Guns and the Law

Beware gun owners; if you beat your spouse or otherwise violate "domestic-violence laws" you may lose your rights to legally own a gun. The US Supreme Court, in a 7 to 2 decision, upheld a federal law "barring people convicted of domestic-violence crimes from owning guns". The ruling also stated that "state laws against battery need not specifically mention domestic- violence to fall under the domestic-violence gun ban". The 1996 federal law was authored by Sen Frank Lautenberg of NJ and has kept "150,000 guns out of the hands of domestic abusers? This case involved a Randy Edward Hayes of West Virginia (It should be also noted that a gun could still be illegally owned if purchased by a straw buyer). This is the first gun case since the DC ruling supporting individual ownership of guns.

(Source: "Supreme Court upholds gun curb" by the AP. The Record on February 25, 2009).

Up-date: This case was originally ruled against the federal law by the 4th Circuit court of Appeals. At the US Supreme Court level Justices Roberts and Scalia were the two who voted in opposition. The case is US v. Hayes 2009.

(Source: " Googled" Supreme Court cases.)

Unions

A positive assessment of trade unions appeared in The Record Parade section recently. Prof Clete Daniel of Cornell University says that unions help all workers and "promote a fairer sharing of wealth". He also notes (in comparison to the 1920's) that "the gap between America's rich and poor is the largest it's been since 1928". Unions also played a part in getting unemployment insurance, Social Security and the 40-hour work week. Those opposed say that unions have "outlived their usefulness" and that the "workplace in much better today". Union membership is now at 12 % of American workers. This article may have been initiated by pending congressional legislation; The Employee Free Choice Act or "Card Check" law would make it easier for workers to join a union.

(Source: "Does America Still Need Labor Unions?" in the "Intelligence Report" section of Parade Magazine. February 22, 2009).

NJ Corruption?

Two Seton Hall professors write that NJ doesn't deserve its reputation as the most corrupt state government in the US. They say NJ "does not even rank in the Top 10 of ethics-challenged jurisdictions". The Department of Justice has a "tally of the quilty, per capita"; a list of "convicted officials per million residents per year". On this list NJ is number 15 behind Florida, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Ohio and Illinois.

(Source: "Despite political appearances, New Jersey is far from the most corrupt state" by Paula Franzese and Daniel O'Hern, professors at Seton Hall Law School. The Record on February 22, 2009).

Civil War

It is reported in a book by Ken Dagler-Black Dispatches-that slaves spied for the Union during the war. William Jackson was a house servant and coachman for Jefferson Davis who provided information about "battle plans and movements" of southern forces. Southern states at the time banned the teaching of reading and writing to slaves thus forcing the slaves to depend more on their memory and oral reporting to remember what was said in their presence. Davis is reported to have regarded Jackson as "a piece of furniture-not human" and discussed war stategy while Jackson was in the room. Dagler reports that historical evidence includes a letter written by a Union general to General Irvin McDowell that mentions a spy who was "Jeff Davis coachman". The book also notes that another slave-Robert Smalls-was a pilot for the Charleston, SC harbor and he was able to provide the Union with info on "fortifications of the harbor". Dagler reports that there is no other mention of William Jackson after the war; he "disappeared from history".

(Source: "Slave in Jefferson Davis' home gave Union key secrets" by Barbara Starr and Bill Mears. On CNN.com/US February 23, 2009).

Native Americans

Geronimo was the Apache chief who fought the US Army in the 1880's, was captured in 1886 and spent the rest of his life at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He died in 1909. It appears that "members of the Skull and Bones" secret society, at Yale University, stole his remains from the fort while stationed there during WWI. The remains are allegedly kept in a crypt at the New Haven, Connecticut Skull and Bones clubhouse. One of the club members who was part of the alleged theft was Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush. Both Bush I and II and John Kerry are members of this society. The descendants of Geronimo have filed a lawsuit this month in Washington in an effort to regain control of the remains and give them a proper burial.

(Source: "Geronimo kin sue Skull and Bones" by the AP. The Record on February 19, 2009).

