Same-Sex Marriage

Researchers of same sex marriage and the law will not want to miss Same-Sex Marriage: A Selective Bibliography of the Legal Literature compiled by law librarian Paul Axel-Lute, Deputy Director of the Law Library at Rutgers School of Law, Newark. First published in September 2002, it is updated as of June 8, 2010 and has references to cases, articles, legislation, books, symposia and other resources on the Web. Axel- Lute includes references to articles that reflect varying points of view along with sites discussing same-sex marriage treatment in selected foreign jurisdictions. There are also sections on polygamy, parenting and tax issues.

On the subject of same-sex marriage, news reports state that Iceland’s parliament in a vote of 40 to 0 (with 14 not voting) changed the country’s marriage laws so that marriage is the legal union of two individuals and not only of a man and a woman. It ends the country’s system of registered partnerships for same-sex couples, meaning marriage will become their only option – as was always the case for opposite-sex couples. Iceland’s President must ratify the bill which seems likely. Polls suggest the marriage bill is extremely popular.

The Brooklyn Law Library has recently added several titles to its collection on the subject of same-sex marriage including:

When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage by M.V. Lee Badgett (Call #K699 .B33 2009). Chapters include Why marry?: the value of marriage -- Forsaking all other options -- The impact of gay marriage on heterosexuals -- Something borrowed: trying marriage on -- Something new: will marriage change gay people? -- Marriage dissent in the gay community -- Strange bedfellows: assessing alternatives to marriage -- The pace of change : are we moving too fast?

What's The Harm?: Does Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Really Harm Individuals, Families, or Society?, Lynn D. Wardle editor (Call #KF539 .W53 2008) Pt. I. Does legalizing same-sex marriage harm families and childrearing? -- Pt. II. Does legalizing same-sex marriage harm responsible sexual behavior and procreation? -- Pt. III. Does legalizing same-sex marriage harm the relationship and meaning of marriage? -- Pt. IV. Does legalizing same-sex marriage harm basic human freedoms and institutions?

Beyond Straight and Gay Marriage: Valuing All Families under the Law by Nancy D. Polikoff (Call #KF538 .P65 2008). Chapters include The changing meaning of marriage -- Gay rights and the conservative backlash -- Redefining family -- The right and the marriage movement -- LGBT families and the marriage-equality movement -- Countries where marriage matters less -- Valuing all families -- Domestic partner benefits for all families -- Coping with illness: medical care and family and medical leave -- When a relationship ends through dissolution or death: distributing assets and providing for children -- Losing an economic provider: wrongful death, workers' compensation, and social security

See also the Spring 2010 edition of BLS Notes to read Equal Access and the Right to Marry written by Nelson Tebbe, BLS Associate Professor of Law and former BLS Visiting Assistant Professor Deborah A. Widiss, where they offer a new constitutional framework for same sex marriage, a proposal they call Equal Access.

WolframAlpha

WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge engine similar to Google. It is not a search engine but more of a fact engine that generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base, instead of searching the web and returning links. For example, searching Google for “Denver” will result in a list of links to websites. However, a search of “population of Denver” in WolframAlpha provides with an immediate answer on WolframAlpha's site. In addition to the answer (City of Denver, population 598,707 - 2008 estimate), the site offers that Denver ranks 25th in population in the US and presents a graph showing population history, the metropolitan area population (2.552 million) and the population of nearby cities (Aurora - 319,057).

A search for a date will give results that include the time difference from today in years, months, weeks or days. It will also list observances for date including births of noted persons. The daylight information for that date is given telling the time of the sunrise and sunset and the duration of daylight as well as the state of the moon for that day. Results for a date, June 25, 1951 list an event listed for that day, "CBS becomes the first to broadcast television in color." A search for Brooklyn, NY yields not only the current population – population: 2.557 million people (2008) but also population growth: 0.4625%per year (2000-08); population density: 34723 people/mi (2000); annual deaths: 16533 people per year (2006) and annual births: 40492 people per year (2006).

Founder, Stephen Wolfram has found a way to take mathematical concepts and figure out a way to pull different types of data together and produce a rational result. He explains possible uses of the product in this video posted here.

For Legal Research, however, WolframAlpha is not yet ready according to a post at Three Geeks and Blog which reports that “legal” questions such as these did not yield results:

•Number of lawsuits filed against Exxon
•Patents held by IBM
•General Counsel of Wal-Mart
•Chairman of Skadden Arps

A NY Times article states "It is an early working version of a project that has been years in the making and will continue to evolve over years, if not decades. As such, there is much it cannot answer now." So perhaps, one day WolframAlpha can help law students understand the rule against perpetuities.

