Looking back at this again, actually the variable could be set to one of the following:

* `nil` if the initial assertion were not made or the assertion were to evaluate to false
* the instance of the `IllegalStateException` if the initial assertion were to evaluate to true

I changed the variable name to better reflect that the variable doesn't hold a boolean value and made the second assertion more explicitly validate that the variable holds an instance of an `IllegalStateException` as the condition for success.  Addressed in 5890907.