Time is Money and Voice is a Rolex

Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has been charged with 11 counts of corruption charges. He built a professional relationship with Jonnie Williams a business woman whom also was apart of a dietary supplement company called Star Scientific. Throughout the governors political career he has been given money and gifts, like a rolex from Mrs. Williams. His wife has also been given loans for her children's weddings. During this time, McDonnell has also publicly supported this supplement personally and professionally. While governor he pushed clinical trials for this drug in public state universities to help move along the process of the FDA approval of this drug. He even displayed the drug to the health department and secretary of administrations, who controlled the health plans for the state government workers. The court is trying to make a case that says he was bribed by Jonnie Williams with these gifts to help get this drug introduced into the universities system and the state governments eyes. Although, Bob McDonnell's attorney makes the case that the court is directly violating his first amendment rights because his actions are protected by his conduct under the first amendment. The question is, where does the first amendment stop? It used to protect citizens being falsely prosecuted by the government but now the amendment protects political candidates and their big corporation supporters by making it private record of donations and political support. Should we hide our contributions as a society or try and change our legal freedoms and protections?

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Actions Speak Louder than Words

Recently a Virgin Islands prosecutor has subpoenaed Exxon, an oil company, for documents regarding its climate change studies and how their products affect the environment. Exxon, has maid the claim that the subpoena is unconstitutional and it affects their first amendment rights. Exxon is protected under the first amendment because it falls under the corporate personhood right which means because the company is a corporation and is made up of people, it shall be treated like a person under the first amendment. Although that doesn't mean they are not held liable for abusing first amendment rights. The prosecutor from the virgin islands believes that Exxon persuaded its own investigators to falsely lead on the media and news how Exxon actually affects the climate where they work and how their products affect the environment. Along with these allegations, comes national attention regarding the issue how wealthy Exxon is. Exxon states that just because they are one of the most influential oil companies doesn't mean they shouldn't have a say in this matter, they then state that the public allows wealthy people all the time to inform the public, but why not companies? Exxon tells the Huffington Post that they are worried about the chilling affect these allegations will give the prosecutor and possible the federal government if this turns into a major issue. Exxon could even be slapped with a criminal charge of trying to defraud the united states government, because with its alleged false climate documents they could have applied for government funding regarding these studies to help pay the scientists who could of spoke on Exxon's behalf and not the Earth's.
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Chalk Talk

The University of Illinois has recently become under the spotlight for an incident regarding a message written on a sidewalk in front of a Hispanic education building. The message that was written in chalk said, "Build the Wall." Obviously the message was written in reference to presidential candidates speech where he said he would build a wall to keep the Mexicans out and in return the Mexicans would pay for it to keep out the drug runners, rapists and murderers, again this is all based off of Donald Trump's opinion and has no backing in any way. Due to the fact that this message was written in front of a Hispanic education building it is seemed as a hate crime towards the Hispanic people attending the University of Illinois. Following this incident, there was another message written in chalk on a sidewalk on campus that stated "They have to go back #Trump." The administration is fed up with these racist crimes on campus. They do not have proof a student wrote this but they belief it is very possible. The university blames these incidents on freedom of speech and the people that abuse that freedom given in the first amendment. The university doesn't want to suppress freedom of speech or their student’s opinions, but they say there are many other ways that they can voice their opinions that won’t offend numerous people through ignorant claims. The students have the resources and the class where they can have the appropriate times to be educated and then make claims about immigration reform.

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Hear No Evil, See No Evil

Unfortunately in the news lately all we see is social inequality. A very over looked demographic of people whose opinion and rights that are irrelevant are us students. Student at public and private universities around America are being suppressed by their universities or by the administrations of other schools. We have, as many rights as private school students as prisoners, is that fair? No, but that’s how the system works. In today's world social media is a strong influence over politics whether it’s the national debate or equality on college campuses. One campus for example has grasped the eye of the media is Boston College. A group of students have duct taped their mouths and wrote quotes on the duct tape and stood in the middle of campus to protest how they have a lack of say as students of a university. Members of the undergraduate SGA even brought their concerns of anti-diversity and inequality to town hall to grab the attention of local politicians to see if they could influence the Boston College Administration. Unfortunately they were brought into the administration offices for student conduct and not what they were fighting for. Even when media outlets ask to discuss the matter with the Boston College administration they are told they can only have interviews behind closed doors and they could only be 1 on 1. There is no reason why their cant be social equality on college campuses. Just because something is a private entity or institution doesn’t mean they should abide by certain constitutional rights or even social norms like equality.

