insights, news and announcements for our members, colleagues and community
Magistrate Judge Amy Simon took the county-offered early retirement package effective Aug. 31. She delayed her exit to ensure there would be an orderly transfer of her duties as judge and director of the DeKalb Mental Health/Diversion Treatment Court under a federal SAMHSA grant.
The Trial Lawyers Section of DBA recently teamed up with SafeKids of DeKalb County on two events to make our community safer for children. On Sept. 11, TLS members Rick Alembik, Justin Hayes, Adrienne Hobbs, Chad Walker and Doug Aholt traveled to Clarkston City Hall to participate in the Clarkston Collaborative Bicycle Rodeo.
by The Shadow
Public opinion can be like a grave digger’s shovel.
From a legal standpoint, that there exists a debate as to whether a Muslim community center should open its doors blocks from Ground Zero represents a metaphorical grave-digger’s shovel – a shovel that could disinter creatures that should be resting in peace.
Some of these creatures include such legal “zombies” as Korematsu v. United States (holding that “the military urgency of the situation” justified indiscriminate internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent during WWII), Dred Scott v. Sanford (holding that descendants of African slaves were chattel and not people), and Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia (denying the Cherokee nation standing to sue for protection from Georgia’s seizure of persons and property).
by Jeri Kagel, M. Ed., J.D.
We like rules. Whether we are the people who follow rules, who try their luck at “bending” the rules, or those who rebel against rules, we typically like to know what the rules are. We think that if we know the rules, then we understand the game and even how to play it.
by Rachel A. Elovitz
“The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to ‘create’ rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting.”
– William Joseph Brennan Jr.
Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court
Two centuries and 21 years ago, on Sept. 25, 1789, the first United States Congress proposed 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, amendments independently and cumulatively calculated to safeguard individual rights. More than two years later, on Dec. 15, 1791, 10 of the 12 amendments were ratified by the states and known in the aggregate as the Bill of Rights.
Tracy Lettsome has been elected to the Board of Directors of the DeKalb Bar Association. She is a graduate of the University of the Virgin Islands and received her Juris Doctor from Emory University in 1995, becoming a member of…