Approved by the ABA House of Delegates
Sept. 2010
At the 2010 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, the House of Delegates approved resolutions that the Criminal Justice Section initiated or co-sponsored regarding the following issues (click on the relevant REPORT # to view the full text of the resolution and the background report):
A new study of judicial independence from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School
Authored by James Sample, Adam Skaggs, Jonathan Blitzer, Linda Casey Edited by Charles Hall
Foreword by Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
On Saturday May 22, 2010, Democrat Andrew Cuomo the New York State Attorney General made an official announcement that he will seek the New York governor’s job once held by his father, Mario Cuomo. Below we include two links to documents released along with the announcement. The first link is to the transcript of the announcement The second is to a policy statement which he calls his “New York Agenda: A Plan for Action”. This is an extensive document which focuses on many areas including new education, environment, and energy.
The beginning of the “New York Agenda: A Plan for Action” includes a summary in the form of the following bullet points which collectively provide an overall picture of the agenda being presented.:
1. Clean Up Albany. We must restore honor and integrity to government, with tough new ethics standards, expanded disclosure requirements, independent investigators to root out and punish corruption, and an overhaul of campaign finance laws. We must remove legislative redistricting from partisan elected politicians and place it in the hands of an independent commission that works only for the people. And we must hold a constitutional convention – A People’s Convention – to rewrite the Constitution and make these changes immediately because we cannot wait any longer for the state legislature to act.
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has released its 2010 Annual Report which ” recommends [a] greater role for state high court, and public disciplinary proceedings, in conduct cases” The 2010 Report documents the Commission’s work in 2009.
The Commission is the state agency responsible for investigating complaints of misconduct against judges of the state unified court system and, where appropriate, disciplining such judges for violations of the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct.
The News Release announcing the release of the 2010 Annual Report is available here.
Jonathan Lippman, Chief Judge of the State of New York
INTRODUCTION
This is my first State of the Judiciary message as the Chief Judge of the State of New York. Months ago, I was expecting to give a live address at Court of Appeals Hall in Albany, similar to those given by some of my predecessor Chief Judges-and next year, maybe I will. But 2010 is very different from earlier years, and this will not be a typical State of the Judiciary message.
A Legal Analysis of Reed Elsevier, Inc. v, Muchnick
March 18, 2010
CRS Report No. R40944; 3/18/2010; Posted 4/5/2010 Author(s): Brian T. Yeh, Legislative Attorney Subject(s): Intellectual Property
On October 6, 2009 the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for access to records concerning “use of social networking websites (including, but not limited to Facebook, MYSpace, Twitter, Flickr and other online social media) for investigative (crimiinal or otherwise) data gathering purposes created since January 2003…”. The response from DOJ, date stamped March 3, 2010 states that “While processing your request we located one record totaling 33 pages. After careful review of this document we determined to release this item in part.”. It goes on to explain that material being witheld from this one document, Obtaining and Using Evidence From Social Networking Sites, consists of work telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of DOJ attorneys..
Click here to download the document: OBTAINING AND USING EVIDENCE FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
House Democrats are reported to be making a final push this weekend to pass health care legislation. To that end a nearly final version of a bill, along with a report on the bill’s cost by the Congressional Budget Office, was unveiled yesterday. A final showdown regarding this legislation is expected this Sunday March 21.
As part of our series of postings regarding efforts to overhaul the health care system in the United States we are making the following documents accessible:
On March 10, 2010 New York Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch released a fiscal reform plan which calls for a five-year plan to eliminate the State’s structural imbalance and introduces a process by which annual budget balance is mandated, minitored and maintained. The plan calls for up to $2 billion in borrowing for the next three years and a financial review board consisting of five members, one each from the Assembly and the State Senate, two appointed by the Governor and one appointed by the New York State Comptroller.:
Summary
The President’s health care proposal as released on February 22 purports to put “…American families and small business owners in control of their health care. To help those who are following this issue we are providing in this post, links to a 10+ page Summary prepared by the White House. This document provides a good overview and discussion regarding provisions in the proposed legislation.
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