Flicker photo by Wyoming_Jackrabbit.

As a law student and an attorney, the last thing you might want to hear is legal issues intersecting with sports. For many of you, sports is a way to escape the word of contracts law or an upcoming case for a couple of hours. While watching or playing sports can be a great way to take your mind of things, legal issues do come up quite often. The past two weeks alone is a great example of how sports and the law intersect. Here are a few breaking stories:

Vince Young Files for Bankruptcy

Former NFL and University of Texas National Champion winning quarterback Vince Young filed for bankruptcy last week. Young is filing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, also referred to as bankruptcy reorganization.

Full Story: ESPN

Raiders Cheerleaders Sue Team

Current and former Raiderettes filed a suit this week claiming that team withheld wages, did not compensate them for all hours worked, and made them pay business expenses. Their lawyer claims based on the amount they are paid and the hours they put in, they are making less than $5 an hour.

Full Story: San Jose Mercury News

Read the full complaint

Feds Investigating Dennis Rodman

Josh Rogin from The Daily Beast reported today that the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating whether Rodman violated United States sanctions by bringing gifts into Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“North Korea”) for Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. While in North Korea for a basketball game, Rodman brought Kim several gifts which are reported to be in value of more than $10,000.  Not only may this violate the International Emergency Economics Power Act (IEEPA) signed by President Obama in 2010, but it may also violate United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 2094.

Full Story: The Daily Beast

by Mark Stuckey

image by flickr user greencolander

Friday, January 17th marked the anniversary of the implementation of perhaps one of the most sobering amendments to our nation’s constitution. I am talking, of course, about the Eighteenth amendment which prescribed, “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof (United States) … Is hereby prohibited.” The merit of the Eighteenth Amendment’s goal is debatable, but the truth is that the prohibition of intoxicating liquors created a vacuum through which organized crime gained power, and perhaps more importantly, money. In general, prohibition has been regarded as a failure, and in fact the Eighteenth Amendment is the only Amendment of the Constitution to be repealed.(see Twenty-First Amendment) Learn more about prohibition the old fashioned way… on Wikipedia here.

Reflection on the constitutional provisions that govern(ed) alcohol made me wonder what kind of laws restrict alcohol in the State of Georgia. More specifically, because I am a home brewer and love craft beer: what state laws govern my production of delicious alcoholic beverages in my own home? From my limited research on the best database in the world, Westlaw, I have found that, in general, there are Georgia statutes (in Title 3 of the OCGA) that regulate the amount brewed, consumption, and transportation of home brewed beer.

Amount:
When I first saw that there was a volume limit to the amount of beer one domiciled in mother Georgia could brew my heart sank a little bit. But in reality, for the average home brewer, the limitations are quite reasonable. First, if you live alone, or there is only one person of drinking age in the house, brewing is capped at 100 gallons of malt beverages per calendar year. If you stop and think 100 gallons is approximately 1000, 12 ounce beers, and that is huge amount of liquid for a human to consume in a year. Additionally, the limit is 200 gallons if there are two or more people of drinking age in a household. The volume limits seem to have legitimate public policy backings, but I’m sure there’s an argument to the contrary.

Consumption:
Maybe the biggest blow to home brewers, is the consumption regulations on the craft. According to the Georgia statute, home brewed malt beverages may only be consumed on the premises it was made, and may not be offered to the public for consumption. While I understand that there reasons Georgia would want to keep unregulated swill out of the hands of innocent people, there is something a little unnerving about not being able to share one’s hobby freely and openly.

Transportation:
The Georgia statute governing the brewing of malt beverages in one’s home provides that such malt beverages shall not be transported in batches larger than 25 gallons, they must be properly labeled, and must have the proper permits. I am not sure what the penalty would be for violation, but this seems a large burden on people who want to give their friends or co-workers a taste of their concoction, or those competing in home brewing events.

All in all these regulations on home brewing are relatively easy for people like myself who brew less than 25 or 30 gallons a year, to comport with, and are not a huge burden. But folks who are producing larger amounts and looking to transport their beer should have a gander at the law first. Learn a little bit more about home brewing here… it’s pretty fun.

Image by Flickr user jesper_hauge

Atlanta may not be a skiing destination, but there are still a lot of things you can do to celebrate the winter break.

