Legal
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Citizen Media Law Project - For those conducting or thinking of starting a blog, this site endeavors to lay out resources and knowledge for 'citizen journalists.'
"The Citizen Media Law Project (CMLP) is jointly affiliated with Harvard Law
School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media. Our central aim is to provide practical knowledge and tools for citizen journalists. In the coming months we will be adding many resources to this site, including a legal guide that will cover everything from how to form a business to how to use freedom of information and open meetings laws to get access to information, meetings, and governmental records, as well as other legal subjects such as risks associated with online publication."
The site has an interesting article, Website Isn't Liable When Users Lie About Their Ages — Doe v. SexSearch and a PDF of Social Networking Sites and the Law
The Fortieth Anniversary of Loving v. Virginia: The Personal and Cultural Legacy of the Case that Ended Legal Prohibitions on Interracial Marriage
Forty years ago, the US Supreme Court held that state laws criminalizing interracial marriage are unconstitutional. In that case, Loving v. Virginia, the Court invalidated the anti-miscegenation law not only in Virginia, but also in the fifteen other states that banned the practice.
The immediate import of Loving was clear: States no longer had the power to prohibit interracial marriages. However, as the next sections will explore, the ruling had other notable effects as well.
With the Supreme Court's ruling in hand, the Lovings were finally able to return to Virginia without fear of criminal persecution, and with the veil of illegitimacy raised from the heads of their three interracial children. That meant a great deal to them, for returning home as a couple was their ultimate goal, according to Robert Pratt, who knew both Richard and Mildred.
Interestingly, the Lovings did not see themselves as civil rights activists or heroes, but rather simply as people engaged in a personal struggle for freedom. They did not attend the argument in the Supreme Court, and, when asked by Ebony magazine what the ruling meant for them, Richard said only that: "For the first time, I could put my arm around her and publicly call her my wife." Mildred reported similar sentiments, telling the Washington Post in 1967 that "I feel free now . . . it was a great burden."
Though many people remained opposed to interracial marriage, the Lovings told reporters they had the support of their hometown community and were welcomed home. Richard told Life magazine that they "encounter hostile stares only when they venture away."
The Lovings's marriage ended tragically in 1975 when Richard was killed by a drunk driver. Mildred lost an eye in the same accident, but lived several decades more without Richard. She and the sheriff who arrested them never "exchanged a single word," though both lived in the same small Virginia town for decades.
In Part One of this series, I considered the personal and cultural legacy of Loving. In this Part, I'll consider its legal legacy: What role has the opinion played in American law?
The Legal Legacy of the Case that Ended Legal Prohibitions on Interracial Marriage
Loving v. Virginia obviously had immediate, liberating effects for Mildred and Richard Loving, who were able to return home with their children after several years living effectively in exile. And other couples residing in states like Virginia were similarly freed from the constraints of an outdated and discriminatory law.
But Loving's legacy extends beyond these immediate effects. While the ruling in Loving hastened the demise of bans on interracial marriage, such laws were already on their way out; fourteen states had repealed them without judicial pressure in the decades prior. The rest of these laws, too, would eventually have fallen as cultural norms evolved even further away from those of the era that embraced racial segregation and explicit subordination. But a landmark case like Loving should be remembered for its effects on other legal doctrines as well.
Website: Studies in Scarlet: Marriage and Sexuality in the US& UK
1815-1914 "Studies in Scarlet includes American, British, and Irish cases 1815-1914 involving domestic violence, bigamy, seduction, breach of promise to marry, and the custody of children, as well as trials for murder and rape. These trials are especially rich sources for the study of the history of women in early modern society." "Studies in Scarlet presents the images of over 420 separately published trial narratives from the Harvard Law School Library's extensive trial collections. Included are a number of trials of the wealthy and renowned such as an account of the adultery trial of Caroline, Queen Consort of George IV, the sodomy trial of Oscar Wilde, and the trial of Harry Thaw for the murder of Stanford White, the famous architect who was Evelyn Nesbit Thaw's lover. The larger part of the collection, however, consists of the stories of ordinary men and women thrust into the public eye when their marriages and love affairs went wrong or their relationships did not conform to social standards." Another online collection is: The Nuremberg Trials Project By far, the Library's largest undertaking to date is The Nuremberg Trials Project. The Library holds over one million pages of documents related to the war crimes tribunals held after World War II. The Nuremberg Trials Project combines document imaging, document re-keying, and document analysis to create a database of information about the trials, and a Web interface that will allow searching of the documents and the trial transcripts themselves, with links to the various evidentiary documents used in the trials.
