Summer’s Here!
By LASIS Staff
The calendar would disagree, but for LASIS, summer has arrived. This Sunday our senior reporters will be graduating at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall (we look forward to a fine commencement speech by New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg). Junior reporters are finishing their final exams, and in the next week or two will begin working at human rights organizations, law firms, and media companies.
Which means, dear reader, that except for some short updates, perhaps, LASIS is officially on summer hiatus.
We look forward to resuming our legal reporting in the early fall.
Have a wonderful summer!
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Date 05/16/2013 |
“A Desperate Need for More Protections”
By LASIS Staff
We recently wrote about the plight of a Fox News reporter who is being threatened with jail time for not revealing her sources. We took the opportunity to lament the absence of a federal shield law for reporters.
Though it’s a shame it took the A.P. scandal to remind our lawmakers about the importance and desirability of such a law, we’re glad a federal bill protecting reporters is being reintroduced by Senator Schumer.
An editorial in today’s New York Times says that it’s unclear at this time whether or not a federal shield law could have protected the A.P. from the administration’s intrusion.
Still, as the editorial points out: “This scandal shows that there is a desperate need for more protections of press freedoms.”
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Tags AP, journalism, protection of press freedom, revealing sources, Scandal |
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Date 05/16/2013 |
Occupying the Pledge of Allegiance
Salvador Allende, Chile’s former president and reformer, once said, “To be young and not revolutionary is a contradiction, even biologically.”
I’ve done my fair share of protesting. Back home in Puerto Rico, I’ve participated in marches, sit-ins and the 62-day shut down of my college campus protesting the government’s draconian spending cuts on education. Coming to New York for law school just as the Occupy Wall Street protests began helped calm my homesickness. This is why the story that I read recently about a Maryland high school student’s protest caught my attention.
Ever since she was in the seventh grade, 15 year old Enidris Siurano-Rodríguez of Montgomery County has chosen to sit quietly each morning while her classmates have stood and pledged allegiance to the flag. Earlier this year, one teacher told her that she had to stand. When she refused, she was taken to the principal’s office where she was asked (not too nicely) to explain why she refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, according to an article in a major Puerto Rican newspaper. Ms. Siurano-Rodríguez – Puerto Rican born but living in Maryland since she was three years old – is protesting what she believes to be an “antidemocratic” political situation between the Caribbean island and the United States.
While it’s unclear whether there have been actual disciplinary measures taken against her by school officials, Ms. Siurano-Rodríguez has been told that she might be separated from the class during the Pledge of Allegiance if she refuses to participate. Can a public school do this? Are school officials legally permitted to hinder a student from quietly protesting just because it might be deemed unpatriotic? LASIS investigates.
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Tags Bethel School District v. Fraser, Enidris Siurano-Rodriguez, Jones Act, Maryland, Montgomery County, Pledge of Allegiance, Puerto Rico, school protest, Tinker v. Des Moines |
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Date 04/30/2013 |
Our Justice System, For Better and for Worse
By LASIS Staff
Two of our nation’s prominent defense attorney shine a light on what really goes on inside a courtroom in a new book titled tilted, “Mistrial.”
Written by Mark Geragos and Pat Harris, the book (getting lots of buzz) is a “searing and entertaining manifesto on the ills of the criminal justice system.”
LASIS has a copy of the new book to give away to one lucky reader.
Send an email with your name and address to legalassheisspoke@gmail.com before 5pm on Wednesday, May 1.
The winner will be chosen in a random drawing.
UPDATE, May 1, 2013: Congratulations to Veronica Guzman Willis of San Pedro, California on winning a copy of “Mistrial”!
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Tags Ann Coulter, Casey Anthony, Mark Geragos, Michael Jackson, Nancy Grace, OJ Simpson, Pat Harris, Winona Ryder |
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Date 04/25/2013 |
The Conspiracy Theorist, Now in Boston
By LASIS Staff
Professor James Tracy from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) is at it again. In February, LASIS reporter Jennifer Williams told us that Dr. Tracy had taken to his personal blog to question how real the Sandy Hook massacre was. And now, he has set his sights on the Boston bombings writing that the explosions were some kind of drill carried out by the government.
An excerpt from Dr. Tracy’s blog: “In short, the event closely resembles a mass-casualty drill, which for training purposes are designed to be as lifelike as possible. Since it is mediated, however, and primarily experienced from afar through the careful assemblage of words, images, and the official pronouncements and commentary of celebrity journalists, it has the semblance of being for all practical purposes ‘real.’”
Dr. Tracy then offers what he calls “photographic evidence” to support his position and to suggest that actors could be seen getting into position after the explosions.
FAU quickly distanced itself from Dr. Tracy’s statements. “As with all postings on his personal blog, Florida Atlantic University does not agree with Mr. Tracy’s views or opinions,” a statement from FAU spokeswoman Lisa Metcalf said. “The university stands with the rest of the country in our support of the victims of the Boston Marathon tragedy.”
We’d love to hear from any of Dr. Tracy’s students. What kind of instructor is this man, who spouts what we think can fairly be described as loony, and despicable, conspiracy theories?
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Tags Boston Marathon bombings, conspiracy theory, Dr. James Tracy, Florida Atlantic University, Sandy Hook massacre |
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Date 04/25/2013 |