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Food for Thought

On March 22nd, the Society of Professional Journalists held an event that would give people free food in return of their 1st amendment rights. So for the event once you got your food, you would eat in a room with "police officers" (members of the Society of Professional Journalists) and they could place you in jail for 5-10 minutes for anything you did or didn't do. This ranged from your food being to close to each other on your plate or even being with a certain amount of people for too long of a time. Once people started getting annoyed with how unreal these punishments were for these actions, they were explained by the administrators, that is how it is like in some countries without 1st amendment rights. Most Americans take the first amendment right for granted, because they haven't experienced what it is like to live without it before. Towards the end of the study the participants didn't want the food anymore, they wanted their freedoms back, they couldn't live without their freedom of religion, speech, petition, assembly and press. 11.3% of people in today's world suffer from hunger and 100% of people are affected by their first amendment rights being violated either directly or indirectly by the government. Usually the question to solve world issues like world hunger is, how can we feed the needy? But the real question is, what kills more people in these 3rd world countries their lack of freedoms or their lack of food?
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Plessy Blog Post

A dissenting opinion is an opinion by one or more judges about a legal court case, that expresses their collective disagreement about the specific court, this causes rise to it's judgement.
I feel Justice Harlan wrote about the Plessy Case because he was distraught and angered by the ignorance of the people and the other Justices in this case. He displays excerpts from previous legal and government documents stating how our government is color blind and ignorant to social class. Although segregation is completely contradicting to documents like the constitution. I think in 1896, people would have heavily disagreed with his argument due to their previous living standards and what they were used too, also most of them were probably ignorant to change during that time. In 2016, I feel people would be more accommodating and understanding because of what we are used to, we are more of a caring and changing community. The world is constantly evolving and changing just like civilization. With the actions of few that dramatically change our social structure, we are able to change our society for the better, although is no brave people stand up for those whom have no opinion we will stay un changed as a society and die off.

SLAPP in the Face for Trump

Being a controversial figure in today's society always has it's pros and cons. Primarily its cons of negative media and false articles about the party being talked about. Donald J. Trump, presidential candidate, has been a loud mouth causing a ruckus through out DC and america stirring up controversy and creating his own like building a wall bordering two countries. Donald trump at a recent presidential rally mentioned that he wants to open up libel laws, simply stating it would make it easier to sue publishing companies and periodicals for defamation and libel. SLAPP is abbreviated for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, simply it is Trump's best friend when he sees an article that can puncture holes in his presidential campaign. Trump has been publicly open when talking negative about news companies whether on twitter, during debates or even at rallies. It would only make sense for his to want to keep this act in all 50 states and to change constitutional law regarding libel suits so he can control what news is out and open to the public. Although becoming president wouldn't help him change where SLAPP is used or even libel laws due to the fact it is state law and not federal law, maybe he should run for governor of New Jersey  before running for President of the United States to change libel law. To be honest you should read this article and share it with your friends before Trump sues me and forces me to take down my blog. I'm all with him though and we all should be, we should believe in the impossible!
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Highway to iOS Backdoor

In December fo 2015 there was an unfortunate event where 2 terrorists killed 15 innocent civilians in San Bernardino, California. Much information is still unknown about the terrorists and their motives. Much of their personal items have been confiscated but one item has been collected that is causing controversy, the iPhone. One of the shooters, Syed Farook, iPhone was recovered but is locked with a passcode. The FBI who is investigating this case states they need to access his phone to learn crucial information about the attack. The FBI has formally asked Apple, the phone developer and designer, to design a "back door" so the FBI can access a locked phone without having to know the password. Apple responded with saying it was unconstitutional also a myriad of other reasons like it could set precedent for other criminal cases like this forcing phone companies to created forged operating systems to over ride the security protocol embedded in the phones software. Apple also stated that the FBI reset the iPhones iCloud account password so any information on the phone would have been uploaded to iCloud which can be used to store personal information from the phone in a cloud server. So if the FBI did some research before fondeling with the phone they would have had a better chance trying to recover information from Farook's phone. The FBI brought this case to congress only to be shut down by both parties saying it is a fools errand, mocking the FBI's efforts to get Apple to creat a back door.
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Classroom Court Day 1

