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The New York Legal Blog Round Up

Blawgs It's a dreary Monday here in Rochester and time for the weekly round up of posts from my fellow New York blawgers:

New York Civil Law:

New York Criminal Defense Blog:

New York Personal Injury Law Blog:

Rochester Family Lawyer:

Second Opinions:

The CPLR Blog:


Define That Term #205

Dictionary_2 Last week's term was homestead declaration, which is defined as:

A form filed with the county recorder's office to put on record your right to a homestead exemption. In most states, the homestead exemption is automatic--that is, you are not required to record a homestead declaration in order to claim the homestead exemption. A few states do require such a recording, however.


Edward Wiest got it right, right?

Today's term is:

words of procreation.

And no, it's not what it sounds like.  No dictionaries, please.


The New York Legal News Round Up

Latest_news It's time for the weekly round up of New York law-related new headlines:


Fear and Liberty Must Co-exist

Drlogo11

This week's Daily Record column is entitled "Fear and liberty must co-exist."

A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.


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Fear and Liberty Must Co-exist

“[F]ear cannot…allow…the evisceration of the bedrock principle of our Constitution that no one can be arrested without probable cause that a crime has been committed.”
Farag v. U.S., __F.Supp.2d__, 2008 WL 4965167 (EDNY 2008)

Just before Thanksgiving, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York addressed the intriguing issue of whether federal agents could rely solely on airline passengers’ Arab ethnicity when determining whether probable cause exists for their arrest.

In Farag v. U.S., the plaintiffs brought a Bivens claim against governmental entities and employees, asserting that their arrest and subsequent detention and interrogation violated their constitutional rights.

The plaintiffs, both of Egyptian descent, were long-time friends. One was an American citizen and a retired New York City police officer while the other possessed a valid U.S. Visa and was an Egyptian citizen, employed as a sales manager by General Electric.

After vacationing in California, the plaintiffs boarded a plane in San Diego bound for New York City. Counterterrorism agents were on the flight as well and subsequently detained and arrested the plaintiffs based on suspicions of terrorism.

The government asserted probable cause for the plaintiffs’ arrest existed based on non-ethnic factors. The court dismissed that argument, then turned to the government’s claim that the plaintiffs’ Arab ethnicity and use of the Arabic language were relevant factors in the determination of probable cause since the individuals who “participated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks were Middle Eastern males … [and] the United States continues to face a very real threat of domestic terrorism from Islamic terrorists.”

In other words, their position was that, in our post-9/11 world, the mere fact that an airline passenger is believed to be of Arab ethnicity is of great importance when determining probable cause since Arabs have a greater propensity to commit acts of terrorism than non-Arabs.

The court flatly rejected this argument, noting that precedent from both state and federal courts squarely supported the conclusion that ethnicity should not be used as the basis to support governmental intrusion under the Fourth Amend-
ment:

There is no doubt the specter of 9/11 looms large over the case. Although it is the first post-9/11 case to address whether race may be used to establish criminal propensity under the Fourth Amendment, the court cannot subscribe to the notion that in the wake of 9/11 doing so now is permissible. As the Second Circuit recently admonished, “the strength of our system of constitutional rights derives from the steadfast protection of those rights in both normal and unusual times.” Iqbal v. Hasty, 490 F.3d 143, 159
(Second Cir. 2007), cert. granted sub nom. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, __U.S.__, , 128 S.Ct. 2931, __L.Ed.2d__ (2008).

It is heartening to read those words in the context of a court decision, rather than an editorial. The United States is a great country founded on the principles of liberty and freedom from baseless governmental intrusions. Such protections, embodied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, are what separate us from much of the world.

We cannot allow the horrors of 9/11 to reduce us to a land of people paralyzed by fear, full of hatred and distrust. Our legitimate concerns regarding our safety and the safety of our families must never be permitted to override the liberties and freedoms to which all people are entitled, regardless of their race, religion or creed.

Fear and liberty can co-exist. They must co-exist; otherwise the America we know will be no more.


The New York Legal Blog Round Up

Blawgs It's a ridiculously cold Monday here in Rochester, but nevertheless time for the weekly round up of interesting posts from my fellow New York law bloggers.

And, let me reiterate that I do my best to include posts of interest to my readers-New York lawyers.

Due to the increasing number of New York blawgs and time restraints, I can't include posts from every blog each week.  I do my best to offer a variety of posts and give link love to as many fellow blawgers as possible, however.  Please don't take offense if I leave your blog out on any given week!

