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Election Day 2012 saw voter initiatives in several states on marijuana legalization. Colorado and Washington became the first US states to legalize the possession and sale of marijuana for recreational use on Tuesday in defiance of federal law, setting the stage for a showdown with the federal government. Medical marijuana measures were on the ballot in three other states. In Massachusetts, supporters issued a statement declaring victory for what they described as "the safest medical marijuana law in the country." Seventeen other states, plus the District of Columbia, already have medical marijuana laws on their books. In Arkansas, a measure that would have made it the first state in the South to legalize marijuana for medical purposes appeared was defeated. In Oregon, a measure to remove criminal penalties for personal possession and cultivation of recreational cannabis was also defeated.
A newly released Quinnipiac University poll shows that American voters favor the legalization of marijuana, 51% to 44%, with a substantial gender and age gap. The poll states that men support legalization 59% to 36%, but women are opposed 52% to 44%. The racial split is barely noticeable on this question with 50% of white voters and 57% of black voters backing legalization. Those who are 18 to 29 years old support legalization 67% to 29% while voters over age 65 are opposed 56% to 35% and those who 30 to 44 years old like the idea 58% to 39%, while voters 45 to 64 years old are divided 48% to 47%.
The Brooklyn Law School Library has on order a book by retired police officer Howard Rahtz, Drugs, Crime and Violence: From Trafficking to Treatment, which examines the history of drug abuse and provides a unique perspective on the drug war. It covers all aspects of the “war on drugs” to help readers become well-informed and capable of developing an educated reasonable conclusion. Chapters include Drugs, Crime and Violence -- The Illegal Drug Market -- Learning From the Past -- Policy Options -- An International Perspective -- Drug Abuse-The Damage Done -- Addiction: The Driving Force behind the Illegal Market -- Marijuana-The Cartel's Cash Cow -- From Trafficking to Treatment -- The Costs of Policy Paralysis -- A New Direction.
The Wall Street Journal article, Women Notch Progress - Females Now Constitute One-Third of Nation's Ranks of Doctors and Lawyers, reports that “"Women account for a third of the nation's lawyers and doctors, a major shift from a generation ago when those professions were occupied almost exclusively by men, new Census figures show. Women's share of jobs in the legal and medical fields climbed during the past decade even as their share of the overall workforce stalled at slightly less than half. Women held 33.4% of legal jobs—including lawyers, judges, magistrates and other judicial workers—in 2010, up from 29.2% in 2000. The share of female physicians and surgeons increased to 32.4% from 26.8% during that time. In 1970, women were 9.7% of the nation's doctors and just 4.9% of its lawyers, according to Census data." At Brooklyn Law School, the percentage of women law students is even greater as the 1,376 law students consist of 757 male students (55%) and 619 female students (45%).
An ABA article shows that statistics at BLS are consistent with law schools nationally but women's enrollment at law schools has been steadily declining since 2002, when women constituted about 49% of law students. ABA statistics show that women made up about 47 percent of all first-year law students for 2009 to 2010, and 45.9 percent of all law school graduates. The all-time high was in 1993, when women's enrollment bumped just above 50 percent. Figures for employment of new attorneys show the same downward trend as women make up 47 percent of first- and second-year associates, down from 48 percent in prior years. The 2011 Report of the Sixth Annual National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms by the National Association of Women Lawyers surveying the nation’s 200 largest law firms states that: “It may not be a huge change, but it suggests that the pipeline may be shrinking.”
Brooklyn Law School Library has added to its collection The Cybersleuth's Guide to the Internet: Conducting Effective Free Investigative & Legal Research on the Web by Carole A. Levitt and Mark E. Rosch (Call # KF242.A1 L48 2012), a 520 page book that shows how to be a cyber-detective and unearth information that was once only available to professional researchers from expensive, fee-based sources for free on the Internet on the Web. The book includes numerous examples based on real world research scenarios. This book can help investigators find information fast and free. For the beginning searcher, the book covers many overlooked features of Web browsers, the "mechanics" of navigating the Internet, and basic research strategies and tools. For "power searchers," the book covers advanced search strategies and tip and tricks for getting the most out of many of the sites.
