After
spending
the
last
36
hours
getting
walloped
by
a
historic
snow
storm
—
one
some
meteorologists
dubbed
a
“Snowicane”
—
the
New
York
Board
of
Law
Examiners
responded
with
all
the
compassion
and
common
sense
of
a
parking
meter.
Have
your
ass
in
its
seat
this
morning,
or
be
branded
as
“withdrawn”
from
the
exam.
Over
10,000
flights
have
been
canceled
since
Sunday,
as
one
of
the
New
York
airports
reported
over
27
inches
of
snow,
and
clearing
the
backlog
has
some
travelers
waiting
until
the
end
of
the
week
for
a
flight.
Ground
transportation
wasn’t
much
better
with
New
York
City
imposing
a
travel
ban
during
the
height
of
the
storm.
And
while
NYC
has
cleared
major
thoroughfares,
roads
across
the
region
remain,
as
the
National
Weather
Service
helpfully
noted,
“nearly
impossible”
to
navigate.
In
response,
the
NY
Board
of
Law
Examiners
told
bar
applicants
to
figure
it
out
or
get
bent.
According
to
the
ABA
Journal,
the
Board’s
information
number
delivered
the
following
message
to
applicants
who
might
not
be
able
to,
you
know,
traverse
a
historic
blizzard
to
reach
their
testing
center
this
morning:
Failure
to
show
up
at
the
exam
will
not
prevent
you
from
reapplying
for
a
future
administration
of
the
bar
exam
in
New
York
unless
you
have
three
or
more
withdrawals
and
absences,
in
which
case
you
will
need
to
petition
the
board
for
permission
to
reapply.
“Withdrawn,”
because
you
made
the
deeply
personal
choice
not
to
risk
your
life
on
black
ice
at
6
a.m.
to
wax
philosophic
about
the
Rule
Against
Perpetuities.
See,
the
Board
wants
you
to
know
that
they
aren’t
punishing
you…
you’re
punishing
yourself
by
not
having
the
foresight
to
live
closer
to
a
testing
center.
Do
you
know
how
bad
it
was
out
there?
DoorDash
canceled
service,
and
their
motto
is:
Neither
rain
nor
gloom
of
night
stays
these
couriers
from
providing
your
burrito
a
personal
limousine.
Also,
the
bar
exam
message
says
nothing
about
refunds
because
of
course
it
doesn’t.
Without
downplaying
how
much
this
sucks
for
anyone
trying
to
get
to
New
York,
what
makes
this
policy
so
reckless
is
that
law
school
graduates
looking
to
take
the
bar
are
exactly
the
kind
of
people
who
will
risk
a
drive
on
treacherous
roads
to
keep
their
jobs.
And
it’s
not
just
New
York
City.
The
Long
Island
location
got
hammered
with
over
15
inches
and
many
folks
heading
to
the
Albany
location
travel
up
from
NYC,
having
only
been
relegated
to
the
capital
by
virtue
of
having
attended
a
non-NY
law
school
before
moving
to
NYC
to
begin
their
careers.
Back
in
2013,
Missouri’s
Board
of
Law
Examiners
forced
applicants
into
a
blizzard
and
the
power
went
out
during
the
exam.
You’d
think
the
legal
profession
might
have
developed
some
institutional
memory
about
this
kind
of
thing.
But
—
and
I
cannot
stress
this
enough
—
once
you
accept
the
premise
that
the
bar
exam
is
a
good
idea
in
the
first
place,
you’ve
already
signaled
that
all
that
matters
is
performative
hardship.
Remember
how
the
various
state
bars
had
to
be
dragged
kicking
and
screaming
into
acknowledging
that
they
might
not
be
able
to
ram
hundreds
of
applicants
into
a
room
during
a
deadly
pandemic?
During
COVID,
bar
examiners
hinted
at
denying
licenses
to
anyone
who
publicly
criticized
them
for
forcing
applicants
to
subject
themselves
to
an
in-person
petri
dish.
The
bar
exam
is
always
form
over
substance,
but
it
takes
emergencies
like
these
to
distill
how
rotten
that
obsession
becomes.
If
the
goal
was
really
to
test
minimum
competence,
there
are
multiple
avenues
to
make
that
happen.
But
since
the
goal
is
actually
the
uncritical
devotion
to
a
gatekeeping
mechanism
of
dubious
value,
then
of
course
a
licensing
authority
cannot
even
conceive
of
a
world
involving
reasonable
delays
or
makeups
or
any
other
accommodations.
The
test
that
matters
to
them
is
getting
bodies
in
the
room
that
they
want
you
to
be
in,
full
stop.
These
applicants
spent
months
studying,
paid
their
application
fees,
and
many
went
to
great
lengths
to
try
to
travel
from
out
of
state.
And
the
bar
examiner
position
is
essentially,
fuck
them
kids.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
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in
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Joe
also
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Managing
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Search.