The two-part video is here:

Hyman Brown, Class of 1931

A NY Times obituary reports the death of Hyman Brown (July 21, 1910 – June 4, 2010), Brooklyn Law School Class of 1931, at his home in Manhattan. Brown grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and went to Boy's High School, Brooklyn College and Brooklyn Law School. The Twenty-Ninth Annual Commencement Program in the Brooklyn Law School Library’s Archive collection lists Brown as one of the valedictory speakers at the ceremony held at the Albee Theater on June 11, 1931. The program spells his first name as Hyman - not Himan which he used in later life.

Acting and the entertainment business, rather than the law, was his great passion. While attending law school, he was producing and performing in live theater, Catskills revues, and on the fast growing medium of radio. Brown created a number of radio programs that became immensely popular in the 1930s and '40s. Among his most well-known was "Inner Sanctum Mysteries." The show opened with a signature sound effect of a creaking door. Using his legal training, Brown was the first to trademark a sound effect. His career in show business spanned eight decades from the 1920s to the 1990s directing more than 30,000 shows. Other notable series that Brown produced were The Rise of the Goldbergs, Dick Tracy, Adventures of the Thin Man, Grand Central Station, and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

A Founding Member of the Director's Guild of America, he started The Radio Drama Network to propagate the spoken word. Also a member of the Radio Hall of Fame, Brown received the American Broadcast Pioneer and the Peabody Award. He taught audio drama at Brooklyn College and the School of Visual Arts and was devoted to health care causes and other issues effecting people over 50 years of age. Brown was a great friend of the BLS Library. More biographical information is available at the Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection website.

109th BLS Commencement at Lincoln Center

Brooklyn Law School held its 109th Commencement Ceremony for the Class of 2010 in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center where most of the 463 graduating students received their Juris Doctor degrees. Family and friends attending the ceremony filled the hall to capacity and heard speeches by James M. Hays II, Class Valedictorian, Law School Dean Joan G. Wexler and NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the commencement speaker. The mayor received the Law School's honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in recognition of his service to the City of New York, his work on behalf of charitable, cultural, and educational institutions, and his achievements in business and information technology.

In his remarks, Mayor Bloomberg told the assembled guests that Brooklyn Law School members play a major role in city government including his own in-house counsel, and his chief assistant, Anthony Crowell and Bill Heinzen, who both teach a course at BLS on the law of state and local government. He also noted that the City’s Chief Attorney, Michael Cardozo, has assembled New York’s largest law firm, the Corporation Counsel’s office, with more than 600 of New York City’s top lawyers of whom one out of every seven is a graduate of Brooklyn Law School. He cited BLS as a major source of city government’s legal talent in its agencies, such as the five district attorneys’ offices and the city courts.

Explaining why so many BLS grads do legal work for the city, the mayor said "Brooklyn Law School has a reputation that just happens to be true: No other school does a better job of preparing attorneys to practice law in New York. Year after year, BLS ranks among the nation’s best schools in clinical legal education, and in public service law. And no other law school produces graduates with a more ferocious work ethic and desire to succeed."

Among the Class of 2010, six received their degrees Summa Cum Laude: Sparkle L. Alexander, Justin W. Denton, Rachel E. Green, James M. Hays II, Rachel D. Lerner, Megan Prunella and William C. Vandivort. Twenty-six students received their degrees Magna Cum Laude and seventy-nine students received their degrees Cum Laude. The full list of students graduating with honors is here. A list of Commencement Prizes and Awards for the Class of 2010 is available here.

Memorial Day 2010

In advance of the Memorial Day holiday, NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand issued a press release about the New York Museums Salute Memorial Day: A Weekend of Appreciation effort conceived by her, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the Alliance for the Arts and the Museums Association of New York to provide free admission to all active duty service members and veterans at each of the 54 participating institutions throughout Memorial Day Weekend. Participating institutions include the Whitney Museum of American Art, American Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn Museum, Bronx Museum, El Museo del Barrio, Guggenheim Museum, Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, Jewish Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of the American Indian, New York Historical Society, New York Transit Museum, Queens Museum of Art, Sailor’s Snug Harbor, South Street Seaport, Staten Island Museum, The Children’s Museum, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Proper military ID is required for free admission.

New York City Memorial Day Events include Fleet Week with a variety of events over the Memorial Day weekend including the Intrepid Memorial Day Commemoration Ceremony from 11 am to 1 pm at the SummerStage in Central Park. In Brooklyn, Green-Wood’s 12th Annual Memorial Day Concert is scheduled for Monday, May 31 at 2:30 pm on the Grounds of Green-Wood Cemetery at the Gothic Arch of Green-Wood Cemetery with music by Fred Ebb, Leonard Bernstein, Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Paul Jabara. Admission is free.

