Posts tagged ‘law’
New Government Report: Protecting Classified Information (CI) and the Rights of Criminal Defendants
by Edward Liu, Todd Garvey
Paperback, 11 pages, 2011, $10.00
ISBN: 1437984312
A criminal prosecution involving CI may cause tension between the government’s interest in protecting CI and the criminal defendant’s right to a constitutionally valid trial. In some cases, a defendant may threaten to disclose CI in an effort to gain leverage. Concerns about this practice, referred to as “graymail,” led Congress to enact the Classified Info. Procedures Act (CIPA) to provide uniform procedures for prosecutions involving CI. Contents of this report: Background; The CIPA: Pretrial Conferences, Required Notice, and Appeals; Protective Orders and Security Clearances; Discovery: Brady and Jencks Material; Depositions; Admissibility of CI: Substitutions; Confrontation Clause and the Silent Witness Rule. A print on demand report.
Purchase this print-on-demand publication for $10.00:
New Government Report: Public Defender Offices
Public Defender Offices, 2007: Statistical Tables
by Lynn Langton, Donald J. Farole jr.
Paperback, 17 pages, 2009, $15.00
ISBN: 1437933505
Examines offices that provide representation for indigent defendants through a salaried staff of full-time or part-time attorneys employed as direct government employees or through a public, nonprofit organization. Public defender (PD) offices are categorized according to whether they are funded and admin. at the state government level, the county level, or through a combination of state and county government.
Topics include PD office staffing, caseloads, expenditures, and standards and guidelines used by the nearly 1,000 PD offices across 49 states and the D.C. In 2007, 964 PD offices across the nation received nearly 6 million indigent defense cases. Misdemeanor cases accounted for about 40% of all cases received by PD offices. Extensive charts and tables.
New Government Report: Commonwealth Brands, Inc. vs. U.S.: Legal Judgment on Marketing Restrictions in the New Federal Tobacco Law
Commonwealth Brands, Inc. vs. U.S.: Legal Judgment on Marketing Restrictions in the New Federal Tobacco Law
by Joseph H. McKinley Jr.
Paperback, 47 pages, 2010, $30.00, ISBN: 9781437936704
The opinion and order of U.S. District Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr., U.S. District Court, Western District of Kentucky, Bowling Green Division, which overturns two of the marketing restrictions in the new federal tobacco law.
Several tobacco makers sued in August 2009 to block the restrictions. Judge McKinley agreed that the ban on color and graphics in labels and advertising that children might see intruded too broadly on commercial free speech.
He noted that, instead, Congress could have exempted certain types of color and graphic images. Judge McKinley did uphold the authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restrict tobacco marketing, as well as a specific provision which requires new, graphic warning labels to cover the top half of cigarette packages.
In fact, he upheld most of the new marketing restrictions, including a ban on tobacco companies sponsoring athletic, social and cultural events or offering free samples or branded merchandise.
Lawyers on both sides affirmed that this case will probably be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and eventually to the Supreme Court.
New Government Report: United States of America v. Paul A. Slough et al, Defendants: Ruling on the Case against Former Blackwater Security Guards
United States of America v. Paul A. Slough et al, Defendants: Ruling on the Case against Former Blackwater Security Guards
by Ricardo M. Urbina
Paperback, 90 pages, 2009, ISBN: 1437927750, $30.00
The sudden blow to the case against the former Blackwater security guards over a shooting that killed 17 Iraqis and wounded at least 20 may have come as a surprise to the public in Iraq and the United States, but the legal problem that the judge cited Thursday when he threw out the indictments was obvious to American government lawyers within days of the shooting, reports the New York Times.
This government report contains the ruling by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District court in Washington, DC, on the case against former Blackwater security guards in Iraq over a shooting that killed 17 Iraqis and wounded at least 20.
Judge Ricardo threw out the indictments against the guards. In his opinion: “The defendants have been charged with voluntary manslaughter and firearms violations arising out of a shooting that occurred in Baghdad, Iraq on Sept. 16, 2007.
“They contend that in the course of this prosecution, the government violated their constitutional rights by utilizing statements they made to Deptartment of State investigators, which were compelled under a threat of job loss.
“The government has acknowledged that many of these statements qualify as compelled statements under Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493 (1967), which held that the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination bars the government from using statements compelled under a threat of job loss in a subsequent criminal prosecution.
“The Fifth Amendment automatically confers use and derivative use immunity on statements compelled under Garrity; this means that in seeking an indictment from a grand jury or a conviction at trial, the government is prohibited from using such compelled statements or any evidence obtained as a result of those statements.
“The government has also acknowledged that its investigators, prosecutors and key witnesses were exposed to (and, indeed, aggressively sought out) many of the statements given by the defendants to State Deptartment investigators.
“Under the binding precedent of the Supreme Court, the burden fell to the government to prove that it made no use whatsoever of these immunized statements or that any such use was harmless beyond any reasonable doubt.
