to Brooklyn. So we finally made our way back outside where the bus picked us up at around 5:00pm. I arrived back home at about 10:30pm…exhausted and cranky about having to get up again at 4am. Yet, somehow energized and fulfilled from the experience. I took in a lot this day, fostered some friendships, and learned a lot from people and the experience.   I think we all did. Good luck to everyone on the memorandum .

Abigail