The Brooklyn Law School Library will be open on Monday from 9am to 10pm. In the Law Review room on the third floor, partrons can read Alexander M. Selkirk, Jr.'s article The True Meaning of Memorial Day in the New York State Bar Journal 63.4 (1991) at pages 62-63. The article relates the origins of the holiday in 1868 when Gen. John A. Logan (for whom Logan Circle in Washington, DC is named), issued General Orders No. 11, creating the first Memorial Day also known as Decoration Day on May 30, 1868 as a day to decorate the graves of Civil War soldiers. At the time, Logan was President of the Grand Army of the Republic, forerunner of today's veterans' organizations. He also represented Illinois as a member of the House of Representatives and was active in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. Later he became a US Senator and a Republican candidate for Vice President. The article cites critics of the day who questioned whether Logan's motives for creating the holiday was an act of political aggrandizement rather than one arising from a general sense of patriotism. For more on Logan, see Paul Katzeff's article in Investor's Business Daily John Logan, The Hero Who Championed Memorial Day.

The True Meaning of Memorial Day states:

Whatever the motives of John Alexander Logan in creating Memorial Day, they are unimportant. It is also misleading to view Memorial Day as a time only to mourn the dead any more than to consider it a day to celebrate victory in American's Wars. What is important is Logan's greatest legacy to our nation, that being a day on which all Americans regardless of their race, creed, color, ethnic background, or political philsophy unite in a common purpose, to honor those who have made the supreme sacrifice that the American way of life may be preserved. . .

On Memorial Day we truly comprehend that our survival rests not upon nuclear missiles, advanced weapons systems, or international alliances, but upon our countrymen in a common defense against all enemies foreign and domestic who plot the overthrow of our great Republic.

The real meaning of Memorial Day is as clear today as it was the day it was first celebrated over one hundred years ago after the great Civil War had divided our nation. Simply stated, Memorial Day stands for the proposition that united we can survive indefinitely as a free and domestic people, and it is only through our division that we sow the seeds of our own destruction.

Reading List for BLS Grads

This week, the display case on the first floor of the library opposite the elevator contains a number of items of interest to graduating students. Brooklyn Law School Associate Librarian Linda Holmes has included these items:

Careers in Tax Law: Perspectives on the Tax Profession and What It Holds for You by John Gamino, Robb A. Longman, and Matthew R. Sontag (Call #KF299.T3 C37 2009)


Careers in Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice by James T. O'Reilly (Call #KF299.A32 C37 2010)





How to Go Directly Into Your Own Solo Law Practice and Succeed: Into the New Millennium and Beyond by Gerald M. Singer (Call #KF300 .S564 2000)




The Creative Lawyer: a Practical Guide to Authentic Professional Satisfaction by Michael F. Melcher (Call #KF300.Z9 M45 2007)





Effectively Staffing Your Law Firm by Jennifer J. Rose (Call #KF318 .E33 2009)





From Law School To Law Practice: The New Associate’s Guide by Suzanne B. O'Neill and Catherine Gerhauser Sparkman (Call #KF300 .O53 1998)




Inside The Minds: Leading Litigators: Industry Leaders Share Their Knowledge on the Art & Science of Litigation (Call # KF300 .I57 2002)

The Great Bridge 127 Years Old

127 years ago, on a cloudless sunny May 24th morning in 1883, an estimated 50,000 citizens from across the nation gathered in the City of Brooklyn to mark the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, then hailed as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". With vessels in the harbor decorated with flags and bunting, the opening ceremony included dignitaries from President Chester A. Arthur and several members of the Cabinet, to NY Governor and soon-to-be President Grover Cleveland, New York Mayor Franklin Edson and Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low. Historian David McCullough's The Great Bridge (Call #KFX2071 .M138) in the New York Collection of the Brooklyn Law School Library, provides not only interesting facts about the engineering feats that created the Brooklyn Bridge, but also insight into New York and Brooklyn after the Civil War. The book describes the opening day ceremony as:

"the biggest celebration New York had seen since the opening of the Erie Canal nearly sixty years before. Some of the Irish were unhappy because the day chosen for the ceremony happened also to be Queen Victoria's birthday, but almost everybody else had a splendid time. Both cities went on a holiday and the fireworks on the bridge that night lasted a solid hour. In all some fourteen tons of rockets and flares were set off from the center of the river span and from the tops of the towers. Bands played on board excursion steamers on the river and the celebrating lasted until dawn."

The next day's NY Times front page story reported the festivities in greater detail.

Brooklyn Heights neighborhood historian Karl Junkersfeld put together this 10 minute video tribute to the Brooklyn Bridge for its 127th Anniversary with photos, drawings and paintings of the bridge's construction, opening day and views of the bridge since.