To follow up an earlier post on this blog, Judicial Recusal and Prejudice, readers may be interested in news that Chief US District Judge James Ware rejected arguments by supporters of the Proposition 8 same-sex marriage ban that former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker should have recused himself, or divulged his sexual orientation, before declaring the ban unconstitutional. Judge Ware’s Order, available at the website of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, stated that:

[T]he presumption that “all people in same-sex relationships think alike” is an unreasonable presumption, and one which has no place in legal reasoning. The presumption that Judge Walker, by virtue of being in a same-sex relationship, had a desire to be married that rendered him incapable of making an impartial decision, is as warrantless as the presumption that a female judge is incapable of being impartial in a case in which women seek legal relief. On the contrary: it is reasonable to presume that a female judge or a judge in a same-sex relationship is capable of rising above any personal predisposition and deciding such a case on the merits. The Motion fails to cite any evidence that Judge Walker would be incapable of being impartial, but to presume that Judge Walker was incapable of being impartial, without concrete evidence to support that presumption, is inconsistent with what is required under a reasonableness standard.

This June, recognized as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month by Presidential Proclamation, has seen other news related to legal ramifications of same-sex marriage. An article at Law 360 (available by Brooklyn Law School Library subscription) reports that a California Bankruptcy Court issued a Memorandum of Decision that a same-sex couple may file a joint bankruptcy petition, ruling that denying their petition under the federal Defense of Marriage Act would violate the couple’s equal protection rights under the Fifth Amendment. In New York, the legislature has until June 20 to enact the Marriage Equality Act which would amend New York’s Domestic Relations Law and bring marriage equality to New York state. The Governor’s Office issued a press release to insure that “religious corporations” are “private” entities that do not have to accommodate gay marriage, meaning clergy will not be forced to marry gay couples.

While spring 2011 has been called the “Arab spring” because of the civil wars, uprisings and revolutions in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, etc., it looks like early 2011 may also be called the spring/summer/season of political scandal.  While we hate to see our brothers in humankind involved in tragic events, it’s another story if they are involved in unseemly behavior of their own making.  We are often curious about what goes on behind closed doors, but now that people can broadcast their own intimate behavior in the various social media, we can all become spectators to their peccadillos.

If now or later in the summer you need a break from your bar review study, summer school reading or whatever heavy duty reading you’re involved in, you might want to check out a book from the BLS library on “political scandals.”

Below are a few titles available in our collection.  If none of these titles wets your appetite, you may also search for other titles in WorldCat Local and make interlibrary loans request through ILLiad.

• Burnham, David.  Above the law: secret deals, political fixes and other misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice.  New York, Scribner, 1996.   Location:  Main KF 5107 .B87 1996
• Chambliss, William.  On the take: from petty crooks to presidents.  Bloomington, Ind., Indiana University Press, 1988.  Location:  Main HV 6446 .C43 1988
• Garment, Suzanne.  Scandal: the crisis of mistruct in American politics.  New York, Times Books, 1991.  Location:  Main JK 2249 .G37 1991
• Kessler, Ronald.   Inside Congress: the shocking scandals, corruption, and abuse of power behind the scenes on Capitol Hill.   New York, Pocket Books, 1997.  Location:  Main JK 1021 .K47 1997
• Miller, Hope R.  Scandals in the highest office; facts and fictions in the private lives of our Presidents.  New York, Random House, 1973.  Location:  Main E 176.1 .M555
• Mitchell, Jack.  Executive privilege: two centuries of White House scandals.  New York, Hippocrene Books, 1992.  Location:  Main E 176.1 .M67 1992
• Young, Andrew.  The politician: an insider’s account of John Edward’s pursuit of the presidency and the scandal that brought him down. New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 2010.  Location:  Main E 840.8 .E29 Y68 2010

Episode 066 – Conversation with Prof. Claire Kelly.mp3

In this podcast, Brooklyn Law School Professor Claire Kelly discusses her recent article, Financial Crisis and Civil Society, published in the Chicago Journal of International Law, Volume 11, Number 2, page 505 (Winter 2011). One of a series that Professor Kelly has written on international organizations and the financial crisis, the article addresses how these institutions confront demands for greater legitimacy in light of the public policy implications of their actions and the idea that greater participation by civil society may foster greater legitimacy by improving representativeness, transparency, accountability, and reasoned decision making. Prof. Kelly argues that international financial organizations should carefully calibrate civil society participation to improve their legitimacy without hampering their efforts.

Prof. Kelly has expertise in International Business Transactions, International Trade, Administrative Law and New York Practice. Her extensive writings on these topics are available here.

On Monday, June 6, 2011, Brooklyn Law School held its 110th Commencement Ceremony at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. For the BLS Class of 2011, some 437 graduating students received their Juris Doctor degrees. Family and friends heard Hon. Thomas Buergenthal, professor of law at The George Washington School of Law and recently retired judge of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, deliver an address to the graduates. Judge Buergenthal urged the graduates to remember their duty as lawyers to protect the international human rights of all people, even during this time of economic uncertainty. Class Valedictorian, Alex Paul Ginsberg, an evening part-time student, gave the valedictory speech to his classmates. Ginsburg, who received the First Scholarship Prize, acknowledged his parents Marc and Judith Ginsberg in the audience of Avery Fisher Hall. The Ginsbergs usually appear on stage as violinists with the New York Philharmonic.

