In Alabama, law enforcement personnel are not required in all circumstances to record or document by audio or video their interactions with the public; however, if a law enforcement officer does create a video or audio recording that documents an interaction between an officer and the public, the officer is required to maintain the recording. The sources of any such recording may include in-dash cameras, body cameras, surveillance cameras, and audio recordings (without video). As of October 21, 2015, if any video or audio recording becomes part of a law enforcement case file, an officer must retain the recording until...
My recent article, “Alabama’s Anti-Miscegenation Statutes”, can be found in the October 2015 issue of the Alabama Review. I have provided an excerpt below, but the full article can be read online with a subscription to Project MUSE, here. “In the immediate aftermath of the civil war and, more specifically, the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, various southern states began passing laws to preserve a now-fragile social structure. Beginning with President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, which liberated all slaves residing in rebel states or territories, the southern states’ social ecology had begun to unravel, and southern whites...
Ipse Dixit testimony comprises a statement of fact by a proponent (i.e., the condition particular equipment prior to an incident occurring) that can be neither proved nor disproved by any other evidence. A trial court is well within its purview to rule as inadmissible ipse dixit evidence, because admitting ipse dixit opinion testimony that would require the court to “take a leap of faith” to rely on the proponent’s “naked assurances” that his testimony is based in fact.[1] For example, Tom has left a piece of construction equipment on Sam’s property. Tom was not present when his employees used the equipment to...
When determining whether a cross-claim can be asserted after the time of the running of the statute of limitations for the underlying matter, it is likely that such a cross claim can be made, so long as the cross claim did not arise after the filing of the original pleading in the matter and it relates back to the time the Plaintiff’s claim arose. Alabama Rule of Civil Procedure 13(c) allows that “all counterclaims other than those maturing or acquired after pleading shall relate back to the time the original plaintiff’s claim arose.” This premise is also found in Alabama...
Where a will had been in the testator’s possession and cannot be found after his death, there is a rebuttable presumption that the will was destroyed with the intent to revoke. The burden is on the will proponent(s) to overcome the presumption. Where no duplicate originals of the will can be found, a copy can be introduced into evidence to show the intentions of the testator and the contents of the will. Where there is conflicting evidence as to whether the will was revoked, it will be decided by the trier of fact, based on the weight of the evidence....
John Shovlin argues in “The Cultural Politics of Luxury in Eighteenth-Century France” that reconsideration of the relationship between the economic developments of eighteenth-century France and the French revolution must be undertaken. Cultural history and economic dynamics must be re-weighed into the factors contributing to the French Revolution. His argument hinges on the cultural problems created by “luxury” and “representation,” which helped to undermine the Old Regime. Attitudes toward both luxury and representation changed rapidly due to increasing economic activity, especially among the non-nobility. Prior to the mid-eighteenth century, luxury in France was used to distinguish between the nobility and everyone...
Jeanne Boydston’s book Home and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic (Amazon) discusses the lives of New England women from the colonial period to post-modernization. Attitudes toward women’s labor in the home saw several distinct shifts within this period, which it is Boydston’s primary objective to reveal. Within the introduction, Boydston claims her work “is a history of women’s unpaid domestic labor as a central force in the emergence of an industrialized society in the northeastern United States.” Throughout much of the period, the attitude toward women’s labor revolved around the Marxian principle that unpaid...
Mary Ryan’s Cradle of the Middle Class (Amazon) shows the familial metamorphosis that occurred in Oneida County as growth and industrialization affected the area and cultural emphasis in the region began to transfer to Utica. In the seven articles observed, Mary Ryan’s book was generally well reviewed. Several authors, however, expressed certain reservations, which will be discussed shortly. Regarding general comments about the book, Catherine Hall, who has proved to be the most unquestioning admirer, stated that Ryan’s most important contribution to the field was that “She has taken feminist perspectives firmly back into the study of the whole society…. It...
In Faces of Nationalism, Tom Nairn has compiled a series of essays, which he wrote over an eighteen-year period. As a compilation, Faces of Nationalism does not possess a single, overarching argument but rather a common thread of nationalism, which runs throughout the well-orchestrated work. Nairn effectively separates the fifteen essays, not including the introduction on which much of this paper will dwell, into four thematically divided groups. Ernest Gellner receives a great deal of attention in this work, especially in the introducation, for the foundation that he laid in the field. At times the illustration from and references to...
Christopher Clark’s The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860 (Amazon) argues for the creation of a capitalistic society in New England during the period between the War for American Independence and the Civil War. Although not unique, Massachusetts displayed distinct characteristics, which would allow it to play a significant role in the economic development of the country throughout the period. Clark’s divides his book into five chronologically-developed sections. The first is the introduction in which he lays out his groundwork and general premise. The second section, entitled “Involution: 1780 to the 1820s,” shows the intensification of production in Massachusetts and...
Being a lawyer doesn’t mean doing business as usual.
