Posts filed under 'Law and Legal Issues'
President Obama has given several very important policy speeches during this month of September 2009. In general transcripts of President Obama’s speeches are easily found on the White House Speeches and Remarks site. A few of the September 2009 speeches are highlighted here:
Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren (Sept. 8th, Wakefield High School, Arlington, VA)
Remarks by the President to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care (Sept. 9th, U.S. Capital, Washington, D.C.)
Remarks by the President on Financial Rescue and Reform (Sept. 14th, Federal Hall, New York, NY)
September 22nd, 2009
Vermont began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples today, becoming one of five states to allow same-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, and Maine are the others. New Hampshire will begin allowing same-sex couples to marry beginning January 1, 2010. California briefly allowed same-sex marriages, but stopped after the passage of Proposition 8 in November 2008.
September 1st, 2009
Representative Barbara Lee, U.S. Congressional Representative from the 9th District of California (where UCB is located), has a YouTube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/RepLee. You can watch her speaking from the House Floor, or questioning witnesses in Congressional Committees.
If you would like to watch other congressional floor debate, try Metavid: http://metavid.org/wiki/ Metavid is free to the public and contains video from the floor of the U.S. House and Senate, archived back to 2006. It is also searchable.
August 27th, 2009
The Library of Congress ‘Find Legal Resources’ section has created a short list of resources on Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. The list includes citations to articles and books, her two confirmation hearings in Congress, and case opinions. Web Resources include links to special reports (CNN), newpaper articles (NYT), and more. Of special interest is the link to GPO Access to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Supreme Court Nomination Hearings, 1971 to present. Check out the hearings for Justices Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Scalia, etc.
June 1st, 2009
The California Supreme Court has just announced it will issue its ruling on Proposition 8 on Tuesday, May 26th at 10am. The opinion of the court will be found here on Tuesday: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/.
May 22nd, 2009
In a series of Budget Briefs, the California Budget Project has analysed the May 19th Special Election Ballot Propositions. Specific Budget Briefs:
What Would Proposition 1A Mean for California’s Future?
Proposition 1C: Should California Authorize the Sale of Lottery Bonds to Close the Budget Gap?
What Would Proposition 1D Mean for California?
What Would Proposition 1E Mean for California?
Finally a summary of the ballot measures:
The May 19 Special Election: What Does It Mean for Health Care?
May 7th, 2009
Maine’s Governor, John E. Baldacci, signed into law LD 1020, An Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom. Maine becomes the 5th state to recognize same-sex marriages. More details can be found at the Governor’s website and the San Francisco Chronicle.
May 6th, 2009
UC Berkeley has recently acquired full-text access to the United States Congressional Serial Set (1789-1969) through LexisNexis Congressional. The Serial Set contains the legislative history of United States, and also includes many historic agency annual reports, House and Senate Reports, and many other official government documents (for a more complete summary of what is contained in the Serial Set, click here). Prior to this acquisition, citations to the Serial Set found in LexisNexis Congressional had to be searched in the Readex United States Congressional Serial Set database. With this purchase, you can now search LexisNexis Congressional for all your congressional research needs. Off-campus access to LexisNexis Congressional is restricted to current UCB student, faculty and staff, though anyone in the Library may access the database.
May 5th, 2009
The Little Hoover Commission has published three reports of interest since the start of 2009. These are:
A Review of the Governor’s Reorganization Plan to Consolidate Information Technology Functions: Recommendations to the Legislature (March 26, 2009)
Clearer Structure, Cleaner Water: Improving Performance and Outcomes at the State Water Boards (January 2009)
First Year Checkup: Strategies for a Stronger Public Health Department (January 2009).
The Little Hoover Commission is an independent state oversight agency. By statute, the Commission is a bipartisan board composed of five public members appointed by the Governer, four public members appointed by the Legislature, two senators and two assemblymembers. The Commission empanels advisory committees, holds public meetings and visits government operations in action. Its conclusions are submitted to the Governor and the Legislature.
April 22nd, 2009
The National Security Archive recently posted key declassified U.S. documents that were submitted as evidence in the former President Fujimori’s trial which began on December 10, 2007, in Peru. Fujimori was Peru’s president from 1990 to 2000 when he was forced to resign. The declassified records contain intelligence gathered by U.S. officials on the secret creation of “assassination teams” that were part of Fujimori’s counterterrorism operations. Six of the 21 declassified U.S. records are provided on the NSA website. These were originally obtained through the Freedome of Information Act (FOIA).
April 15th, 2009
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