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Taking the bar exam is largely an exercise in managing anxiety. Yes, you’ve previously been tested on the material in question over the course of three years of law school. But, ack! The pressure of rote memorization on the MOST IMPORTANT TEST OF YOUR LIFE can be overwhelming.
It is a stressful experience in the most normal of times. Add in the unprecedented carnage of this current Supreme Court Term and ZOMG everyone FREAK OUT!
The First Amendment Lemon test? Buh-bye. Miranda warnings? Those are really more suggestions than anything else. The entirety of substantive due process jurisprudence? Those are about to be in the dustbin of history. Oh, and Heller does not mean what you thought it did. And that’s before the Court inevitably guts in EPA in the final case of the Term.
That’s a lot of band new information to learn.
But fear not, as the National Conference of Bar Examiners confirmed, none of it will be on July’s bar exam.
Examinees taking the NCBE-developed July 2022 MBE, MPT, and MEE will not be required to be familiar with this term’s US Supreme Court decisions.
Which makes a lot of sense — the bar exam, and the model answers — were written long before the cases came out. It’ll take a minute before legal academia comes to terms with exactly what it all means.
So, for right now, bar exam test takers can ignore the Supreme Court’s ravings. The hellscape will still be here when the exam is over.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
