Ruling on DOMA

A few days ago the SCOTUS announced its ruling on Windsor v. United States. The following is excerpted from the Court's major opinion, "DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the liberty of the person pro- tected by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution." "The liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause contains within it the prohibition against denying to any person the equal protection of the laws." However, if you carefully read through the entire opinion, you will see that the major opinion discusses a lot of aspects that we normally wouldn't even consider. The topics discussed range from minor facts or conventions derived from the country's tradition to the possible effect of the ruling to the current situation. The ruling itself is not simply based on the text of the constitution, but the history in which the constitution has been applied. Although we've gone through this concept in class, it's still amazing to be able to witness a major case like this to be decided in this manner.

SAT result

I just saw my June SAT result and I am in a really weird situation right now in which I don't know what I should feel about it. My score is within the range of my expectation, but I feel that it could have been better, especially because I got lucky on the writing section and still got an expected score. And then now I am wondering why I would care so much about this SAT score. I have been told that it would be a really important component of my college application, yet I also question the reason behind. Why would the colleges care about some minor differences in terms of the SAT scores among their applicants. I have heard that colleges would also value your extracurricular activities and weigh them almost as equal as your standardized test. Yet people around me have told me the otherwise. Now I am aware that I am worried about my college application partially because of a lack of direction. I do not know what I should do, or what I can do to most effectively use my time to help my credentials. And now I am also asking myself why a college acceptance would be able to affect me so much to a degree that almost all of my choices have to do with it.