Stimulus Package

The plan is called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It is in response to the decline in employment in the US. There have been 600,000 jobs lost in January and since December of 2007 there have been 3.6 million lost. The unemployment rate is now 7.6 % and "about 14 % if you count the underemployed and people who have given up looking for work". Tax cuts make up 36 % of this plan. (These are facts, I believe, even if provided by a democratic congressman).

(Source: "Rebuilding America begins now" by Steve Rothman. The Record on February 18, 2009. Rothman represents the 9th CD in NJ).

WWII Issues

France issued a formal "recognition" of its role in the Nazi Holocaust and the deportation of the Jewish population to death camps. The Vichy government of that era "helped deport some 76,000 people-including 11,000 children from Nazi occupied France". About 3000 survived to return. The recognition does not include reparation payments. (Q: What about the Jewish population of Vichy France? Were they deported or persecuted?).

(Source: "France concedes its role in Holocaust" from news service reports. The Record on February 17, 2009)

The US government has granted recognition and a one time payment-compensation-to Filipino WWII vets who fought with US forces. Filipino vets who are US citizens will receive $ 15,000 and non citizens $ 9000; the entire bill will cost $ 198 million. Filipinos who were "conscripted into the US Army" were promised the same benefits as US citizen veterans. After the war, "Congress stripped them of their status and their rights to many benefits". At the time 200,000 Filipinos "fought alongside US soldiers" and about 18,000 are still alive and some 6000 are living in the US. The compensation is open for a one-year period from the date of enactment of this bill and would include "widows or widowers of claimants". This legislation will be part of the economic stimulus package soon to be signed by President Obama.

(Source: "Stimulus bill to reward Filipino vets" by Elizabeth Llorente of The Record. February 17, 2009).

Supreme Court 2008

In addition to the case noted below involving Guantanamo Bay, there are other recent Supreme Court cases of interest. In D.C. v Heller the court for the first time ruled in favor of an individual right to "bear arms". The ruling also says that the right is "not absolute" (nothing in the Bill of Rights is) "and can be subject to reasonable regulation". In Crawford v. Marion County Election Board an Indiana law requiring "voters to produce a government-issued photo ID in order to vote" is legal. The ACLU notes that some 43,000 voters in that state lacked the ID; mostly poor, minority, elderly and the disabled. In Kentucky v. Louisiana ruled that a death penalty for a child rape was unconstitutional. In Baze v. Rees the court ruled that using a three-drug combination in lethal injections was constitutional. The ACLU notes that 23 states forbid the same drug combination by veterinarians "putting animals to sleep" because of "unnecessary pain".

(Source: "Supreme Court restores Habeas for Guantanamo detainees" by Steve Shapiro. Civil Liberties: The American Civil Liberties Union National Newsletter dated Summer 2008).

Same Sex Marriage

In June of 2008 the California Supreme Court ruled that the state could "no longer bar same-sex couples from marriage". This source equates the ruling to the US Supreme Court ruling in 1969 that ruled a ban on interracial marriage was unconstitutional. That was the case of Loving v. Virginia. Before Mildred Loving died last year, she gave a "rare public statement" in support of the same sex couples in California wishing to marry. The issue does not end there due to a state initiative on the ballot this past November (the results of which I will need to research). It is noted that the initiative would "override the (court) decision".

(Source: "Historic win for lesbian and gay couples in California" by Matt Coles. Civil Liberties: the American Civil Liberties Union National Newsletter dated Summer of 2008).

Guantanamo and the ACLU

In 2004 the Supreme Court ruled in Rasul v. Bush that "detainees in Guantanamo could file petitions for habeas corpus to challenge the legality of their detention". Following this ruling the ACLU of NJ represented Murat Kurnaz "a German resident of Turkish descent" who was "sold to the US for a bounty" after being taken in Pakistan. He was at the time a member of a "peaceful missionary group". He was held for 4 years at Gitmo before being released "cleared of terrorism charges", two of those years "incommunicado". The US gov't admits to "offering enormous bounties to warlords and the Pakistani gov't to turn in anyone to US forces". Seton Hall University study reports that only 18 % "of detainees have an association to Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

(Source: "ACLU-NJ Board Trustee fights for Human Rights and Due Process at Gitmo" by Baher Azmy. Civil Rights Reporter and ACLU of NJ. 2nd quarter of 2007).

