Supreme Court Guns Down State Firearm Restrictions, The Chicago Way

It was February 14, 1929.  The United States was still experiencing the “Roaring Twenties”.  The stock market had not yet crashed, and Prohibition, that ‘noble experiment”, was nearing the end of a tumultuous decade.  A group of five apparent law enforcement personnel, some in uniform, some not, paid a visit to a warehouse on the north side of Chicago.  Illegal/bootlegged booze trafficking was the ostensible target.  When the “visit” was over, 6 men lay dead, and the apparent lone survivor, rushed to the hospital where he declined to elaborate on the incident, promptly passed away. The departed were part of the George “Bugs” Moran organization, while the visiting “police” contingent was actually made up of members of the Al “Scarface” Capone mob.  The event would go down in history as The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and the main method of communication at the warehouse was the Thompson submachine gun. In the aftermath of that notorious gangland rubout, and other instances of outlaw use of machine guns, the automatic weapon was virtually taxed and legislated out of legal existence.  Along with the abolishment of legal automatic weapons, restrictions on all types of firearms became a cause and a reality. Yet, in 2008, a group of five black-robed members of a Washington, D.C., organization took aim at the outright restriction on handguns in the District of Columbia.  The result was a rubout of the D.C. restrictions.(1)  Then, two years later, the same Gang of Five donned their black robes, and, in essence, paid the City of Chicago a “visit” regarding its ban of firearms.  The outcome was a bloodbath that may end up being remembered by Gun Control enthusiasts on the same level as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.(2

Crawford v. Washington, Revisited Confrontation Or Not, Dont Forget To Duck, Man

Picture this: It’s Friday afternoon, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday for those in retail.  You are relaxed and confident.  Your tenure application at the university has so far sailed through without a hitch.  It seems that all that publishing you have done has kept you from perishing, academically, that is.  A knock comes to your faculty office door, and two suits flashing tin enter.  They are from the Organized Commission for Reparations in Academic Plagiarism, otherwise known as: OCRAP.  A somewhat obscure quasi-federal agency set up under the Carter Administration, a visit from them often spells academic doom.  It seems that they have received a bevy of unsolicited e-mails accusing you of the academically unforgivable offence of using other researchers’ material without attribution.  You ask the key question: “WHO?”  Their response is that that information is confidential, and unavailable to you.  They serve you with a notice that a hearing will be held before Christmas, at the U. S. Courthouse, Foley Square, New York, N. Y.  Your first reaction is that you need to contact a lawyer.  Ironically, you quickly realize, that you are a lawyer.  Something in the back of your mind tells you that you have to have the ability to confront your accusers; something perhaps in the Constitution?  Maybe the time is ripe to go back and revisit the “confrontation” aspect of your present situation

Supreme Court To Chicago On Gun Control: Go To Heller!

Gun Control.  For or against, you are going to have a fight on your hands.  But where is this fight to take place?  Is it going to be on the village greens of Lexington and Concord?  On the fields of Gettysburg? The dirt streets of Tombstone, leading on down to the O.K. Corral?  Maybe at the base of the walls of the Alamo, down in San Antonio.  Possibly on the campus of Kent State, or even at the now reserved setting of a school board meeting in Columbine.  There are some mean streets in Ourtown, U.S.A.  From New York City, to Washington D.C., and on to Chicago, where historic mob gun battles took place in the Capone Prohibition days, guns continue to blaze away.  But what to do about it?  Should we outlaw guns altogether?  Or, as the saying goes, if we outlaw guns, will only outlaws have guns?  Do we listen to Michael Moore, or the N.R.A.?  Where can we find some common ground, and, maybe some answers?  The United States Supreme Court has already heard oral arguments on the City Of Chicago’s ban on handguns, and its decision is imminent.  What will be the outcome, and where will the Court go to seek a majority, if not a consensus?  The answer may be a not so long look back, to the Court’s decision in District Of Columbia v. Heller (1), decided in June of 2008

A field-based comparison of ammonia emissions from six Irish soil types following urea fertiliser application

peer-reviewedAmmonia (NH3) emissions from a range of soil types have been found to differ under laboratory conditions. However, there is lack of studies comparing NH3 emissions from different soil types under field conditions. The objective was to compare NH3 emissions from six different soil types under similar environmental conditions in the field following urea fertiliser application. The study was conducted on a lysimeter unit and NH3 emissions were measured, using wind tunnels, from six different soil types with varying soil characteristics following urea fertiliser application (80 kg N/ha). On average, 17.6% (% total N applied) was volatilised, and there was no significant difference in NH3 emissions across all soil types. Soil variables, including pH, cation exchange capacity and volumetric moisture, were not able to account for the variation in emissions. Further field studies are required to improve the urea-NH3 emission factor used for Ireland’s NH3 inventory

International Application Of The Fifth Amendment: Where In The World Is Ernesto Miranda?

