God vs. the Gavel


Book Description

God vs. the Gavel challenges the pervasive assumption that all religious conduct deserves constitutional protection. While religious conduct provides many benefits to society, it is not always benign. The thesis of the book is that anyone who harms another person should be governed by the laws that govern everyone else - and truth be told, religion is capable of great harm. This may not sound like a radical proposition, but it has been under assault since the 1960s. The majority of academics and many religious organizations would construct a fortress around religious conduct that would make it extremely difficult to prosecute child abuse by clergy, medical neglect of children by faith-healers, and other socially unacceptable behaviors. This book intends to change the course of the public debate over religion by bringing to the public's attention the tactics of religious entities to avoid the law and therefore harm others.




Glass and Gavel


Book Description

In Glass and Gavel, noted legal expert Nancy Maveety has written the first book devoted to alcohol in the nation’s highest court of law, the United States Supreme Court. Combining an examination of the justices’ participation in the social use of alcohol across the Court’s history with a survey of the Court’s decisions on alcohol regulation, Maveety illustrates the ways in which the Court has helped to construct the changing culture of alcohol. “Intoxicating liquor” is one of the few things so plainly material to explicitly merit mention, not once, but twice, in the amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Maveety shows how much of our constitutional law—Supreme Court rulings on the powers of government and the rights of individuals—has been shaped by our American love/hate relationship with the bottle and the barroom. From the tavern as a judicial meeting space, to the bootlegger as both pariah and patriot, to the individual freedom issue of the sobriety checkpoint—there is the Supreme Court, adjudicating but also partaking in the temper(ance) of the times. In an entertaining and accessible style, Maveety shows that what the justices say and do with respect to alcohol provides important lessons about their times, our times, and our “constitutional cocktail” of limited governmental power and individual rights.




Marriage Equality


Book Description

The definitive history of the marriage equality debate in the United States, praised by Library Journal as "beautifully and accessibly written. . . . An essential work.” As a legal scholar who first argued in the early 1990s for a right to gay marriage, William N. Eskridge Jr. has been on the front lines of the debate over same‑sex marriage for decades. In this book, Eskridge and his coauthor, Christopher R. Riano, offer a panoramic and definitive history of America’s marriage equality debate. The authors explore the deeply religious, rabidly political, frequently administrative, and pervasively constitutional features of the debate and consider all angles of its dramatic history. While giving a full account of the legal and political issues, the authors never lose sight of the personal stories of the people involved, or of the central place the right to marry holds in a person’s ability to enjoy the dignity of full citizenship. This is not a triumphalist or one‑sided book but a thoughtful history of how the nation wrestled with an important question of moral and legal equality.




Gavelgavel!!!


Book Description

The Camarillo Writers Club is an eccentric collection of crazy people randomly pieced together from the public library system. We cover all ranges and genres, and have worked hard to cobble-together this compilation book(which was NOT assembled by elves or fairies, despite what they may like you to believe). Inside you will find thirty-three short stories and fifteen poems written by seventeen different authors.




Cloak and Gavel


Book Description

The separation of powers becomes a meaningless cliche as Alexander Charns - using the Federal Bureau of Investigation's own files - reveals how that agency undermined the independence of the U.S. Supreme Court for a half-century. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's goal was simple: to push the Supreme Court to the right on issues of civil rights and criminal law. His techniques ranged from illegal wiretapping to spreading disinformation, from using Justice Abe Fortas as an informant to trying to hound liberal Justice William O. Douglas off the bench. Cloak and Gavel, the definitive work on the FBI-Supreme Court relationship, is based on thousands of pages of FBI documents that Charns fought for eight years to obtain. One 2,000-page file was released only after he filed hundreds of Freedom of Information requests and brought lawsuits against the FBI. It establishes Hoover's strategies to influence the Senate confirmation process, incite the public against the Warren court, lobby for legislation to counteract judicial rulings, and use numerous informants inside the Court to both monitor and influence it. Charns was given special permission to conduct research using Justice Abe Fortas's papers, which had been sealed until the year 2000. These papers proved Fortas had acted as an informer for the White House and for the FBI during his tenure on the bench. Fortas ultimately left the Court in disgrace after an ethics scandal unrelated to his informant role. Charns also suggests that Hoover's death did not end the FBI's attempts to influence Congress and the federal judiciary - as evidenced by the role of the FBI in the explosive Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill Senate hearings in 1991. Until now, no onehas examined the ultimate constitutional violation - the FBI's attempts to influence the Court by any means available.




