A collection of law clerks and Judge George Caram Steeh huddled around a radio and computer the morning of June 28, in anxious anticipation of what might broadcast from the speakers or appear on the screen.

It wasn’t a regular morning at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. It was the day the U.S. Supreme Court was issuing its ruling regarding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. A year and a half prior, Steeh had ruled on many of the same topics when he issued the first opinion of several cases challenging the act.

When the office caught word of the upholding, federal law clerk Jill Ringel Hart ’92 gave a high-five to Steeh, her boss of 15 years.

Ringel Hart has been at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan as a career clerk for 19 years and says it’s “the best job in the entire world.”

Matthew Crall ’02 has been prosecuting criminals for nearly a decade in his hometown of Bucyrus, Ohio, nestled in one of the state’s worst areas for drug-related problems: Crawford County.

Crall, law director and city prosecutor in Bucyrus, is looking to repair the county’s reputation by running for Crawford County prosecutor. The drug crisis, Crall said, is the top issue of his platform.

“People are dying. It doesn't get much more serious than that,” he said. “The epidemic is hitting people from all walks of life.”