For more information, please contact:
Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
ADVISORY TO PRODUCERS, COLUMNISTS AND ASSIGNMENT, LEGAL, PLANNING, BUSINESS, AND DAYBOOK EDITORS
CHICAGO--July 25 , 2005--Chicago-Kent College of Law, the Stuart Graduate School
of Business and the Center for Financial Markets have experts available to discuss current issues.
To reach any of our experts, call Gwen Osborne, director
of public affairs, at (312) 906-5251. Copies of press releases and earlier advisories are available
on our Web site: http://www.kentlaw.edu/news/advisory.
AFL-CIO Split: The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers, and UNITE HERE are boycotting the AFL-CIO convention in Chicago this week, with the Teamsters and SEIU leaving the AFL-CIO altogether. The four unions account for approximately one-third of the AFL-CIO’s 13 million members. Will other unions follow SEIU and the Teamsters out of the AFL-CIO? Will the two groups raid each other for membership? What will be the impact of these actions on the American organized labor movement? Professor Martin H. Malin, director of Chicago-Kent’s Institute for Law and the Workplace and the author of Individual Rights Within the Union, is available for interviews.
A Chicago Tribune review of Cook County Circuit Judge Evelyn Clay’s court transcripts has revealed her controversial comments that she will refuse to seat all-white juries to hear cases in her courtroom. Professor Nancy S. Marder, who teaches a course on juries, judges, and trials, has written extensively about the American jury system. Professor Marder is the author of a new book called Jury Process and several law review articles, including Juries, Justice and Multiculturalism. Professor Marder is available for comment about Judge Clay’s remarks and about recent Supreme Court decisions related to the racial make-up of juries.
In May of 2004 Brandon Mayfield was arrested and held for two weeks as a “material witness” in connection with the terrorist bombing that killed 191 people in Madrid. The FBI claimed Mayfield’s fingerprints were found on evidence retrieved at the scene. The Portland attorney’s children were put under surveillance, his DNA was taken, his phones were tapped and his computer files were copied -- without his knowledge – in accordance with provisions of the USA Patriot Act. Mayfield later was released and given an apology from the FBI after the agency admitted that the fingerprints did not match. A U.S. citizen and Muslim convert married to an Egyptian woman, Mayfield sued the Justice Department for violating his civil liberties, saying the government’s actions were unconstitutional and he was singled out because of his religion. He is asking the government to return his property and tell him what information it gathered on him during its searches. Dean Harold J. Krent is available for interviews about the case and the USA Patriot Act. Criminal defense attorney and professor Richard S. Kling can discuss DNA evidence.
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