Law: Maddness, ADHD, Our Changing Constitution, Gun Control

A Companion to Bordering on Madness, an American Land Use Tale: Cases, Scholarship, and Case Studies (BOOK): by Andrew F. Popper and Patricia E.

The Companion to Bordering on Madness: An American Land Use Tale, Second Edition expands the issues raised in the novel using cases, scholarship and case studies. The text serves as a foundation to understand select doctrine, theory and strategy applicable to conflicts between developers and those who oppose development. Land use is an area in which law and government become personal, direct, immediate, and, quite literally, tangible. Land use cases set the parameters for the structures in which we live, the vistas (or lack thereof) we experience quite literally, the sights, sounds and air that surround us. The mission of this text is to provide a window into this dynamic field.

A Constitution of Many Minds: Why the Founding Document Doesn't Mean What it Meant Before (BOOK): by Cass R. Sunstein

What distinguishes the most important minds is less the answers they offer than the questions they ask. Who but Cass Sunstein would think to ask what unites the arguments and assumptions of traditionalists, populists, and cosmopolitans in constitutional interpretation and elsewhere--and what influences the force of those arguments at different times and in different places? Exploring those questions with his characteristic elegance and insight, Sunstein--the most prolific and significant legal scholar of our time--has written a brilliant book for all seasons. –Laurence H. Tribe, Harvard Law School

ADHD on Trial: Courtroom Clashes Over the Meaning of "Disability" (BOOK): by Michael Gordon

In 2006 Philadelphia, graduate student Jonathan Love sued the organization that publishes the Law School Admissions Test. Love had attained average scores on the test, but claimed he should have been given extra time because he qualified as a person with a disability - and allowances provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act - due to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The case, which drew in author psychologist Michael Gordon as an expert witness for the defense, reached federal court and resulted in a precedent-setting ruling still as controversial as the disorder that triggered the trial. In this work, Gordon takes us into the courtroom and behind the scenes with attorneys and experts to look not only at this trial, but more than a dozen others that have involved ADHD or other psychiatric diagnoses, and the questions they raise, including what the real meaning of disability is, how malingering can be an issue with psychological disorders, and what the more far-reaching effects for the public can be if accommodations are provided to people who do not have a legally-defined disability. When does deference to an individual with a disorder like ADHD begin to invade the rights of the non-disabled?

Controversy fills these pages, from discussion of ADHD and the debate over its justifiability as a disability to public reactions regarding the ruling in Love's case and others. Comparisons and contrasts are also raised between the Love trial and earlier cases involving people claiming psychological disabilities who fought actions by The National Board of Medical Examiners, United Airlines, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, the Georgia State Board of Veterinary Medicine, and other organizations. Do the decisions help or harm disability rights and people with disabilities? Gordon offers the insights not only of a psychologist, but a seasoned legal insider who has testified as an expert witness at many of the trials.

Crimes Against Humanity: A Beginner's Guide (BOOK): by Adam Jones

In this compelling overview, Adam Jones outlines the history and current extent of key crimes against humanity, and highlights the efforts of popular movements to suppress them. Using examples ranging from the genocides in Darfur and Rwanda to the sex trade of Eastern Europe and the use of torture in the 'war on terror,' Jones explores the progress made in toughening international law, and the stumbling blocks which prevent full compliance with it. Coherent and revealing, this book is essential for anyone interested in the well-being of humanity and its future.

Essential Concepts & School-Based Cases in Special Education Law (BOOK): by Charles J. Russo and Allan G. Osborne, Jr

Covers IDEA and its accompanying regulations and analyzes cases involving procedural due process, assistive technology, disciplinary sanctions, dispute resolution, antidiscrimination laws, and special services entitlement.

Gun Control: A Documentary and Reference Guide (BOOK): by Robert J. Spitzer

Gun control is one of the most enduringly controversial issues in modern American politics. For the first time this book compiles a comprehensive array of documents that explain and illuminate the historical and contemporary context of the modern gun debate. Bringing together over 50 documents from the colonial era to the present, including early colonial laws, founding documents, letters, political debates, federal and state laws, federal and state court cases, and various political documents, this book is an indispensable reference work for those seeking to understand the origins and modern consequences of American gun policy, including the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms. Accompanying commentary and analysis is included to help the reader fully understand the meaning of these documents. Numerous bibliographic sources provide additional resources for interested readers. Ideal for undergraduate and high school students, this collection of primary documents surrounding one of America's oldest controversial issues is a must-have for library shelves.

