March 10th, 2010
Property of ABC News
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard the McDonald v Chicago case, in which the plaintiffs argued to lift the handgun ban the city of Chicago placed on its residents back in 1982. This case brings to light two countering sides to the debate – those that believe the handgun ban is necessary to further combat Chicago’s rampant violence and those that believe that owning a handgun within the city limits is their right as American citizens. The debate also calls into question the Second Amendment, which protects the right to keep and bear arms, and specifically brings to light the issue of whether or not state and local governments have the right to establish bans when the federal government doesn’t include such restrictions.
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Tags: Gun Control, McDonald v Chicago, Second Amendment
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March 4th, 2010
Courtsey of: kopiwrite.com
Does this sound familiar to you? You have a 10 page paper due at 8am. It’s currently 4:35am…and you’re nowhere close to being finished. To make matters worse, you’ve had 18 cups of coffee over the course of 3 hours. At this point, your judgment is slightly impaired and you start to think, “If I just cut and paste THIS paragraph, no one will know, right?”
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Tags: Copyright Law, Entertainment Law, Plagiarism
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March 3rd, 2010
Courtesy of: www.dantynan.com
I’m a fan of Google. A HUGE fan. For instance, Gmail and Gchat have both saved my life, and couple of yours, in the past. In my eyes, Google = best. However, when I heard the hype surrounding Google Buzz, I couldn’t help but think that Buzz might actually be a disaster.
My fears were actually confirmed when I received messages that were similar to this:
“Your high school Spanish teacher is now following you on Buzz!”
Like, excuse me? No.
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Tags: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Federal Trade Commission, Google Buzz, Privacy
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March 2nd, 2010
Ahh, Facebook. During the many hours I spend on Facebook, I sometimes come across things I really shouldn’t see. For instance, there’s no need for me to see personal arguments play out on Facebook in angry status updates specifically directed to someone, and then retaliatory comments upon that.
At times, my friends have confided in me about hurt feelings when their friend(s) don’t share the same Facebook etiquette as they do — like when someone has supciously de-friended them or refused to answer their messages. What I say to those friends is that Facebook is not a reflection of real life. Different Facebook users have different habits, so there’s no real way to normalize behavior into standard expectations for all.
That being said, one standard of expectation that can be applied to the virtual world of social media is to not break the law. Crimes committed on Facebook do result in real consequences.
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March 1st, 2010
There is a certain allure to the Hollywood sign. Looming over Los Angeles in the center of what many Angelinos think is Griffith Park, it is a monument to one of the States’ greatest and most illustrious industry: moviemaking.
From: LAist's 'therealquarrygirl' on Flickr
The 138-acre parcel of land to the west of the sign was purchased in the 1940s by Howard Hughes as a gift for his fiancée, Ginger Rogers, with plans to build an estate on the Peak. The plans fell apart, together with the relationship. But, Hughes, and later his estate held on to the land until 2002 when a Chicago real estate investment group purchased the land and secured rights to build luxury estates on the Peak. When the parcel was offered for sale in 2008 for $22 million, the Trust for Public Land got involved.
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Tags: Environmental Law, Hollywood Sign, Land Trust
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February 25th, 2010
Imagine you are sitting in your doctor’s office following an extensive battery of medical tests. You fear the worst. And, your fears are confirmed when your doctor breaks the news that you have cancer. But, he cautions you not to be despondent. There is hope: genetic testing to determine if you carry mutations that increase your risk of other related cancers which will take the guess work out of designing an appropriate treatment plan.
Now imagine that you are back in your doctor’s office several days later. The blood tests that your doctor had submitted to a biotechnology company that patented a sequencing test for the cancer-related mutation whose presence you are attempting to discover were not processed. The biotech company did not accept your insurance and you, as a person of limited means, could not come up with the $4,000 to have the test performed. A cheaper test does not exist because the biotech company holds an exclusive patent to the genes as well as the process for isolating the relevant genes. With the test, you and your doctors would have the knowledge to better assess your best treatment options. Without it, you and your doctors are guessing.
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Tags: Cancer, Health, Human Genome Project, Patent Law
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February 23rd, 2010
In September, 2009, Adrienne discussed the possibilities for the government’s help in addressing the ravages of a natural disaster. At that time, we hoped to hear from our readers with their thoughts on the feasibility of a national natural disaster insurance program. Then, we considered whether individuals felt comfortable remaining uninsured when faced with natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrine and the almost seasonal wildfires spurred by the Santa Ana winds. What level of risk do you deem acceptable? Then, we didn’t stop to envision the possibility that insurers would simply back out of certain catastrophe coverage markets. Yet, that is just what is happening in Florida, right now.
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Times files | 1998
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Tags: Florida, Insurance Coverage, Natural Disasters, Real Estate Law, State Farm Insurance
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February 22nd, 2010
Thurgood Mashall - Attorney for Brown v. Board of Education case and the first African-American appointed to the Supreme Court.
Black History Month provides our country with the excellent opportunity to recognize those that tirelessly worked to ensure a better future for generations to come. As an African American with an interest in law, this month provides me with the opportunity to reflect upon just how far our country has legislatively come to inclusively encompass “liberty and justice for all.”
- 1654-1865: Slavery, which is forced labor where people are considered to be property of others, was a legal institution within the boundaries of much of the present United States.
- September 22, 1862: President Abraham Lincoln issued the Executive Order, as Commander in Chief, of the Emancipation Proclamation, in which its first executive order was to declare freedom of all slaves in all states.
- January 1, 1863: The second executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation specifically named 10 states that were to abolish slavery.
Immediately following the Civil War, the Reconstruction Amendments were adopted between 1865 and 1870 to abolish slavery (13th Amendment), broadly define citizenship (14th Amendment, which overruled the Dred Scott v. Sanford ruling of 1857 that excluded slaves and their descendants from Constitutional rights), and grant voting rights regardless of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (15th Amendment).
Although slavery took its rightful place as a part of American history, no longer revealing the hypocrisy of a nation that declared its independence from the British Empire in 1776 by stating “all men are created equal,” changing the mindsets and behavior of people proved to be a challenging feat unto itself.
Tags: Black History Month, Civil Rights, Legislation
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February 17th, 2010
Back in September of 2009, we wrote about Bank of America’s legal troubles due to paying out $3.6 billion in bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees before the buy out. As an update, Bank of America’s Chief Operating Officer, Kenneth Lewis, was sued by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and the bank agreed to pay $150 million to settle.
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Tags: Bank of America, Business Law, Criminal Law
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February 16th, 2010
Michael Jackson. Brittany Murphy. Heath Ledger.
Three celebrities whose recent deaths were the result of, or incidental to, their use of prescription drugs. But the problem that their deaths signal is widespread. Just last week, my local news outlet reported on a high school principal who contacted his students’ parents to warn them of the risks from prescription drug intoxication following incidents of students sent to the ER after overdosing on prescription meds.
And, now, came the news that Michael Jackson’s personal physician, cardiologist Conrad Murray, has been charged in the King of Pop’s death.
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Tags: Criminal Law, Dr. Conrad Murray, Entertainment Law, Michael Jackson, The Model Penal Code
Posted in Criminal Law, Dr. Conrad Murray, Entertainment Law, Michael Jackson, The Model Penal Code | 1 Comment »