“In short, the government has utterly failed to prove that it made no impermissible use of the defendants’ statements or that such use was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the court must dismiss the indictment against all of the defendants.”
New Government Report: Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan: Presidential Authority and the Separation of Powers (ISBN: 9781437935226)
Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan: Presidential Authority and the Separation of Powers (ISBN: 9781437935226)
By Todd B. Tatelman
(Paperback, 20 pages, 2010, $15)
In light of Elena Kagan’s nomination to serve as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, this report analyzes then-Prof. Kagan’s views of executive power and the doctrine of separation of powers as laid out in her 2001 Harvard Law Review article “Presidential Administration.”
Contents: (1) Constitutional and Legal Basis for Executive Authority: Constitutional Text; Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court: Youngstown Sheet and Tube v. Sawyer; Appointment and Removal Cases; (2) Theories of Executive Power: The “Traditional” View; The “Unitary Theory of the Executive”; (3) Presidential Administration: Responses to Traditionalist Arguments, and the “Unitary Theory of the Executive”; (4) Presidential Administration and Administrative Law; (5) Presidential Admin., Foreign Affairs, and National Security.
New Government Report: Terrorist Attacks on Commercial Airlines: Federal Criminal Prohibitions (ISBN: 1437928471)
Terrorist Attacks on Commercial Airlines: Federal Criminal Prohibitions
(ISBN: 1437928471)
By Charles Doyle (Paperback, 16 pages, 2010, $15)
In December 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian man who allegedly ignited an incendiary device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit was charged with attempting to destroy the plane, according to NPR.
Federal authorities can prosecute terrorist attacks on commercial airlines under a wide variety of federal statutes. Some of those statutes outlaw crimes committed aboard a commercial airliner; some, crimes committed against the aircraft itself; others, crimes involving the use of firearms or explosives; still others, crimes committed for terrorist purposes. Although most apply when committed within the U.S., many apply to terrorist attacks overseas.
Contents of this report: Introduction; Crimes Aboard an Aircraft; Crimes Against an Aircraft; Crimes Involving Destructive Devices; Other Terrorist Crimes; Crimes Against Protected Individuals; Accomplice Liability; Selected Procedural Aspects; Pertinent Penalties and Territorial Jurisdictional Factors.
New Government Report: Medical Marijuana: Review and Analysis of Federal and State Policies (ISBN: 9781437932177)
Medical Marijuana: Review and Analysis of Federal and State Policies
(ISBN: 9781437932177)
By Mark Eddy (Paperback, 47 pages, 2010, $25)
U.S. Representative Barney Frank is among 15 members of Congress pushing the Treasury Department to set rules that would help banks provide financial services to medical marijuana dispensaries, according to Bloomberg News’ Businessweek.
Contents: (1) Intro.; (2) Medical Marijuana (MM) Prior to 1937; (3) Federal MM Policy: Congress. Actions: Marijhuana Tax Act of 1937; Controlled Substances Act; Hinchey-Rohrabacher Amend.; Exec. Branch Actions and Policies: Approval of Marinol; Admin. Law Judge (ALJ) Ruling to Reschedule MM; NIH Workshop; Inst. of Med. Report; Denial of Petition to Reschedule Marijuana; FDA Statement That Smoked Marijuana is Not Med.; ALJ Ruling to Grow Research Marijuana; DEA Enforce. Actions Against MM Providers; Obama Admin. and MM; MM in the Courts: U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Coop.; Conant v. Walters; Gonzales v. Raich; Amer. for Safe Access Lawsuit; (4) State and Local MM Laws; (5) Public Opinion; (6) Arguments For and Against MM.
New Government Report: Terrorist Watchlist Screening: FBI Has Enhanced Its Use of Information from Firearm and Explosives Background Checks to Support Counterterrorism Efforts: Congressional Testimony
Terrorist Watchlist Screening: FBI Has Enhanced Its Use of Information from Firearm and Explosives Background Checks to Support Counterterrorism Efforts: Congressional Testimony
By Eileen R. Larence (Paperback, 17 pages, 2010, $15)
Membership in a terrorist organization does not prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives under current federal law. However, for homeland security and other purposes, the FBI is notified when a firearm or explosives background check involves an individual on the terrorist watchlist.
In light of the recent failed Times Square bombing, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee:
“When gun dealers run background checks, should F.B.I. agents have the authority to block sales of guns and explosives to those on the terror watch lists — and deemed too dangerous to fly?” the New York Times reported the Mayor asking. “I believe strongly that they should.”
According to GAO, from February 2004 to February 2010, 1,228 people listed on an FBI terror watchlist had tried to buy weapons. About 90 percent, some 1,119, had succeeded. Faisal Shahzad, the alleged bomber, was not on the list in March.
This statement addresses: (1) how many checks have resulted in matches with the terrorist watchlist; (2) how the FBI uses information from these checks for counterterrorism purposes; and (3) pending legislation that would give the Attorney General authority to deny certain checks. Includes recommendations. Charts and tables.