Article From FindLaw's Writ by Joanna Grossman In its recent opinion in Baldwin v. Blue Cross, the Eleventh Circuit ended Susan Baldwin's attempt to seek legal redress for the sexual harassment she alleges that she suffered at the hands of her supervisor. But this decision is much more than just a blow to a single plaintiff in a single case. (The Hostile Environment Alleged by Susan Baldwin) Baldwin worked for Blue Cross in Huntsville, Alabama as a marketing representative. In November 2000, Scott Head became her boss when he was promoted to district manager. According to the facts as judged in the light most favorable to the plaintiff (the required stance for an appellate court reviewing a grant of summary judgment to the defendant), Head engaged in two types of conduct that Baldwin found unwelcome and offensive: First, he used profanity regularly, and used sex-specific derogatory terms to refer to both employees and applicants. Male subordinates were "peckerwoods" and "cocksuckers"; female employees were "bitch" or "babe"; one female applicant was not hired, according to Head, because she was a "slut" and a "tramp." (He apparently reserved "fucking bitch" for his wife, when complaining about her at work.) The second type of conduct about which Baldwin complained was more serious and targeted directly at her. On July 26, 2001, Head accompanied Baldwin and other marketing representatives to a banquet for Blue Cross managers in Birmingham. During the banquet speech, Head leaned over to Baldwin and invited her to dance, party, and spend the night in his hotel room in Birmingham, rather than driving home. "No one will ever know," he promised. She declined the invitation politely and left to return to Huntsville. While she was driving home, Head called and urged again that she spend the night with him. He said he was driving to her house in Huntsville and that he would be there with beer to pick her up. He called several more times, telling her during one call that he was at her house, waiting. Baldwin told him to go home to his wife and kids. A few days later, when Baldwin went to Head's office for a meeting, he closed the door, cornered her against a couch and said "Hey, Babe, blow me." She moved across the room and changed the subject. Head offered a report on his weekend: "Well, you know, we went out partying this weekend and that fucking bitch wife of mine, you know, she got tanked and we got home and she came pretty unglued and she came at me," and "I threw that fucking bitch on the floor." Head continued with more details about his interaction with his wife, leading Baldwin to become very concerned about her own safety around him, particularly given his sexual advance just a few minutes earlier. Read the rest of the article at the FindLaw Writ site New Link Justice At Stake - From the website:
"A nationwide, nonpartisan
partnership of more than thirty judicial, legal and citizen organizations. Judges and citizens are deeply concerned about the growing
impact of money and politics on fair and impartial courts." "Our mission is to educate the public and work for reforms to keep politics and special interests out of the courtroom—so judges can do their job protecting the Constitution, individual rights and the rule of law." "This website can help you learn more about the threat to fair and impartial justice, what’s happening in your state, and what you can do to help protect the courts that protect your rights." The Proceedings of the Old Bailey The well-known English court provides historical records for the years 1674 to 1834. The site self-describes as
"A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts
detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing
accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central
criminal court." "The Proceedings contain accounts of trials which took place at the Old Bailey. The crimes tried were mostly felonies (predominantly theft), but also include some of the most serious misdemeanours. The first published collection of trials at the Old Bailey dates from 1674, and from 1678 accounts of the trials at each session (meeting of the Court) at the Old Bailey were regularly published. Inexpensive, and targeted initially at a popular rather than a legal audience, the Proceedings were produced shortly after the conclusion of each sessions and were a commercial success." The site provides a daily look back at proceedings at the court such as: Trial Summary:
Original Text: Sarah Hewlet , of St. Sepulchres, was indicted, for that she being a person of ill Fame, and a common Receiver of stolen Goods, did on the 30th of March feloniously receive 4 Pound of Bacon, the Goods of John Godfrey , and a Cheese of Thomas Low 's, that had been stolen by George Dawson and Thomas Curtis . George Dawson depos'd, That the Prisoner did entice and ncourage Boys to go a thieving, lodg'd them in her House, and us'd to give them what she pleas'd for the Things they stole, and then made them spend the Money at her House; that she bought the Hock of Bacon that he had stolen from Mr. Godfrey, and also a Gammon of Bacon of 18 Pound, for which she gave them 3 s. Perkins depos'd, That he stole Mr. Low's Cheese, and carried it to her, and she gave him 18 pence for it, and they spent the Money in Gin. and Hot-Pots, at her House; that he stole half a Firkin of Soap, and sold it to her for 3 s. These Evidences were very little Boys of about 12 Years of Age (as they said) tho' by their Stature one would have taken them not to be above 8 or 9. The several Facts being prov'd to the Satisfaction of the Jury, they found her guilty of the Indictment. [Fine. See summary.] [Imprisonment. See summary.] Links The Brennan Center for Justice (named for the former Chief Justice). As a branch of the NYU School of Law the Center declares "Our mission is to develop and implement an innovative, nonpartisan agenda of scholarship, public education, and legal action that promotes equality and human dignity, while safeguarding fundamental freedoms. We use scholarship, public education, and legal action to find innovative and practical solutions to intractable problems in the areas of democracy, poverty, and criminal justice. Cornell
Legal Information Institute - One of the services of this site
is access to the U.S. Code. Since it's such a large document the
site recommends limiting your text searches to a particular area
(Title) of the Code; go first to the listing of all Titles and choose
the Title you want; then, use the text-search link on the overview
page for that Title to do your search. A future goal is to 'explore
integrated editorial and software strategies for easing the use
and understanding of law materials by those who are not expert researchers
of U.S. legal documents, including ordinary citizens. State Law,
Supreme Court term schedule. Guide
to European and International Legal Databases (NYU) - This site
monitors and evaluates foreign and International legal databases.