And, without further ado, the round up:

Coverage Counsel:

New York Attorney Malpractice Blog:

New York Civil Law:

New York Court Watcher:

New York Criminal Defense:

New York Law Blog:

New York Personal Injury Law Blog:

Simple Justice:


Define That Term #204

Dictionary_2 The most recent term was the doctrine of legislative equivalency, which is defined as:

A position in the public service created by a legislative act can only be abolished by a correlative legislative act (Matter of Torre v. County of Nassau, 86 NY2d 42).

No one guessed this time around.  Thanks again to Harvey Randall of the New York Public Personnel Law blog for suggesting it.

Today's term is:

homestead declaration.

As always educated guesses are welcome; dictionaries are not.


New York Legal News Round Up

Latest_news It's time, once again, for the weekly round up of interesting law-related news headlines from the past week:


Sometimes You Have to Laugh at the Law

Drlogo11

This week's Daily Record column is entitled "Sometimes you have to laugh at the law"

A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.

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Sometimes you have to laugh at the law

I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday; now I offer you the following humorous tidbits, parsed from my Legal Antics blog at nylawbog.typepad.com/legalantics. I hope they’ll tide you over until the December holidays.

First, as this quote from a recent California Court of Appeals case shows, while some lawyers may believe their legal arguments are fascinating, their captive audience is not always as enthusiastic:

Appellate counsel for both sides have done an outstanding job, resulting in briefs that have been more than ordinarily helpful to the court. The fact remains that the issues are far from enthralling; they demand an almost microscopic examination of dry, lengthy contract documents. As we embark on the resolution of these issues, then, we think it only fair to suggest that the reader might want to be sitting in a comfortable chair, with a cup of strong coffee nearby.

American Guarantee and Liability Ins. Co. v. ADP Marshall Inc. (CA4/2, Dec. 4, 2007) no. E041182 (Richli, J.).

Fortunately, not all lawyers are as dry and boring, as evidenced by Kevin A Gliwa’s attorney biography, found on the Web site of the Otten Johnson law firm:

Kevin, a Shareholder practicing in Otten Johnson’s real estate group, was raised by penguins following a childhood boating accident. He graduated magna cum laude from Colby College,  where he learned that not all issues can be reduced to black or white. He received his law degree from Boston University, which he attended on a full football scholarship through an administrative error. Thereafter, he worked for four years as an associate at a large law firm in New York, where he once rode an elevator to the top of the Empire State Building. He lectures frequently to his children on a variety of subjects. He enjoys swimming and fishing, despite the painful memories.

In the years since Kevin’s bio was published at Otten Johnson’s predecessor Web site, he has received many bemused queries, often pertaining to the state of his health. To limit future inquiry, here are his answers to some of the more frequently asked questions:

(a) Emperor, not King.

(b) Yes it was cold, but I had a sweater.

(c) Sushi.

Of course, no matter how funny we are, not everyone likes us, as can be gleaned from this lawyer joke, one of my favorites:

Two physicians boarded a flight out of Seattle. One sat in the window seat, the other sat in the
middle seat. Just before takeoff, an attorney got on and took the aisle seat next to the two physicians. The attorney kicked off his shoes, wiggled his toes and was settling in when the physician in the window seat said, "I think I’ll get up and get a Coke."

“No problem,’ said the attorney, ‘I’ll get it for you.’       

While he was gone, one of the physicians picked up the attorney’s shoe and put a thumbtack in it. When he returned with the Coke, the other physician said, "That looks good, I think I’ll have one too."

Again, the attorney obligingly went to fetch it and while he was gone, the other physician picked up the other shoe and put a tack in it. The attorney returned and they all sat back and enjoyed the flight.

As the plane was landing, the attorney slipped his feet into his shoes and knew immediately what had happened.

"How long must this go on?" he asked. "This fighting between our professions? This hatred? This animosity? This putting tacks in shoes and spitting in Cokes?”

So, I suppose the lessons to be learned this week are that wise lawyers ensure their legal briefs and Web site biographies are interesting and never let their shoes out of sight.


The New York Legal Blog Round Up

Blawgs It's time for the weekly round up of posts from my fellow New York law bloggers:

Coverage Counsel:

New York Attorney Malpractice Blog:

New York Criminal Defense:

No-Fault Paradise:

Second Opinions:

Wait a Second!: