A limited number of semester pass letters are available to other law school libraries in the greater New York area.  If you are interested in using another law school library for the spring 2012 semester, please go to the first floor reference desk to obtain a semester pass letter.  These letters are available on a first come, first served basis.  Passes to other law school libraries are valid until that school’s spring 2012 examinations begin.

The law school libraries that participate in this program are: Cardozo, Fordham, Hofstra, New York University (passes available for upper class students only), Pace, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Touro.

BLS students may use CUNY Law School Library or New York Law School Library by presenting a valid BLS identification card at either’s school’s building or library entrance.

With the coming Holiday Season, the BLS Library Blog will be away until the New Year. Brooklyn Law School and the BLS Library will close on Saturday, December 24 and reopen on Tuesday, January 3. Looking back at the history of the celebration of the Christmas holidays in the US shows that in early America, work went on as usual on Christmas day. Puritan influence in parts of New England stemming from the time of Cromwell in England discouraged Christmas celebration. See Nigel Jamieson, Oliver Cromwell – The Grinch That Stole Christmas, 26 Statute L. Rev. 189 (2005) (full text available in WestlawNext at this link). Before the Civil War, the North and the South were divided on the issue of Christmas. Many northerners thought it was sinful to celebrate Jesus’ birth or to put up a decorated tree. Most southerners, however, enjoyed the traditions of Christmas. Alabama was the first state to make it a legal holiday in 1836. Ohio did not legalize Christmas until 1857.

Christmas Day did not become a federal holiday until 1870 when President Ulysses S. Grant declared it a legal holiday. Rep. Burton Chauncey Cook (Ill.) introduced HR 2241 in the 41st Congress to make the day a holiday in the District of Columbia. After the Senate and the House agreed on the final wording, President Grant signed it into law on June 28, 1870. The act (a facsimile of which is available at the Library of Congress Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation website here) reads:

An Act making the first Day of January, the twenty-fifth Day of December, the fourth Day of July, and Thanksgiving Day, Holidays, within the District of Columbia. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following days, to wit: The first day of January, commonly called New Year’s day, the fourth day of July, the twenty-fifth day of December, commonly called Christmas Day, and any day appointed or recommended by the President of the United States as a day of public fast or thanksgiving, shall be holidays within the District of Columbia, and shall, for all purposes of presenting for payment or acceptance of the maturity and protest, and giving notice of the dishonor of bills of exchange, bank checks and promissory notes or other negotiable or commercial paper, be treated and considered as is the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, and all notes, drafts, checks, or other commercial or negotiable paper falling due or maturing on either of said holidays shall be deemed as having matured on the day previous. APPROVED, June 28, 1870 by President Ulysses S. Grant

The Library will be open on Friday, December 23, 2011 from 8:00am to 10:00pm.

From Saturday, December 23, 2011 through Monday, January 2, 2012 we will be closed for the winter holidays.

Our hours during intersession are Tuesday, January 3 – Friday, January 6, 2012, 9:00am -10:00pm and Saturday & Sunday, January 7 – 8, 2012, 9:00am – 5:00pm.

Happy holidays to all and enjoy the semester break!

Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services in a memorandum blocked a Food and Drug Administration recommendation to make Plan B available without a prescription to women under 17. The executive decision has drawn a response from a group of 15 US Senators who have sent a letter to HHS seeking the specific rationale and data that went into the decision. Now, US District Court for the Eastern District of New York Judge Edward R. Korman, Brooklyn Law School Class of 1966, has invited the Center for Reproductive Rights to file a motion to reopen its case, Tummino v. Hamburg, which accuses the FDA of failing to respond to a 2001 petition to remove age restrictions on Plan B and its generic form. The Center for Reproductive Rights press release states that “The FDA has essentially been holding women’s reproductive health hostage to political calculations.”

