Kathryn Moore

The congressional hearing on marijuana law reform, the first of its kind, at the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security was convened on the 10^th of July. The debate was held to discuss alteration of federal laws on cannabis.

The majority seems to think that the need for reforming cannabis law is here, but disagreement is reached where it comes to framing the legislation, and the strategic decision to advance it. According to Representative Tom McClintock, E-Calif., decriminalization of marijuana may be among the first issues which will see a bipartisan agreement within this session

.This meeting marks a culmination point of sorts for the marijuana reform movement. Lawmakers have assumed so far that reforming these laws is bound to happen, and the matter deserves a fair hearing. Rep Karen Bass, D-Calif., spoke about the hearing being the first step towards putting the consensus of the nation towards the subject into law.

Proposals which were introduced in the session began from legislation to allow states to have their own policies, to bills which would de-schedule cannabis and include social equity provisions. The spread of legal pot is now causing major payment problems for federal law, since it is still being considered illegal. Due to this, banks and credit card, and debit card companies are too shy to enter into the equation at all, preferring to sit out until policy makers have their word.

Makil Burnett a physician at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who presented a written testimony at the hearing said that this legalization must simply take place. He is the COO of a cannabis business and was also a former policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance National Affairs Office in Washington DC.

Among the popular cannabis regulations, the States Act is the most popular. This policy states that the Controlled Substances Act needs to be amended and exemptions of State approved marijuana activity should be removed from federal enforcement. Proponents of this say that the federal concerns regarding legal marijuana will then be eliminated. However, it is to be noted that no rachial or social profiling has been considered in this bill.

Through these trials and tribulations, the retail industry of cannabis remains to grow and has seen as many as 11 states legalizing recreational use of marijuana. Majority citizen support also favours the decriminalization.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in New York rejected the request of Justice Department to change its legal team midway through a case challenging the efforts of administration of Trump to add a citizenship question to the year of 2020 census. 

The stridently worded order, by District Judge Jesse M. Furman of United States might further shuffle an already struggling battle by the management to save the citizenship question. Efforts to block it have become a critical political issue as the after that census and the redrawing of political boundaries in the year 2021 that will use new census data. 

If the department wants to continue with the switch of the legal teams, the judge wrote that the lawyers should offer sworn affidavits in which they have to explain their departures and remain under the jurisdiction of the court should they be required to come back. 

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union and other plaintiffs led by Attorney General of New York Letitia James had asked the judge to block the reassignment of the case of Justice Department without giving a reason for the withdrawal. The group said it still had questions about the move, on Tuesday. 

Dale Ho, the A.C.L.U.’s lead attorney on the case said that, ‘The Justice Department owes the courts and the public a clarification for its unprecedented substitution of the entire legal team that has been working on this case’. ‘The administration of Donald Trump is acting like it has something to bury, and we won’t rest till then we know the truth.’ Mr. Barr said, ‘we decided that not to put them in that position’. 

On Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law and authorizes the release of state tax returns to a handful of committees of congress, opening a new way for Democrats to get their hands on some of Donald Trump’s strongly guarded finances.

Cuomo said in a release that, ‘Tax secrecy is dominant – the exception being for bonafide investigative as well as law enforcement purposes’. ‘In New York State tax code by modifying the law enforcement exception ax code to include Congressional tax-related committees, this bill gives Congress the capability to accomplish its Constitutional responsibilities and reinforce our democratic system and make certain that no one is above the law.’

On Monday morning, Assemblyman David Buchwald (D-White Plains), a tax attorney who authored the legislation twitted that, ‘This is a significant step in upholding the principle that top elected officials have a liability to be more accountable and transparent’.

The Means Committee and House Ways, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Senate Finance Committee can make requests for New York state tax returns. Whereas House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who is a very old Trump critic, has backed the plan, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) has therefore far focused on getting the Trump’s tax returns by other ways. It includes suing last week in federal court for enforcing a subpoena ignored by the Trump officials.

A bill passed by the Legislature that would decouple federal and state law in such a manner that would allow state prosecutors for bringing charges against persons who have received presidential pardons. Moreover, that bill, NY A6653 (19R), till now has not been sent to the governor for his signature.

A Colorado law student raised on a ranch who studies at Washburn University School of Law is the first female president of the Agricultural Law Society. Abbey Horn grew up at Raymond Horn Ranch, a multigenerational cow calf operation between Steamboat Springs and Vail near McCoy, Colo., Which has a population of 33.

Through a summer of calves, she was introduced to the sheep industry by local sheep herder.

“That made me start in the sheep industry and I started my 4-H flock when I was 8 years old, buying my market lambs with the money from the lambs,” he said. “I always had sheep after that until I went to college.”

She graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in agricultural economics. Part of her role within the Ag Law Society is to expose other law students to agriculture through speakers and other events.

She said: “There are many students in the law school in the building with us who do not understand that the food does not come from the grocery store.”

During his time at Washburn, Horn participated in Dane G. Hansen’s rural outdoor internship program, which places students in legal positions in rural areas of northwestern Kansas. He also serves as a research assistant for Professor Rodger McEowen and helps maintain the Agriculture Act and the Washburn Tax Report. He recently returned to his second summer with Sebilius and Griffiths, LLP in Norton, Kan., Where he concentrates his time on processing juveniles, city, county, businesses, agriculture, water, banks and state health care programs.

“I appreciate the rural communities and I enjoy being in small towns and serving the people who need it the most,” she said. “There is a shortage of lawyers throughout western Kansas and eastern Colorado, as well as in central and western Nebraska.”