Contrary to popular impression, gun laws are as old as the country, and reflect the intersection of citizens' personal gun habits and the country's early need to defend itself by citizen militias who were required to arm themselves. The nation's gun policies evolved as its needs and resources changed. Old-style militias gave way to a modern professional American military, and the settling of the American frontier ushered in modern gun laws. In the past century, political assassinations and gun-related mass violence spurred both new gun control efforts and a burgeoning modern gun rights movement. Students will be able to read and analyze primary documents surrounding these events, including the Federalist Papers, early hunting laws, Supreme Court rulings, federal and state regulations, and recent political platform statements. Ideal for undergraduate and high school students, this collection of primary documents surrounding one of America's oldest controversial issues is a must-have for library shelves.

Nazi Crimes and the Law (BOOK): edited by Nathan Stoltzfus and Henry Friedlander

This book examines the use of national and international law to prosecute Nazi crimes, the centerpiece of twentieth-century state-sponsored genocide and mass murder. Its various essays reconstruct the historical setting of crimes sponsored by Nazi Germany and discuss the limitations placed on the national and international judicial forums responsible for prosecuting German perpetrators.

Racism and Equality in the European Union (BOOK): by Mark Bell

The European Union has committed itself to combating racism as a general objective of law and policy. EU legislation requires Member States to introduce laws prohibiting racial discrimination in many aspects of everyday life, including employment, education, healthcare, and housing. Alongside legislation requiring action at national level, the EU institutions have also made periodic commitments to 'mainstream' racial equality: taking anti-racism objectives into account within all areas of EU law and policy.

This book analyses the extent to which the objectives of combating racism and promoting ethnic equality have been effectively mainstreamed throughout a wide range of EU policy fields. It begins by considering what combating racism means in the contemporary context of the enlarged EU. Bell explores what mainstreaming ethnic equality objectives entails, and whether the priorities and instruments differ from those adopted in the earlier mainstreaming of gender equality, or those used on other discrimination grounds. The second part of the book examines the extent to which EU law and policy objectives have, in practice, been integrated, exploring the effects in the key areas of employment, social inclusion (including education, health and housing), immigration, and criminal law.

Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics (BOOK): by David M. O'Brien

With the abortion and school desegregation decisions, O'Brien contends, the Supreme Court has ceased to be Hamilton's "least dangerous branch." Increasingly activist, it has in fact become a "storm center" of national politics. Ever mindful of our judicial past, O'Brien likewise finds the Court is markedly more bureaucratic. His lucid text descibes the inner rules and proceduresthe cost of filings, screening procedures, certiorari petitions, the justices' give-and-take negotiations, their tentative votes and maneuverings, the oral arguments, the growing number of dissents and plurality opinions. O'Brien finds the Court rife with heated personal clashes. Rather than above the battle, it is highly sensitive to external pressures, from the President, Congress, public opinion. This is an illuminating, first-rate primer for those seeking to understand the workings of the Court. Milton Cantor, History Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst

The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow (BOOK): by Donald McRae

The courtroom has been a dramatic setting for larger-than-life figures throughout history, but few have attained the almost mythical status of Clarence Darrow. A legend in his own time, Variety called him "America's greatest one-man stage draw." Here was a man whose flair for showmanship went hand in hand with a fierce intellect; a man whose shaky moral compass and staggering conceit collided at all turns with an unrivaled eloquence and an overwhelming compassion for humanity.

Darrow had been one of the most revered lawyers in the country, but in 1924 his reputation was still clouded after a narrow escape from a charge of jury tampering in Los Angeles. At the age of sixty-seven he thought his life and career were almost over, until he was offered an impossible assignment—the defense of the teenage "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Darrow then went on to earn even more international acclaim in two other groundbreaking cases: a classic standoff against William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, and the Ossian Sweet murder trial in Detroit. Throughout two crammed and dizzying years, this lion of the court held the Western world in awe as he tackled these three starkly different, history-making cases, each in turn dubbed "the Trial of the Century."

But these trials, as important as they were to Darrow, were not the only events that helped rejuvenate him and seal his courtroom legacy. There was also his enduring relationship with Mary Field Parton, his lover and soul mate, a woman whose role toward the end of his career was larger than many have realized. With fascinating new research and discoveries, including her private journals and letters, The Last Trials of Clarence Darrow is an intimate and riveting depiction of this American icon, one of the greatest lawyers this country has ever seen.