The CRR, with the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, brought suit challenging the FDA’s decision to restrict access to emergency contraception. In 2009, Korman issued an Order ruling in favor of the women’s groups and ordered the FDA to act within 30 days to extend over-the-counter access to 17-year-olds. Judge Korman rejected a request to hold the Food and Drug Administration in contempt of court over its policy on the emergency contraceptive Plan B but said he would consider reviewing the government’s refusal to make it easier for girls and women to get the drug. The judge will hear arguments over whether the agency should have allowed the sale of the morning-after pill to girls younger than 17 without a prescription. He also instructed advocacy groups to file the appropriate legal motions, specifically suggested adding Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to the lawsuit. For more information, see the Bloomberg article on this story.

This week, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Williams v. Illinois on whether a defendant’s rights were violated with the admission of expert testimony about the results of a DNA test where there was no opportunity to confront the actual analysts. Defendant’s attorney, in appealing a decision of the Illinois Supreme Court upholding the rape and kidnapping conviction, argued that without an analyst from the lab present to testify about the DNA results, the defendant’s rights were violated, especially since the lab tests themselves were not entered into evidence. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that there was no violation of the defendant’s confrontation right because the findings of the lab report were being admitted only to explain the expert’s opinion about the results.

December 10th marks Human Rights Day 2011, an annual celebration that began in December 1950, when the General Assembly declared a resolution inviting member states to celebrate the day as they saw fit. Sponsored by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Day incorporates events, media, and stories about the impact of human rights around the world. The day is when we remember the creation 63 years ago of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some of the rights embodied in the Declaration include the right to be free of torture, the right equal protection before the law, the right to marriage, and the right to education. This year, focuses on women’s rights and opportunities.



This year, following a year of protest in countries from Tunisia to Cairo to the Occupy movement, the theme of 2011 recognized the significance of social media and technology in assisting human rights defenders in new ways. Today, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights hosted a global conversation on human rights through social media. Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered Remarks in Recognition of International Human Rights Day addressing the Human Rights of LBGT persons globally. Today’s focus of the US Library of Congress 2011 Human Rights Day Celebration was Women’s Rights and Opportunities.

Brooklyn Law School Library has an extensive collection of material both in print and online dealing with different aspects of human rights. See, for example, Women’s Human Rights and Culture: From Deadlock to Dialogue by Rikki Holtmaat and Jonneke Naber (Call # K644 .H65 2011). The summary of this books states that “in all parts of the world, the implementation of women’s human rights is seriously being hindered by gender stereotypes, religion, custom or tradition, in short by ‘culture’. Culture is increasingly being used as an excuse to commit serious violations of these rights. It is also brought forward as the reason why governments refuse to implement them, arguing that their culture forces them to accept limited interpretations of international obligations in this area, or to reject such obligations altogether. This book provides women’s human rights advocates with dissuasive arguments and effective strategies to avoid a deadlock between on the one hand upholding the principle of universality of human rights, and on the other hand the right to preserve and express one’s culture.”

Brooklyn Law School students interested in summer internships should know that the Center for Court Innovation is accepting applications for its Summer 2012 Law School Internship Program. This is an unpaid internship, which will run for eight weeks to ten weeks, commencing in late May or early June and concluding in August. Founded as a public/private partnership between the New York State Unified Court System and the Fund for the City of New York, the Center for Court Innovation is a non-profit think tank that helps courts and criminal justice agencies aid victims, reduce crime and improve public trust in justice. The Center combines action and reflection to spark problem-solving innovation locally and nationally. In New York, the Center functions as the court system’s independent research and development arm, creating demonstration projects that test new ideas, such as community courts, drug courts, reentry courts, domestic violence courts, mental health courts, and juvenile justice initiatives.

Interested applicants should submit a letter of interest, a resume, the names and telephone numbers of two professional references, and a writing sample (limit 5-7 pages) in one document (a PDF is recommended) to legalinternships@courtinnovation.org no later than December 23. Indicate in the reference line one or two of the following areas of interest: drug courts, mental health courts, juvenile justice policy, education advocacy, program evaluation, community courts, community violence prevention.