I am a millennial woman and a law student, so it should surprise no one that the lines of the movie “Legally Blonde” are permanently seared into my brain. In her Harvard Law admissions video, Elle Woods enthusiastically boasts that she is comfortable using legal jargon in everyday life. “I object!” she yells to a catcaller.

This particular scene popped into my head recently as I sat in my Evidence class taking notes on the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause, as one does at Michigan Law School. The professor was discussing the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that a witness’s “testimonial” statements against a criminal defendant were inadmissible absent an opportunity for the defendant to cross-examine that witness.