• For those who love lights, there are a wide array of options this year, from the well-known Magical Night of Lights at Lake Lanier to the Garden Lights at Atlanta Botanical Garden to Fantasy in Lights at Calloway Gardens. If you’ve done all of those, or if you want a bit more than just lights, there’s also the new-to-Atlanta Global Winter Wonderland at Turner Field, which features miniatures of famous buildings and food selections from around the world too.
• For a one-stop-shop holiday experience, go to Stone Mountain Christmas at, well, Stone Mountain. There you’ll find a sing-along train, 4-D shows, a visit from Santa Claus and more.
• If you want your holiday to include lots of laughter, check out Invasion: Christmas Carol from Dad’s Garage. It’s an improv show where the audience chooses who visits Scrooge each night instead of the three ghosts.
• Just wanting to stay inside? You can always read a (non-law!) book one of your professors recommended or borrow some movies from our Leisure Collection. We don’t own it, but you may also want to check out Santa Claus Conquers the Martians on Netflix too. I mean, really, how could you NOT watch that?

Picture by The Reboot

It’s been all over the news today: one of the winning Mega Millions tickets was sold in Buckhead. And now we know the Georgia winner’s name and where she lives, because Georgia is in the majority of states in requiring that the names of lottery winners be public. In a minority of states the winner can remain anonymous; one of those states is South Carolina, where a recent Powerball winner chose anonymity.

Whether a lottery winner should be able to remain anonymous is debated; financial advisers recommend it, but lotteries argue against it. Pennsylvania is currently considering legislation to allow for anonymity, and other legislation was recently proposed in Michigan and New Jersey.

However, even if the winner has to come forward, there may still be a way to protect anonymity by using a trust; this was the option taken by a recent winner in Houston, who created a trust (with the attorney as trustee) to receive the winnings.

How many times have you gone home at night with a sore neck because you have been looking down at a casebook or outline all day? Or maybe your wrists are hurting because you tried to hold your book up to read before class. Law students already have enough to deal with on a daily basis, without throwing in a few aches and pains. Have no fear though, the Law Library has just the product for you…bookholders.

If you are not currently using bookholders when you study, then you are missing out on one of the greatest engineering feats of our generation (slightly exaggerated). Think about it, a device that actually holds a book up for you so you don’t have to hold it up yourself or look down at it on a table. Genus!

Use it when reading cases for class.

Casebook

Use it for reading your outline before the big exam.

Outline

Use it when reading a magazine at lunch. 

Magazine

The possibilities are truly endless. And the best part of all, we have 7 at the Circulation Desk that you can checkout. That’s right, you can use one of our bookholders for FREE! So next time you get that pain in your neck, stop by the Circulation Desk and check out a bookholder.

Photo by Flickr user Sydigill.

While you’e staring at your outlines, study aids, casebooks, or computer screens, you may have recently noticed an odd sight: library employees staring very, very hard at shelves. We’re not doing this to prank you, or as a part of some incredibly boring performance art piece. What we’re doing is something called “shelf reading.” Shelf reading is a process where the library staff systematically looks at all of the books in the library to make sure everything’s okay. Every year around this time we divide the library up among the library staff and assign rows of books for each person to “read.” If a book is out of place, we’ll put it in the right spot. If a book looks like it needs some attention, like repair or rebinding, we’ll take care of that, too.

So if you see one of the library employees standing in a row for an inordinately long period of time staring at a shelf, don’t worry about us. We’re okay – we’re just shelf reading, making sure that the library’s collection is all okay. Well, unless you see one of us sprawled out face-down on the floor. In that case, please go get help.

image by Flickr user probonobaker

It’s almost exam time again, which means it’s also almost time for the library to provide you with that sweet, sweet elixir known as coffee. We’ll be having coffee (and tea) throughout the day on these dates in December:

• Thursday, Dec. 5
• Monday, Dec. 9
• Thursday, Dec. 12 and
• Monday, Dec. 16.

Stop by and enjoy!

By Meghan Starr

With exams closing in, the stress levels are rising.  When you feel like you just can’t outline any more, but feel too guilty to watch your favorite show or pick up that romance novel, try watching one of the movies or TV series from our Law Leisure collection.  If you’ve had Professor Morrison’s evidence class, you already know that movies can be a fun way to work through the material.  (But don’t forget the outlines!  They really do help.)

If you want a little extra guidance, you can read Movie Therapy for Law Students while you watch. The book suggests different movies for each subject area, then provides “relevant statutory material, rules, case law, and other resources to guide you in thought process.”  You can find most of the movies right here in our library and check them out for a week.

Civil Procedure or Family Law?  Try Kramer vs. Kramer.  Contracts? Try Liar, Liar. Evidence, Constitutional Law or Criminal Law?  Try Young Mr. Lincoln.

Also, please remember that the upper floor of the library is reserved for quiet, individual study, and that ear plugs are available from the circulation desk.

Good luck!