In 1966, The United States Supreme Court issued its now legendary decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1), and the practice of criminal law in the United States as was then known, was changed forever. The Miranda Warnings became not only the law of the land in protecting the rights of the accused, but also resulted in evolution and education in the field of law enforcement, processes that continue to this date. Now comes a series of cases involving international terrorism, and Miranda and its old stable-mate Mapp (2) get trotted out again for a new look, to see whether members of an international conspiracy--led by Osama Bin Laden and organized through the al Qaeda terrorist network--to kill American citizens and destroy American facilities across the globe(3), can make a run for the roses using the triple crown of American criminal jurisprudence, The Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution. Two races have been run, and the al Qaeda horsemen have finished out of the money. They now gear up and don their colors for one last run in their quest for exoneration: a date with the U.S. Supreme Court

Impact Of Undocumented Immigration On US Wages

The movement of undocumented people across the southern border of the United States creates an environment which destroys the free market of United States labor by increasing the supply of labor and decreasing the price of labor.  The undocumented females follow up with birth on United States soil, and create an economic dilemma for local municipalities that must provide public education for those babies.  The babies become the basis within the United States for claims of citizenship activities and legalization of the original undocumented persons.  In this scenario, the Law of Supply operates to decrease the earnings of unskilled labor.  The Law of Supply also operates to decrease the possible unionization of unskilled workers, while decreasing governmental funds needed for municipal services.  The cost to municipal governments to provide education for the anchor baby generation appears to be an unending cost increase due to the unending supply of Third World undocumented individuals crossing the United States southern borders

Travel Expenses In Connection With Tax-Deductible Education Expenses

Trade or business expenses are deductible if they are ordinary and necessary with respect to the trade or business in which they were incurred. Treasury Regulations bring education expenses into this purview but only if they maintain or improve skills already acquired or allow a taxpayer to maintain his current position. Related travel expenses in connection with educational activities may come into play in (i) travel to an out of town location to attend an educational function, (ii) travel while engaging in educational activities or (iii) travel which is itself a form of education.  Current regulations may limit the allowable deduction for these education-related travel expenses

The Commerce Clause From Expansion To Extortion

The Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution gave the federal government power over foreign trade, trade with the Indian tribes and trade “among several states.”  By lack of further enumeration and the passage of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, it would be reasonable to conclude that commerce that is truly intrastate would, therefore, be within the regulatory province of the states.  In fact, that was the interpretation initially reached and subsequently followed by the United States Supreme Court.  But in 1942, that changed and, over the course of the following 60+ years, to date the Court has concluded, by an expansive interpretation of that federal power granted, that Congress and the federal government have virtually unbridled power to regulate not only those areas that would traditionally be considered “commerce” or “interstate commerce”, but, moreover, in areas that seemingly have nothing to do with commerce, interstate, or otherwise.  This paper will trace the journey that the justices have taken down this judicial interstate highway and the methods that the federal government has employed to achieve its objectives.  Hence, the subtitle of this paper:  From Expansion to Extortion

The Housing And Economic Recovery Act Of 2008

The 2008 economic crisis world-wide was caused by many factors.  However, of the most blatant contributors in the U.S. were the failure of sub-prime mortgages and the government’s failure to properly regulate the banking loan industry. This triggered the passage of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which was enacted on July 30, 2008.  This Act, in the collective opinions of the authors, is a little too little and a little too late to actually remedy the massive harm caused by these types of loans and the abuses in the home loan industry

HLA-Bw4-I-80 Isoform Differentially Influences Clinical Outcome As Compared to HLA-Bw4-T-80 and HLA-A-Bw4 Isoforms in Rituximab or Dinutuximab-Based Cancer Immunotherapy

Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) are a family of glycoproteins expressed primarily on natural killer cells that can regulate their function. Inhibitory KIRs recognize MHC class I molecules (KIR-ligands) as ligands. We have reported associations of KIRs and KIR-ligands for patients in two monoclonal antibody (mAb)-based trials: (1) A Children\u27s Oncology Group (COG) trial for children with high-risk neuroblastoma randomized to immunotherapy treatment with dinutuximab (anti-GD2 mAb) + GM-CSF + IL-2 + isotretinion or to treatment with isotretinoin alone and (2) An Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) trial for adults with low-tumor burden follicular lymphoma responding to an induction course of rituximab (anti-CD20 mAb) and randomized to treatment with maintenance rituximab or no-maintenance rituximab. In each trial, certain KIR/KIR-ligand genotypes were associated with clinical benefit for patients randomized to immunotherapy treatment (immunotherapy in COG; maintenance rituximab in ECOG) as compared to patients that did not receive the immunotherapy [isotretinoin alone (COG); no-maintenance (ECOG)]. Namely, patients with both KIR3DL1 and its HLA-Bw4 ligand (KIR3DL1+/HLA-Bw4+ genotype) had improved clinical outcomes if randomized to immunotherapy regimens, as compared to patients with the KIR3DL1+/HLA-Bw4+ genotype randomized to the non-immunotherapy regimen. Conversely, patients that did not have the KIR3DL1+/HLA-Bw4+ genotype showed no evidence of a difference in outcome if receiving the immunotherapy vs. no-immunotherapy. For each trial, HLA-Bw4 status was determined by assessing the genotypes of three separate isoforms of HLA-Bw4: (1) HLA-B-Bw4 with threonine at amino acid 80 (B-Bw4-T80); (2) HLA-B-Bw4 with isoleucine at amino acid 80 (HLA-B-Bw4-I80); and (3) HLA-A with a Bw4 epitope (HLA-A-Bw4). Here, we report on associations with clinical outcome for patients with KIR3DL1 and these separate isoforms of HLA-Bw4. Patients randomized to immunotherapy with KIR3DL1+/A-Bw4+ or with KIR3DL1+/B-Bw4-T80+ had better outcome vs. those randomized to no-immunotherapy, whereas for those with KIR3DL1+/B-Bw4-I80+ there was no evidence of a difference based on immunotherapy vs. no-immunotherapy. Additionally, we observed differences within treatment types (either within immunotherapy or no-immunotherapy) that were associated with the genotype status for the different KIR3DL1/HLA-Bw4-isoforms. These studies suggest that specific HLA-Bw4 isoforms may differentially influence response to these mAb-based immunotherapy, further confirming the involvement of KIR-bearing cells in tumor-reactive mAb-based cancer immunotherapy