Content includes: Introduction to the internet and web browsers -- Reliability and admissibility of information from the internet -- How to search the web: search engines and directories -- Other favorite search engines and meta-search sites -- Finding older versions of web pages that have been deleted or revised -- Free investigative research resources: to locate and background people -- Finding experts and verifying their credentials -- Locating and backgrounding attorneys, judges, and other legal professionals -- Pay investigative research databases -- Using the internet for substantive legal research -- Free online case law databases -- Free "member benefit to lawyers" online legal research databases: case law and more -- Cite checking cases -- Internet sites for governmental resources -- Dockets -- Finding legal web sites that are topic-, jurisdiction-, or format-specific -- How to cite resources on the internet.
The Brooklyn Law School Library latest New Books List contains The Passport in America: The History of a Document by Craig Robertson (Call #KF4794 .R63 2010). The 340 page book is the first history of the US passport and offers an account of how the passport came to the most reliable document to answer the question: who are you? Historically, the passport originated as an official letter of introduction addressed to foreign governments on behalf of American travelers. Prior to World War I, passports were not required to cross American borders, and while some people struggled to understand how a passport could accurately identify a person, others took advantage of this new document to advance claims for citizenship. From the strategic use of passport applications by freed slaves and a campaign to allow married women to get passports in their maiden names, to the "passport nuisance" of the 1920s and the contested addition of photographs and other identification technologies on the passport, the book sheds light on issues of individual and national identity in modern US history.
Interestingly, since 9/11, the difficulties in travel have not lessened the desire for travel as US Department of State statistics show that passport applications have almost doubled from 2001 when there were just over 7 million passports to almost 14 million this year. While the cost of a passport application is a relative bargain at $135, the US Department of State last year attempted to make the process more difficult with its proposal for a new Biographical Questionnaire for passport applicants. The proposed new Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers’ and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother’s address one year prior to your birth; any “religious ceremony” around the time of birth; and a variety of other information. The proposed form states that “failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application.” For more on the proposal, see the post at the Consumer Traveler blog. The US Passport Book and Passport Card for adults are valid for ten years. Passports for minors under age 16 are valid for five years. The US Passport is not just used for travel anymore. It serves as proof of citizenship and identity for important purposes such as work authorization and eligibility for many Federal benefits.
On the eve of World AIDS Day 2012, more than 40 top business leaders have called for the repeal of travel bans that restrict the freedom of movement of people living with HIV. For nearly 23 years beginning in 1987, HIV-positive immigrants and travelers were banned from entering the United States. But that changed on January 4, 2010, when the U.S. Government officially lifted its HIV travel and immigration ban. President Obama announted the repeal of the HIV travel and immigration ban on Oct. 30, 2009 when he signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, Public Law 111–87. See Medical Examination of Aliens—Removal of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection from Definition of Communicable Disease of Public Health Significance, 75 Fed. Reg. 56547 (Nov. 2, 2009) (to be codified at 42 CFR Part 34). The ban went into effect after a 60-day waiting period. Other countries like Armenia, China, Fiji, Moldova, Namibia, South Korea and Ukraine have also removed such restrictions in recent years. However, countries including Australia, Russia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates still maintain HIV travel bans as law.
Many countries enacted travel restrictions "to protect the public health" in the 1980s when ignorance, fear and prejudice surrounded HIV. Since then, effective HIV prevention has revolutionized the lives of people living with HIV so that they are fully productive workers living long and healthy lives. Newer treatments reduce the amount of HIV in one's body to an undetectable level, lowering the possibility of transmitting HIV to someone else by some 96%. There is no evidence that HIV travel restrictions protect public health. The travel ban leads some professionals to leave their HIV medicines at home during business trips for fear that their pills will be discovered by airport agents. Skipping one's HIV medication can lead to drug resistance, a troubling and expensive public health concern.
