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You never forget your first bar (exam)
You never forget your first bar (exam)
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Tuesday marks the start of the two-day Maryland bar exam — and the 20th anniversary of when I took the test of minimum legal competence.
I remember a two-part essay question from that July 1992 exam:
The fact pattern involved “a warrantless search of a mobile home.”
The examiners instructed me to make my best prosecution argument as to why the search should be deemed constitutional and the evidence seized admitted at trial.
They then told me to play defense counsel and argue that the search should be deemed invalid and the evidence suppressed.
I remember thinking to myself “mobile home, mobile home” when the answers hit me:
As the prosecutor, I argued that the search site was “mobile” (no reasonable expectation of privacy in a car).
As the defense attorney, I argued that the site was a “home” (must have a warrant in the absence of an exigent circumstance).
Are there any Maryland attorneys out there who remember (and care to share) a question from their bar exam? Please comment below.