From Stethoscope to Gavel


Book Description

Dr. Harry Rein has lived an extraordinary life. He has been a refugee, soldier, husband, father, doctor, lawyer, and judge, and to the best of his knowledge, the only doctor-lawyer-judge in the United States. His path begins when he boards the last train out of Austria after Hitler's annexation, followed by remaining one step ahead of destruction for the next year. Then comes a denial of entry into the United States due to quotas and poverty, followed by eventual admission three years later. "Angels" then enter his life and those of his family, allowing them to become meaningful citizens in the United States. These episodes from his inspiring journey discuss the ambition, attitude, kindnesses, rewards, and punishment he experiences with the many people he encounters along the way who lift him to higher levels of practice within each of his three professions. From Stethoscope to Gavel is the true story of an ordinary man from a humble background whose optimism and generosity in the face of crushing hardships will challenge, encourage, and motivate generations to come.




Roberta's Rules of Order


Book Description

A consultant for nonprofit management support organizations challenges nonprofit leaders to retire "Robert's Rules of Order" and adopt a simpler, friendlier, and more effective method for conducting meetings.




Dismantling Family Court Corruption: Why Taking The Kids Was Not Enough


Book Description

Family Court has become highly profitable business. In courtrooms across this nation, children are being torn away and isolated from their father or mother as they become pawns in a game designed to keep parent's fighting, and money flowing. Today, a narcissistic, abusive parent can easily use the "justice system" to punish, torment and alienate the target parent. CPS workers frequently use their power to enable such abuse, as their opinions are treated as scientific conclusions during trials where the alienated parent finds his or herself disparaged and maligned without evidence to back up such attacks other than the observations of these case workers. Maryann Petri's story is a critical example revealing the truth about Family Court corruption. It is a must-read for anyone going through such legal oppression, both to validate their suffering and to provide tools with which to fight back, as Maryann teaches what she has learned. Dismantling Family Court Corruption: Why Taking The Kids Was Not Enough tells the story of Maryann's journey, providing essential "Takeaways" throughout which conveys to the reader the wisdom she gained which can empower them to be stronger, more resilient and more successful in the midst of their own Family Court battles. As a Pro Se, Maryann has a better record than most attorneys, winning two cases in Superior Court.Dismantling Family Court Corruption is also an essential book to demonstrate how easily and effectively Family Law professionals are able to exploit the contention of parents, and proves the utter lack of oversight to prevent such abuse. Maryann's story is not unique; she is one of thousands whose tragedies have brought to the forefront the new psychological term: Parental Alienation. While painful to read, Maryann's story is fast-paced and provides many moments of humor and hope as she recounts courtroom experiences and what it was like being sent to jail, a real-life debtor's prison. Sitting in the holding cell, she used the acoustics of the cement walls to ring with beautiful music that even the guards stopped to admire. At only pages, it is an approachable book which can serve as one of the most important resources for raising awareness and starting conversations about Family Law Corruption and the reality of Parental Alienation. Maryann observes, "Although my story is ultimately tragic, as I lost my children to the beastly system, I can find purpose and meaning in what I have gone through. I hope that my book will serve to indict the system which broke (figuratively and financially) and damaged my family so that changes will be made to prevent such false accusations, extortion and persecution in the future."Maryann Petri is a first-hand-experience, leading expert on the issue of Family Court corruption. She is at the forefront of the movement to stop this abuse and has a website, blog and podcast which can be found at www.DismantlingFamilyCourtCorruption.com.







International Law's Objects


Book Description

International law's rich existence in the world can be illuminated by its objects. International law is often developed, conveyed and authorized through its objects and/or their representation. From the symbolic (the regalia of the head of state and the symbols of sovereignty), to the mundane (a can of dolphin-safe tuna certified as complying with international trade standards), international legal authority can be found in the objects around us. Similarly, the practice of international law often relies on material objects or their image, both as evidence (satellite images, bones of the victims of mass atrocities) and to found authority (for instance, maps and charts). This volume considers these questions; firstly what might the study of international law through objects reveal? What might objects, rather than texts, tell us about sources, recognition of states, construction of territory, law of the sea, or international human rights law? Secondly, what might this scholarly undertaking reveal about the objects - as aims or projects - of international law? How do objects reveal, or perhaps mask, these aims, and what does this tell us about the reasons some (physical or material) objects are foregrounded, and others hidden or ignored. Thirdly what objects, icons and symbols preoccupy the profession and academy? The personal selection of these objects by leading and emerging scholars worldwide, will illuminate the contemporary and historical fascinations of international lawyers. As a result, the volume will be an important artefact (itself an object) in its own right, capturing the mood of international law in a given moment and providing opportunity for reflection on these preoccupations. By considering international law in the context of its material culture the authors offer a new theoretical perspective on the subject.