Category: Law News

• 2014 End of Year Giving Information

  Planning to make a gift before the end of the year? Click here to ensure your gift is received by December 31, 2014 for maximum tax credit. As you consider your charitable gifts between now and the end of the year, remember that gifts made now could generate income tax deductions that may help reduce…

• Clinic Interns Win Jury Trial

  Civil Law Clinic Certified Legal Interns Scott MacLatchie and Austin Whitten recently won a two-day jury trial in the Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court. The Civil Law Clinic’s client alleged that the contractor who made repairs to her roof and home after the April 2011 tornado did not complete the work properly. After hours of deliberation,…

• Harper Lee, Other Alabama Writers To Be Inducted in Alabama Writers Hall of Fame

  Harper Lee is one of 12 Alabama writers who will be inducted into the first Alabama Writers Hall of Fame in June 2015. The Alabama Center for the Book and the Alabama Writers’ Forum have partnered and created the state’s first comprehensive Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. In addition to Lee, the members of the class are: …

• ABA Journal Lists Professor Joyner’s Blog Among Top 100

  Professor Daniel Joyner’s blog, Arms Control Law, has been chosen for the ABA Journal’s 2014 Blawg 100 list, as one of the top 100 best blogs for a legal audience. For more read, “8th Annual Blawg 100.”

• First Amendment Should Come Out Of Elonis Unscathed, Professor Krotoszynski Says

  Professor Ronald Krotoszynski recently told AL.com that the legal standard to judge whether speech is a threat is based on three points: the subjective intent of the speaker, the subjective intent of the victim or the recipient and a third where “you ask what a reasonable objective observer would think about the speech: whether they…

• Ruling Against Elonis Would Not Necessarily Harm First Amendment, Professor Krotoszynski Says

  The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments in Elonis vs. United States to discern what proof is needed for conviction under a federal law when citizens make threats via the Internet or other forms of communications. The case centers around  Anthony Douglas Elonis who was convicted for posting what prosecutors considered threats of violence on Facebook….

• Leadership Forum Selects Assistant Dean McLaughlin And Alumni As Members

  Glory McLaughlin, Assistant Dean for Public Interest, and several Law School alumni were among the 30 attorneys selected as members of the 2015 Leadership Forum Class 11, the Alabama State Bar recently announced. Participants will be trained in leadership, ethics, and career development and they are required to attend five sessions, including a three-day orientation…

• New Gun Rights Amendment Doesn’t Trump Federal Law, Professor Vars Says

  In an essay for Jurist magazine, Professor Fredrick Vars says Alabama’s gun regulations will be mostly unchanged by the state’s new constitutional amendment. “Most of the important gun laws in Alabama are federal. The state constitution has no effect on federal Law,” he wrote. “The Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution dictates that result. For…

• Women In Greek Communities Less Likely To Report Domestic Violence, Professor Cooper Says

  Women who are members of campus Greek communities are less likely to report domestic violence, Professor Tanya Asim Cooper said recently during a panel discussion. “These women, for a lot of reasons, are often reluctant to come forward,” Cooper said at Shatter the Silence, a domestic violence event hosted by Miss University of Alabama Danielle…

• Attempts To Use Civil Rights Law To Challenge Discrimination Against Gay Employees Have Been Mixed, Vice Dean Leonard Says

  State Rep. Patricia Todd, Alabama’s only openly gay legislator, is preparing a bill to ban workplace discrimination against gay and lesbian state employees, but Vice Dean James Leonard recently told the Anniston Star that attempts to use Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to challenge such discrimination in federal courts has been “hit or…