Trying to be David Letterman

Without further ado, I now provide my "Top Ten List of Cool Moments from my DC Day." Though I could probably make a list of about 100 cool moments, here are 10 that still linger in my mind from spending Monday hanging out around the US Supreme Court and hearing the arguments in Booker and Fanfan.

10. Meeting fellow bloggers Tom Goldstein of SCOTUS Blog and Jason Hernandez of the Blakely Blog.

9. Interacting with a number of US Sentencing Commissioners (who were still willing to talk to me despite my frequent criticisms of their work post-Blakely).

8. Discovering that the barbeque wings in the Supreme Court snack bar are quite good.

7. Feeling the palpable excitement in the courtroom when the Justices took the bench (exactly on time).

6. Watching Acting SG Paul Clement raise oral argument to an art form (and also seeing that Blakely uber-genius Deputy SG Michael Dreeben shares my hair line).

5. Hearing Justice O'Connor make a scoffing remark about Judge Martin's Bizarro amicus brief.

4. Receiving a gift of (overpriced) golf balls with justice scales from the Supreme Court gift shop.

3. Having a chance to talk in person with many superstar members of the media throughout the day and being consistently impressed with how well they all understood the issues.

2. Hearing the Justices ask many good, fair, hard questions to all the advocates.

1. Leaving the courtroom with a positive feeling that the High Court would do the right thing.