In class this week our first case we heard was State vs. Mann. This case is about a slaveholder "assaulting" a slave by shooting him in the back because he was running away and not following conduct. The state pleads that Mann must pay fines for assaulting the slave by shooting him but also they request jail time for Mann's actions. Mann pleads it was in his constitutional right to take the necessary measures to ensure his slave stayed on his land, he also states even though he shot his slave in the back no permanent injury occurred and he fully recovered after a few days. The state used religion and new laws as a basis for finding Mann guilty but, Mann's council proved Hon. Smith beyond a probable doubt that there was no wrongdoing was made on Mann's Part.

The slaves legal council tried to make the argument that Mann should be charged with attempted murder but had no basis to prove the motive for Mann shooting the slave. There was a lack of evidence proving Mann to have wanted to kill his slave, so the grounds of attempted murder were dismissed. The state then pleaded for him to be charged with property damage because of him shooting the slave but then that contradicted their basis for attempted murder by saying he wasn’t property but a human being. So I feel that the state didn’t form a strong enough basis to find Mann guilty if he was but also they lacked to be efficient in their legal work and collection of evidence.

Once a Minority, Always Overlooked

Over the past 30 years Ron McGuire has been legal council for CUNY students whom voices are heard but never listened to. The minorities in CUNY schools hold a majority of the population in their classrooms. One of the greatest parts of McGuire's work was not just the success he had in court but also the Pro Bono work he does for them. He doesn't charge them and he also helps their word become equal with the voices of other students when dealing with academic publications or SGA elections.
Unfortunately his work is overlooked by others and the NYC society and his work is not compensated for even by the State Government and minority organizations. So he went to the court of Appeals to try and get compensated $800,000 dollars for the most recent 17 years of work he has done but now the bargain is set at $56,000 and slowly decreasing. He personally doesn't care about the money but he worries that if he isn't compensated by someone for his work, no other attorneys will want to work and fight for these unheard voices in these situations.
The most unique cases he has worked on was the reversal of appeals of judgements made by authorities in CUNy schools regarding elections and school chronicles. In one particular case 34 minorities were set to win an election, but the election was taken over and changed because of the circumstances they were put in. McGuire has set many precedents in the court of appeals though that will fight for the students of CUNY long after he has retired.

Obligated Dues, Obligated Support

Rebecca Friedrichs is a teacher in Orange County, California who is apart of her local teachers union while also fighting against it. She used to be a union officer and fought rigorously for reform in the job sector of the Union. She made pleas with her superiors to only have to get a pay cut but, she  was content with it because it meant hardworking teachers could save their job! Only to find out that the union would have agendas of its own and would cut jobs anyway. Friedrichs became furious with her union because of this and many other issues like annual union dues. Due to the fact that she is apart of the union and pays the dues on paper she supports the union and their believes, the only problem is that she doesn't. So she brought the union to court on basis of the first amendment because she is forced to support something that she doesn't. She won and her case is now started to be seen in the supreme court starting January 11th.
She views this as a win so far, but previous court precedent could be in the way of her and her fellow teachers victory. Unfortunately for Friedrichs and other teachers they must pay these dues to their local teachers union because thats their only hope to fight against capitalism in the education sector of the government, although money that is used to fight agendas could also be used towards teachers or even teaching resources instead of legal fees. Either way teachers are forced into paying dues to support causes they don't believe in just so they aren't in a fight alone and aren't independent in the class room, the union does fight for some reform which is beneficial to the teachers.
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Officer of Law or Resident of New Jersey

First Amendment cases are always very abundant due to the complex nature of the first amendment and how it protests the words of the spoken and the thoughts of the mute. Recently a case in New Jersey is highlighting the matter of public support of mayoral candidates by government workers. A police officer was supposedly fired and demoted for supporting a challenging candidate of his superior officer, although "he was picking up a sign for his mother." He won a case in civil court but then the judge dropped the case because a conflict of interest. This case should be seen in the superior court later this year in June. 
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