Detainees have the right "to challenge their indefinite detention in federal court" said the Supreme Court case of Boumediene v. Bush in June of 2008. The military commission system is a point of debate. The ACLU is representing the detainees and is calling it the John Adams Project acknowledging the role played by the 2nd US President in defending British soldiers involved in the "Boston Massacre" in 1770. The ACLU argues that the military commission system "allows the use of torture, hearsay evidence, or coerced confessions" in trials of these detainees. Prior of 2006 the Supreme Court ruled in Hamden v. Rumsfeld that the military commissions were unconstitutional and "inconsistent with the Geneva Conventions. That ruling was addressed by Congress in 2006 with the Military Commissions Act that allows the use of the commissions to prosecute detainees w/o many of our constitutional protections. (This info is 7 or 8 months old and does not include any further developments on this issue. It is not the intention of this writer to defend the ACLU's position but mearly to report on the law as I know it. The source, however, is the ACLU, thus one-sided).

(Source: "Fighting for Justice at Guantanamo" by Anthony D. Romero. Civil Liberties: The American Civil Liberties Union National Newsletter dated Summer 2008).

Social Security

The FDR program estabished in 1935 now pays out benefits to 50 million people at a cost of $ 614 billion a year. This payment is the only income for 40 % of elderly Americans. The program also pays benefits to "surviving family members of deceased workers and to disabled workers and their dependents". The first person to collect this check was Ida May Fuller in 1939; she lived to be 100 and collected $ 22,000 on a payment of $ 24.75.

(Source: "Social Security benefits many" by Joseph Ax. The Record on January 31, 2009).

Strip-Searches

Bergen County along with a half of NJ counties allow the "practice of routinely strip-searching detainees entering county jails, regardless of the offense charged". Any crime of the 4th degree and above subjects one to be so searched. Those opposed say it is a violation of the 4th Amendment. Such searches in Camden, Cumberland, Mercer and Salem counties have already been settled in class action suits for anywhere from $ 7.5 million to $ 640,000. Legal challenges are on-going in Bergen and other counties in the state. Some of those searched were being held for non-payment of child support and traffic tickets. The searches involved "inspection of naked bodies...as well as visual inspection of their body cavities...in front of officers or other detainees. In one case a detainee was "required to spread his legs, bend over and lift his scotum". The plaintiffs want monetary damages, a county statement that the practice is unconstitutional and a end to the practice.

(Source: "Strip-search lawsuits spiraling" by Peter J. Sampson of The Record. February 3, 2009).

Search and Seizure law

On Jan 26, 2009 the US Supreme Court ruled that the police can conduct a "frisk of a passenger in a car stopped for a traffic violation" regardless of signs of criminal activity. The rule was unanimous and overturned an Arizona appeals court ruling that such a search was a violation of the 4th Amendment. The "frisk" is also defined as a "pat-down". However, the police must have a "reasonable suspicion that a person...is armed and therefore dangerous to the safety of the police and public". The case is Arizona v. Johnson (2009). As you might expect, civil libertarians are strongly opposed to this ruling. A Hackensack defense attorney says "police don't have to be oblivious to an obvious fact. But the key is obvious fact, not mere suspicion. A lot of police work is a hunch, but it has to be articulable". The person in the Arizona case was found in possession of a gun and marijuana.

(Source: "Police applaud ruling allowing pat-downs" by Ashley Kindergan and Karen Rouse of The Record on February 2, 2009. "US Supreme Court says passenger can be frisked" by AP on FindLaw.com dated January 26, 2009).

US abortion foreign policy

The Mexico City Policy was created by Pres Reagan in 1984. It stated that no money from the US in aid to other countries could be used by "international health groups that perform abortions, promote legalizing the procedure or provide counseling about terminating pregnancies". Clinton reversed it in 1993 and Bush II revived it in 2001. Now Obama has rescinded it again. The Obama policy would "allow funding to resume to international groups that provide...counseling about abortions". US funds would not be used directly for abortions.

(Source: "Obama reverses Bush funding ban tied to abortions" from wire reports. In The Virginian Pilot on January 24, 2009).