For these reasons, CEOs of more than 40 companies, including Levi Strauss & Co. and Kenneth Cole Production, issued a press release and pledge calling on the 45 remaining governments to lift their travel restrictions. These CEOs lead some of the world's largest companies from Johnson & Johnson to The Coca-Cola Company from the National Basketball Association to Heineken, Pfizer and Aetna. They represent industries from travel to technology from banking to mining and almost 2 million employees around the world.
For information on the topic of HIV-Related Restrictions on Entry, Stay and Residence, see the Brooklyn Law School Library's online resource Discrimination, Denial, and Deportation: Human Rights Abuses Affecting Migrants Living with HIV published by Human Rights Watch.
The Brooklyn Law School Library’s most recent New Books List has 69 items on a wide range of legal topics. From Sword to Shield: The Transformation of the Corporate Income Tax, 1861 to Present by Law UCLA Law Professor Steven A. Bank (Call #KF6464 .B36 2010). An absorbing read for those with an interest in tax and those interested in the legislative process or in economic history, the book is the first historical account of the evolution of the corporate income tax in America. The author explains the origins of corporate income tax and the political, economic, and social forces that transformed it from a sword against evasion of the individual income tax to a shield against government and shareholder interference with the management of corporate funds. The 304 page volume has chapters titled The Roots of a Corporate Tax; From Industry Taxes to Corporate Taxes; Corporate Tax at the Turn-of-the-Century; The Rise of the Separate Corporate Tax; Non-recognition and the Corporate Tax Shield; The Origins of Double Taxation; The Lost Moment in Corporate Tax Reform; and The Present and Future of Corporate Income Taxation.
The U.S. corporate income has long been one of the most criticized and stubbornly persistent aspects of the federal revenue system. Unlike other industrialized countries, corporate income in the U.S. is taxed twice, first at the entity level and again at the shareholder level when distributed as a dividend. The conventional wisdom has been that this double taxation was part of the system's original design over a century ago and has survived despite withering opposition from business interests. In both cases, history tells another tale. Double taxation as we know it today did not appear until several decades after the corporate income tax was first adopted. Moreover, it was embraced by corporate representatives at the outset and in subsequent years businesses have been far more ambivalent about its existence than is popularly assumed.
Brooklyn Law School students preparing for final exams during the reading period may want to consider listening to some study aids rather than reading them. Sum & Substance is a popular series of study aids available on CD-ROM from the BLS Library. See for example, Sum & Substance Audio on Civil Procedure, 7th Edition by Arthur R. Miller (Call #KF8841 .M56 2010) in the library’s AV Collection. It provides the essentials of civil procedure in a clear, succinct, timesaving format and has a quick-reference indexing to easily locate all topics in the recording, and informed exam tips to help maximize your performance. Sections discuss clusters of procedure, citizenship, traditional basis of jurisdiction, constitutional principles, illustrative application, federal court jurisdiction, service of process, venue principles, pleading, sanctions, joinder, counterclaims, class actions, discovery, summary judgment, trial, jury trial, post-trial motions, new trial motions, motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, collateral estoppel, and appeals.
The BLS Library has other Sum & Substance CD-ROMs on constitutional law, federal income tax, and legal research. They are all located in the AV room 111 on the ground floor level next to the reference desk. Students can check them out for a 48 hour period, with renewals. It is possible that the one you want may be checked out. If so, stop by the reference or the circulation desk and request a staff person place a hold on the item. Then you will be notified when the item has been returned, and you will be next in line for it.
Law student who are iPhone users can purchase some titles from the Sum & Substance series from the App Store. Currently, the following titles are available: contracts, criminal law, constitutional law, criminal procedure, and real property. Prices range from $49.99 to $59.99. See details at this link.