The Agricultural Law Society of Washburn University seeks to educate the next generation of lawyers on the importance of an agriculturally friendly society by promoting and fostering conversations on current issues related to agricultural law. The Ag Law Society is one of the largest organizations within the law school.

Lawmakers have called again for the meat labelling law which is to be added to the proposed trade design. The trade pact design as to replace the agreement, called North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

COOL which the country of origin labelling requirement has been called as to show the details on the label about animal. Details should be about were an animal born, raised and slaughtered.

On the other hand Mexico and Canada have taken the case about law to the World Trade Organization. They stated that meatpackers are not buying their livestock.

Lawmakers of both parties got repeal language into the fiscal 2016 omnibus spending package.

Lawmakers also want the provisions that establish a 10-year monopoly on the price of biological drugs to be eliminated and allow the use of private arbitration panels by US oil and gas companies in disputes with Mexico.

The letter says that final package of NAFTA must restore the COOL labelling.

“While Canada respects that buyers should be able to make informed decisions about the food they buy, mandatory COOL measures would place an undue burden on Canadian and US livestock supply chains, harming producers on both sides of the border” embassy in Washington .

In 2015, the WTO granted Canada the power to impose up to $ 781 million in tariffs at the exchange rate at that time.

The WTO said the labeling requirement led potential US buyers of Canadian or Mexican cattle and pigs to offer lower prices or opt for US animals to avoid additional costs. After the final decision of the WTO, Congress finalized mandatory labelling for certain cuts of beef and pork, as well as ground beef and ground pork.

The measure temporarily blocks the application of a law signed by the governor that was harshly criticized by his opponents, because if implemented, it would eliminate the right to access safe abortions after six weeks of gestation.

A federal judge temporarily blocked a law on Wednesday that sought to prohibit the right to decide to end a pregnancy in the state. It is a momentary victory for reproductive rights, and for clinics that offer health services in a safe way because legislation like that would only promote clandestine procedures.

The decision of District Judge Michael Barrett draws to a halt the start on July 11 of the law that was enacted on April 11 by the state governor, Republican Mike DeWine. He signed it even though his predecessor John Kasich, of the same party, vetoed it twice. The text was then considered one of the largest restrictions on abortion in the United States.

The legislation was known as “the law of the heartbeat” and limited abortion from one and a half months of pregnancy. That term has been rejected by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of the United States because they consider it vague, among other things because “what is interpreted as a beat in these laws, is actually the electrical pulsations of a portion of the fetal tissue that eventually it will become the heart when the embryo develops. ”

Ohio counts in a list confirmed by at least a dozen of states that have approved similar legislation to end Roe v. Wade, a case that decriminalized abortion in 1973 in the United States and ratified the constitutional right of women to make medical decisions about their bodies, including ending a pregnancy. In this case, the Ohio law does not even include exceptions for pregnancies due to rape or incest.

The lieutenant governor of Virginia is retiring from a law firm where he has worked since last year amid accusations of sexual assault against him.

Justin Fairfax has been absent from Morrison & Foerster since February after two women publicly accused him of assaulting them in 2000 and 2004. The firm said he had conducted an internal investigation into Fairfax and found no evidence of misconduct during his employment.

Justin had cooperated fully with the investigation said by a man from the firm in a statement to Fox News. He also concluded that their investigation was done and Justin’s license has ended and which was informed to them by Justin. However, Justin has decided to leave the firm and the decision was respected by the company.

Vanessa Tyson, one of Fairfax’s accusers, said that she forced her to have oral sex during 2004, Democratic National Convention in Boston. She said Virginia’s lieutenant governor took advantage of her past as a survivor of “incest.”

Justin Fairfax accuser says the data is found in your case: “pure cowardice”
Meredith Watson claimed that Fairfax raped her in 2000 when they were both students at Duke University. Fairfax denied the accusations and said that both meetings were consensual.

A new law based around crosswalks was established Hawaii, that came into practice this Monday states that a pedestrian cannot legally step foot on a crosswalk while there is a countdown timer being flashed. What is the penalty which a person who violates this law going to face? A fine which can be up to a hundred and thirty dollars. The captain of the Honolulu Police Department, Ben Moszkowicz said that what this law essentially did was to actually clarify what has already been the rule for years.

Ben supported the law, saying that “The only safe and appropriate time for you to begin crossing the street is when you see either the white upraised palm or you see the picture of the man walking.” He further elaborates, “What the law does (is that) it clarifies if you’re already in the intersection when the countdown timer begins, then you should have enough time and it’s legal for you to continue crossing.”

The law was passed by the legislation to curb the number of pedestrians losing their lives on the streets of Hawaii. It came as a response to the 43 pedestrian deaths in 2018 compared to 15 in 2017.

The amount of criminal charges in Pennsylvania that will qualify for automatic record sealing beginning on Friday under the Clean Slate legislation of the state is really high. This number can be as high as forty million.

While law enforcement will still be able to pick up arrests and convictions, it will not be the public. this will be. The law covers non convictions, summary offences and most non violent misdemeanour related convictions. This includes prostitution, shoplifting and drunk driving.

When Clean Slate initially come into practice in December, residents having such forms of records required to rent lawyers and move to court to get them sealed. This is same as the case in different states across the country. Beginning this Friday in Pennsylvania, the automation method will begin once a decide signs off on a batch of eligible charges.

“It’s the first day in the history of the United States that records will be sealed by automation. And it is quite possible that in the first week more cases will be sealed by automation than have ever been sealed in the entire history of the United States.” This was the opinion of Sharon Dietrich, legal proceeding director at Community Legal Services, the non-profit group that helped make Clean Slate. This garnered overwhelming two-way support within the state’s Republican-controlled law-makers.