Friday, January 09, 2015

Visit our new blog site!

The Hamilton County Law Library is happy to announce the launch of our new website!  Beginning this week, all blog posts will now be posted exclusively to the blog page on the new site. Please feel free to visit us there.

The URL for the website is: lawlibrary.hamiltoncountyohio.gov
The URL for the blog page is:  http://lawlibrary.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/news/blog/

Friday, January 02, 2015

Judge Spiegel, remembered

U.S. District Judge Arthur Spiegel died on Wednesday at the age of 94. Spiegel had served on the court since 1980 when he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter. He presided over such high profile matters as the Cincinnati anti-gay rights charter amendment, the Fernald uranium processing plant settlement and a case involving Timothy Thomas, whose shooting by Cincinnati police in 2001 sparked days of unrest in the city. Spiegel also sentenced Pete Rose to prison in 1990 for tax evasion.

Judge Spiegel was also a marine and combat veteran who served in World War II, a father of four and an advocate for civil rights and racial equality. Although Spiegel took senior status in 1995 he continued to work and hear cases until near his death, recently issuing a decision on a voting rights case we discussed in September. The Cincinnati Enquirer offers a detailed look at his life and career, here, and has published a piece remembering the judge by Cincinnati civil rights attorney Alphonse Gerhardstein, here. WCPO and WVXU also offer remembrances of the judge.

The Enquirer reports that visitation will be 11:30 a.m. Monday at Isaac M. Wise Temple, 720 Plum St., Downtown. A service follows at 12:30 p.m. Burial will be private.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Top legal news of 2014

In honor of New Year's Eve and in order to reflect on events of this past year we offer you a round-up of top legal news lists from various sources on the web. Happy New Year, everyone!

Westlaw Legal Solutions Blog has published the Top 20 Legal Events of 2014 in three parts, detailing various cases and events that have shaped the legal world this past year. Some notable aspects:

  • Supreme Court cases such as McCullen v. Coakley, Hall v. Florida and Abramski v. U.S dealing with such  controversial issues as buffer zones for abortion clinics, capital punishment for the intellectually disabled and buying guns on behalf of third parties, respectively,
  • The Supreme Court's refusal to grant cert. to same-sex marriage cases, effectively allowing those marriages to stand in a significant number of states, 
  • The 6th Circuit case that created a split among federal circuits regarding the legality of same-sex marriage bans,
  • The U.S. normalizing relations with Cuba, and
  • The President's executive order for immigration action.
The ABA Journal has also released their top ten list, which describes their most popular stories of 2014. Some highlights include:
Cleveland.com has published their list of the top five bills passed by Ohio lawmakers in 2014 and synopses of a few top Ohio Supreme Court cases. These include:
Finally, Ohio.com has linked to the "Associated Press' top stories of 2014 from around Ohio," which describes some noteworthy moments from the past year, including:
  • The U.S. Department of Justice completing their investigation of Cleveland police and issuing a report condemning the organization for excessive force, recklessness and civil rights violations,
  • Governor John Kasich winning a second term and Republicans sweeping statewide political races, and
  • Ohio putting executions on hold after an inmate took nearly 26 minutes to die when the state administered a new execution drug cocktail for the first time.