Among the Class of 2011, seven received their degrees Summa Cum Laude: Ryan M. Gainor, Stanton R. Gallegos, Alex Paul Ginsberg, Heather Marie Martone, Jordan Hollenberg Oreck, Carmela T. Romeo, Andrew T. Schwenk, Elina Shindelman, and Sarah Haith Young. Thirty-three students received their degrees Magna Cum Laude and sixty-seven students received their degrees Cum Laude. The full list of students graduating with honors is here. A list of Commencement Prizes and Awards for the Class of 2011 is available here.

Brooklyn Law School students who are looking for an insider view about the legal job market will want to attend the New York City Bar Association program Recruiting Tips from the Insider’s View on Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 6:30 PM at 42 West 44th Street. There will be a panel of recruiters, counselors, and lawyers, who have been through the recruiting process on both sides of the table, to discuss their insider knowledge. Program attendees will learn tips from leaders in the field of recruiting, receive tools to evaluate and improve interview techniques, and receive resources on the current state of recruiting. The program is free, but registration in required in advance. The link is here.

The Moderator, Sandra Bang, Director, Global Legal Talent Development, Shearman & Sterling LLP, will introduce Speakers, Dan Shin, Associate, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, Stuart Smith, Director of Legal Recruitment, New York City Law Department, and Jane Stein, Americas Director of Attorney Recruiting, White & Case.

NY State Attorney General’s complaint in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn aims to force an environmental impact study of proposed natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin, which includes the New York City watershed. Defendants are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. In a press release, AG Eric T. Schneiderman said “Before any decisions on drilling are made, it is our responsibility to follow the facts and understand the public health and safety effects posed by potential natural gas development. The federal government has an obligation to undertake the necessary studies, and as I made clear last month, this office will compel it to do so.”

The Delaware River Basin Commission, a federal-interstate body composed of the Army Corps and the governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, proposed regulations to allow 15,000 to 18,000 gas wells to be drilled within the basin, most of which would be developed by the controversial hydraulic fracturing technique called “fracking”. The DRBC has the legal authority to approve or disapprove activities that may substantially affect water resources within the 13,500 square-mile Delaware River Basin.

A Law 360 article, NY Sues US Over Fracking In Delaware River Basin, available to the Brooklyn Law School community by a BLS Library subscription, says that “The lawsuit claims that bypassing the environmental study would constitute a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, which demands that federal agencies conduct a full review of actions that may cause significant environmental impact. Unlike in Pennsylvania and other states, no hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling has taken place yet in New York’s shale formations.

Hydraulic fracturing is a way of extracting natural gas and oil by injecting water, sand, and chemicals into dried-up wells to release trapped resources beneath the ground. With evidence that fracking can result in heavily polluted waterways, legislation to limit it include the New York State Assembly’s bill, A7400, which would establish a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until an EPA issues a report on the practice. In Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer has co-sponsored a bill to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to repeal an exemption for hydraulic fracturing. A NY Times Drilling Down series of articles examined the risks of natural-gas drilling and efforts to regulate it and included Extracting Natural Gas From Rock. Researchers from Cornell completed the first peer-reviewed paper on methane emissions from shale gas. For more, read the article about the study on Cornell’s site. BLS Library users can also search across multiple databases at once for other articles on the topic.

Earlier this year, the Environmental Law Society hosted the documentary Gasland, which examines the environmental impacts of fracking. The trailer for the film is here.

By a vote of 204-215, the House rejected H.AMDT.344 from Reps. James McGovern (D-Mass.) and Justin Amash (R-Mich.) that would have required the Department of Defense to develop a plan for an “accelerated transition of military operations to Afghan authorities.” The final roll call on the vote shows that all but 8 Republicans voted against the accelerated transition and all but 8 Democrats supported it. The amendment to H.R. 1540 (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012) proposed a plan to speed up the withdrawal and was not an immediate requirement to withdraw forces.

As we near Memorial Day, the number of U.S. troop deaths in the Afghanistan War now exceeds 1,500. This video from Rethink Afghanistan says this should be the last Memorial Day when we put military families through this kind of agony. Bring the troops home.

This week’s NY Times had stories about several noted Brooklyn Law School graduates. The Music section had an article about Bruce Ricker, Class of 1970, who went on to become a filmmaker. Ricker’s first feature-length film was, “The Last of the Blue Devils,” a portrait of Kansas City’s old-time jazzmen released in 1979. He also produced several made for television documentaries, including “Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends” (2007), “Johnny Mercer: The Dream’s on Me” (2009) and “Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way” (2010). Ricker died on May 13 in Cambridge at the age of 68.

A second article, The Right Job? It’s Much Like the Right Spouse, is an interview with Barry Salzberg, Class of 1977, and chief executive of Deloitte LLP. Recollecting an early lesson about retrieving a case from the library in his first job, he goes on to discuss leadership and management style and other lessons he learned since graduating law school. His comments on what he looks for in hiring new associates are worthwhile reading for law students who want to improve their interviewing skills.

The third article is Guard Dog to the Stars (Legally Speaking) highlighting Martin D. Singer, Class of 1977. His firm, Lavely & Singer, has built a niche practice — shielding stars and their adjuncts from annoyance — into a Hollywood mainstay. Singer’s firm, which does no criminal legal work, has become the legal protector of celebrity superstars like Charlie Sheen, Arnold Schwartzengger, Quentin Tarantino and Sylvester Stallone. Representation often involves the suppression of possible defamation of clients and disputes over commissions between them and their managers.