One of the features that you might consult before searching is the
Evaluating
the databases article written for LLRX by Mirela Roznovschi
who maintains this site. Villanova Legal Express - Legal magazines and news, law search portals, subject guides and general reference, directories and discussion groups. A government section includes core documents of democracy, statutes, regulations, public records and dockets. How
to Pick an Estate Planning Attorney:- From the Motley Fool archives,
an attorney's view as to how to choose a qualified estate planning
lawyer. Requires registration. Law
Library of Congress Home Page -
Condensed from the Scout Report: "The Guide to Online law contains
sites offering the full texts of laws, regulations, and court decisions,
along with commentary from lawyers writing primarily for other lawyers.
Materials related to law and government that were written by or
for lay persons also have been included, as have government sites
that provide even quite general information about themselves or
their agencies. The guide offers both domestic and global legal
information networks. The United States Law section contains United
States Code, Statutes at Large, and Public Laws. Martindale-Hubbell is
the bible of directories and listings for lawyers throughout the
US. Using their description, its site, Lawyers.com,
offers the following:"Accurate and reliable profiles of 420,000
attorneys and firms worldwide. Listings are continuously updated
and scrupulously reviewed by the entrant before release. Complete
Lawyer HomePages for many law firms featuring practical details
such as practice focus, professional credentials, fees, office hours
and directions. A wealth of consumer-oriented legal information
to help users better understand the law, make more informed personal
legal choices and identify high quality legal representation. Helpful
tips on how to select an attorney, an interactive "Ask a Lawyer"
forum for submitting questions, consumer friendly explanations of
24 major areas of law, articles on current legal topics, links to
legal resources on the web, a glossary of 10,000 legal terms, and
more." Municipal
Codes Online - The Seattle Public Library houses in their collection
of "Government" web sites and databases the US Municipal codes under
the subcategory of "Law & Legal." This page provides links
to city and county codes available for unrestricted searching on
the World Wide Web. For state codes, (as well as those of American
Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) and related legal
sources, see FindLaw's
State Resources Indexes. Nolo.com
- A mainly commercial site with some free information that was started
by two Legal Aid lawyers unhappy with the fact that the average
person couldn't find affordable legal information and advice. Nolo
Legal Dictionary - If you've got a legal document or find an article
that doesn't appear to be in English, use this file to search for
that term's meaning. Nolo.com's
ElderCare site - An extraordinary collection of topics relating
to this subject: durable power of attorney for finances and healthcare,
healthcare directives and proxy, incapacity, incompetence, life
prolonging procedures,life sustaining procedures, age discrimination
in employment act. Oyez,
Oyez, Oyez - Information about Supreme Court decisions, provided
by Northwestern University, available in easy-to-understand summaries,
linked to the complete texts of opinions. Since the court's proceedings
have been taped since 1961, you can download RealAudioPlayer from
the site to hear proceedings. There's also a virtual tour. Real
Estate Forms - Electronic real estate forms, most drawn up by
practicing professionals, a number free and others with relatively
low costs. Mortgage calculator, state revenue tax forms, buying
and renting disclosure tips. Sentencing Law and Policy. Most of the entries and discussion center around the Blakely case and sentencing guidelines as questioned by numerous states across the US. Douglas Berman's site also carries links to related organizations, such as Families Against Mandatory Minimums Foundation and the Vera Institute State Sentencing and Corrections. Other links include those to Criminal Law Blogs: Talk Left, Punishment Theory, Criminal Appeal, CrimLaw, Public Defender Dude, The Prosecutor's Spot, Crime & Federalism and Blakely Blog. World
Wide Web Virtual Law Library - Indiana U's School of Law in
Bloomington was chosen to be the host of the Virtual Law Library,
a collection of subject-related websites maintained by institutions
throughout the world, each administering a different subject. Impressive.
WRIT
- An online magazine from FindLAw directed towards the legal community
and readers in general characterized by interesting articles. A
section dealing with current news is updated daily.
©1999-2008
Tam Martinides Gray for SeniorWomenWeb
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