were sitting on the couch studying. Carol knew the outside key was hidden on top of the door molding. They let themselves into the apartment and the fridge. There were several empty beer bottles on the end table next to the couch.
"Why do you get bottled beer?" Juan quizzed Mac.
"I was expecting your first question to be about Gross vs. the Medina Corporation." Mac answered.
"It's something about tasting the cans." Jimmy offered. "Actually, I'm becoming a believer."
Carol and Juan went back to their reading. They apparently wanted to finish something important.
Juan Oneca was a handsome, proud Puerto Rican. The dark complexion on his five foot ten inch tall frame made him stand out in crowds. His looks aside, Juan embraced the intelligential route as a youngster. Most of the kids in his neighborhood perused sports or drugs or both. Juan chose books. He learned early in his education that being number one in his class opened the scholarship money doors. Even so, he would owe nearly four hundred thousand dollars to various lending institutions after graduating from law school.
Juan competed for the top spot in his class throughout his schooling. Law school was no different. He felt like he had to study 24/7. Even in these study sessions, he would reread everything while the others took breaks. In general, he acted as if he was commanding his mind to memorize everything.
Life’s reality for Juan rested with the desire to help his family. His mother and six brothers lived in poverty in Puerto Rico. He was their hope for a better life. He regularly sent them whatever money he could spare.
Carol Finley was a perpetual motion, self-starter that keeps life in perspective. Orphaned at eight years old, she begged, borrowed or stole most of what she could to get through elementary school.
During her teens, Carol, grew into her big-boned frame to end up five foot, nine inches tall. That's when she met Father White, a priest at Saint Rita's Catholic Church.
Father White recognized her talent for learning. He found a donor who scholarshipped her education through St. Mary's Catholic High School.
She financed her college and law school education through federal and private student loans. Upon graduation from law school, she will have accumulated close to a half a million dollars in debt.
She respected Juan’s relentless chase for academic excellence. Juan respected Carol’s tough-minded spirit. Together they made a good sounding board for studying with Mac and Jimmy.
Carol looked in Juan’s direction. “What's the relevance of Brown vs. the Board of Education?”
Jimmy and Mac took seats opposite Juan and Carol. They looked at each other and smiled. Jimmy popped off, “We’ve arrived just in time to save you guys.”
Earlier at dinner, they had just discussed this and related cases over Chinese noodles. Jimmy did a little drum roll motion with his hands and pointed squarely at Mac as if a spotlight suddenly shined on him.
Mac accommodated the request. “The 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education was a landmark case affecting public education. It declared that any state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students are unconstitutional.”
Jimmy continued. “The Brown decision overturned the separate but equal doctrine established in 1896 by the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision.”
“Thank you, boys. Are they right, Juan?” Carol asked.
Juan sitting at the other end of the couch appeared as comfortable as a bird resting on the ground in the shade. He looked up giving Mac and Jimmy the good-job gaze. “They’re right on.”
Jimmy beamed with confidence. “Are you guys ready for a game of Place that Case?” A by-product of their eating out together, ‘Place that Case’ was a game they made up as a study group. At times they became so vocal, those dining around them at King Ling or Chucks would join in the fun even though they were clueless about the facts.
‘Place the Case’ game involves relating the place they were at in the present time with cases that may have affected this specific place. There were no legal boundaries. Any logical connection was considered permissible.
Mac remembered several cases he stumped Jimmy with at dinner tonight. Being in a sort of Eurasian fantasyland stirred his interest in anything Asian including case law. The night before, he had glanced over several cases involving Asians in the United States. He was ready to spring some of them on Juan and Carol.
Mac smiled at them with a ‘gotcha look’. “Lum v. Rice” he said. Jimmy recalled their dinner conversation and added, “Think Asian!”
Juan blinked his eyes. "Da. How can you not think Asian with a Chinese name like Lum and the word, rice."
Carol responded before Juan finished his thought. She was impulsive and born conversation-ready. “Lum attempted to have the Japanese classified as a white race."
“Same time period but that’s the wrong case. You’re thinking of a 1922 case, Takao Ozawa v. United States.”
Juan entered the conversation. “Lum v. Rice is a 1927 Supreme Court case. This decision supported segregation. The case held that a Chinese child could be excluded from whites in public schools. That’s Mississippi for you. They had enough blacks to build separate schools but not enough Chinese. The final disposition required all non-whites, including Chinese, had to go to the black schools.”
Juan felt momentarily pleased with himself. And before looking at the book again, he said, “Plyler v. Doe.”
Carol’s back straightened. “That’s another education case.”
Before she could finish, Jimmy exclaimed. “That was a 1982 landmark Supreme Court decision. In Plyler v. Doe, the Court ruled that children of illegal aliens have the constitutional right to a free and appropriate public education.”
“That’s exactly what I was going to say,” Carol said glaring at Jimmy.
Mac cut in, “Plyler v. Doe is one of the reasons California’s bankrupt. Illegals are trying to take the state back and we are teaching them how to do it!”
“Tonight is study night,” said Jimmy. “Let’s leave the politics for another time.”
Mac, the idealist, has a passion for fairness and equal enforcement of the law. The blindfolded statue of lady law symbolizes Mac’s passion. He reasoned the blindfold keeps lady justice from showing prejudice. Being on the right side of the law was not a matter of race, social standing or financial status in Mac’s opinion.
“Ok, but you know what the illegals are doing to this state and the country is not fair to honest, hard working, tax-paying citizens. It’s not even fair for those entering this country legally.”
Juan looked up. “You want a story about fairness. Did you know at the turn of this century, lynching was common place in the south? Few people know that Jews were hung with regularity along with Blacks. Some folks were actually entertained by the scene. Local lynching spots came complete with benches and refreshments. The spectators would eat while a person was beaten then hung by the neck. Where’s the fairness?”
“There was no justice for Blacks, and I guess, Jews either. Today, there is no justice for the tax-paying, U.S. citizen,”
