'California Western 1L, you have been called to greatness. Arise!'

I was called on today by professor Lynch. He is a great professor and for whatever reason I ended up losing my confidence a little bit in class. The results were embarrassing but I was so bewildered by what I said that the humor of it didn't sink in until after I was out of the classroom.

We were discussing defamation. He asked me to give a hypothetical situation in which a person could find themselves in criminal and civil court. I read my hypothetical. It satisfied all the elements of defamation and all the elements of a statute that was given. Professor Lynch then started asking me questions. This is where things went wrong.

He asked about when a DA would choose to prosecute a criminal defamation case. I gave an answer and he explained how public interest relates to prosecutorial discretion and times where it would be inappropriate to prosecute. This is where my brain and the words coming out of my mouth started to disconnect.

My brain: Ok, so the small things shouldn't be pursued in court because they're expensive and really tear apart human relations but the bigger things should be prosecuted if there is public interest or its harmed someone... I think thats right.

Professor: Say you have a situation where Bill and Bob are at a bowling ally and Bill turns to another member of the bowling team and says 'Bob is a terrible person and a serial rapist.' Would you prosecute?

My brain: Thats a big deal. Thats serial rape. Thats a lot of raping. No one is going to talk to poor Bob again after this. Prosecute.

Me: I wouldn't prosecute.

My brain: Wait. What? NOOO! YOU FOOL!

Professor: You're meaning to tell me that serial rape isn't that bad? Can you think of anything worse than serial rape?

My brain: OK. He is letting you bail yourself out here. Agree with him and say that you would prosecute.

Me: Uhhh... Serial murder?

My brain: Whats wrong with you?

Anyway, tomorrow is a new day and I'm laughing about for whatever reason I boxed myself into a corner where serial rape wasn't all that bad. Despite having a handle on the reading and the concepts I have never managed to escape an exchange where I've been called on without having my foot served up for me on a silver platter so that I could place it firmly in my mouth.