New Government Report: Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Office of Collections and Distribution and Fair Funds
Securities and Exchange Commission: Information on Fair Fund Collections and Distributions
by A. Nicole Clowers (Paperback, 34 pages, 2010, $20)
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) primary mission is to protect investors and maintain the integrity of securities markets.
As a part of its responsibility to protect investors, SEC seeks to ensure that individuals who violate federal securities laws and regulations take responsibility for their misdeeds. Specifically, when individuals or firms are found to have violated securities laws, SEC may order civil monetary penalties and seek ill-gotten financial gains, or disgorgement, from the violators.
For its enforcement actions to be successful, SEC must have a collection and distribution program for both civil monetary penalties and disgorgement that functions effectively. In 2002, Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which established numerous reforms to increase investor protection, including Section 308(a), the Federal Account for Investor Restitution provision, commonly known as the Fair Fund provision.
This provision allows SEC to combine civil monetary penalties and other donations to disgorgement funds for the benefit of investors who suffer losses resulting from fraud or other securities violations.
In 2007, SEC created the Office of Collections and Distribution (OCD) to manage the collection of penalties and disgorgement, including Fair Funds, and speed the process of returning funds back to harmed investors.
This report examines (1) the status of Fair Fund collections and distributions and (2) the actions that SEC has taken to address GAO’s previous recommendations regarding SEC’s OCD. Figures.
New Government Reports: Compulsory DNA Collection, Deforestation and Climate Change, Exon-Florio National Security Trust, Military and Civilian Pay Comparisons, Supreme Court Appointment Process
New government reports this week:
1) Compulsory DNA Collection: A Fourth Amendment Analysis
by Anna C. Henning (Paperback, 15 pages, $10)
Relying on different legal standards, courts have historically upheld laws authorizing law enforcement’s compulsory collection of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) as reasonable under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, prior cases reviewed the extraction of DNA samples from people who had been convicted on criminal charges. New state and federal laws authorize the collection of such samples from people who have been arrested or detained but
not convicted.
2) Deforestation and Climate Change
by Ross W. Gorte and Pervaze A. Sheikh (Paperback, 41 pages, $20)
Contents: (I) Congressional Interest; (II) Forests and Climate, Forest Cover, Linkages Between Forests and Climate, Soil Impacts, Wood Utilization/Wood Waste, Burning (III) Boreal Forests (IV) Temperate Forests (V) Tropical Forests in Latin America, including Amazonia; Tropical Africa; Southeast Asia; Climate Consequences of Tropical Deforestation; (VI) Reducing Deforestation: Tree Planting, Market Solutions; Forest Carbon Markets; Markets for Ecosystem Services and Non-Timber Forest Products; Certified Sustainable Forestry; Governance Issues; (VII) Forest and Deforestation Data Issues. Figures and tables.
3) Exon-Florio National Security Test for Foreign Investment
by James K. Jackson (Paperback, 20 pages, $15)
The Exon-Florio provision grants the President the authority to block proposed or pending foreign acquisitions of “persons engaged in interstate commerce in the U.S.” that threaten to impair the national security.
This provision came under intense scrutiny with the
proposed acquisitions in 2006 of major operations in 6 major U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World and of Unocal by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
The debate that followed reignited long-standing differences among Members of Congress and between the Congress and the administration over the role foreign acquisitions play in U.S. national security.
4) Military Personnel: Military and Civilian Pay Comparisons Present Challenges and Are One of Many Tools in Assessing Compensation
by Brenda S. Farrell (Paperback, 54 pages, $20)
The Department of Defense’s (DOD) military compensation package, which is myriad pays and benefits, is an important tool to attract and retain the number and quality of active duty servicemembers it needs to fulfill its mission. Compensation can be appropriate and adequate to attract and retain servicemembers when it is competitive with civilian
compensation. However, comparisons between military and civilian compensation present both limitations and challenges.
This study compared pay and benefits provided by law to members of the Armed Forces with that of comparably situated private-sector employees to assess how the differences in pay and benefits affect recruiting and retention of members of the Armed Forces. Tables and figures.
5) Supreme Court Appointment Process: Roles of the President, Judiciary Committee, and Senate
by Denis Stevens Rutkus (Paperback, 60 pages, $25)
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens recently announced that he will be retiring. How will President Obama select a new Justice? Read more in this report.
Contents: (I) Background; (II) President’s Selection of a Nominee (III) Consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee: Historical Background (IV) Senate Debate and Confirmation Vote; Bringing the Nomination to the Floor; Criteria Used to Evaluate Nominees; Filibusters and Motions to End Debate; Voice Votes, Roll Calls, and Vote Margins; Reconsideration of the Confirmation Vote; Nominations That Failed to Be Confirmed; Calling Upon the Judiciary Committee to Further Examine the Nomination; After Senate Confirmation; (V) Conclusion; (VI) Additional Sources. Tables.
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