Featured Article: NY Times - "Lobbyists, Bearing Gifts, Pursue Attorneys General"

Speaking of lobbying, the front page of the NY Times recently featured an article about active and effective lobbying efforts targeting state Attorneys General on behalf of business interest.  Investigations and prosecutions literally melt away in the face of campaign contributions and face to face influence. Although our textbooks ignore this issue, the Legal Environment of Business includes examination of the political influence of business and its effect on law-making, business regulation and, apparently, law enforcement.

AACSB standard #9 requires that our undergraduate business students understand:

Economic, political, regulatory, legal, technological, and social contexts of organizations in a global society.  (emphasis added)

See also the Journal of Business and Politics.

Florida Attorney general Pam Bondi's contacts with lobbyists are described in the NY Times article.

Street Level Legal Interpretation

Criminal law is statutory.  Sometimes circumstances requires street-level analysis and legal interpretation by the hard working public servants entrusted with the first line enforcement of these laws.  Thorny gray areas become evident, as this video suggests:

Law's Mixed Messages

The Department of Homeland Security has been running an ad campaign around the catch phrase "If you see something, say something."  While not "law" in a strict sense, the campaigns promotes an official governmental policy encouraging people to come forward when something suspicious is observed.

Recently a patron of a bank in Glastonbury, Connecticut spotted a man carrying a gun.  He notified bank employees. The gun toter turned out to have a valid carry permit.  So, the police charged the customer who spoke up with breach of peace for upsetting the bank employees.

Apparently, the new policy message is, "If you see something, keep your mouth shut or answer for it in court."

UPDATE 9/26/13: The Hartford Courant reports that the state has declined to prosecute the charges.  This article also gives more details about what happened that justify the actions of the police:
Mr. Gursky apparently wrote a note "man with a gun" and attempted to show it to a teller while saying "gun." He apparently then left the bank taking the note with him even though the teller had not yet seen it.  He did not wait around to make any explanation to any other bank personnel or the police officers who were on the way as a result of the teller's call.

To me, these facts sharpen the analysis on the way law works.  If the law works by sending messages, then the way those messages are presented to the public is an important element of "the legal system." In essence, that makes the media part of the legal system.  If the media chooses to under-report facts in an effort to make a story sound more exciting or interesting to read, then the message that gets sent is different than the one that would have been received if all the facts were reported.  In this case, as first reported (see the video below), the law enforcement action seems ridiculous. Then bloggers, like me, pick up the story, repeat it as it as been reported, and pretty soon the internet is abuzz with a story about how inconsistent and ridiculous the law appears. With more people getting their news on line or from twitter, there is even more incentive for media to make stories shorter and more intriguing to draw readers. If shorter and more intriguing means "incorrect" and "misleading," then that exacerbates a problem of eroding legal legitimacy.

If the law's legitimacy depends on the respect of the people, and that respect can be manipulated by the way the law is reported by the media, then isn't some portion of media studies a legitimate part of legal studies. Perhaps we should be teaching "The Legal and Ethical and Public Environment of Business;" including media studies, interest group politics, legislative law-making and public perception.  The new AACSB standards require that business students have an understanding of the political environment of business as well as the regulatory.  Who is teaching that?

The Role of Social Media in Law Enforcement

Former new England Patriot NFL player, Brian Holloway, was shocked when his college aged son told him that 300-400 high school and college aged kids were having a Labor Day weekend party in Holloway's country home in the Hudson valley, and tweeting pictures of the festivities.  Holloway got on-line and saw a picture of a drinking youth standing on top of the dining room table that he bought with his Super Bowl bonus.  Significant damage was done to the house that Holloway has owned since 1981. Police are investigating and the pictures posted on twitter and over 170 other tweets have already helped identify over 200 of the estimated 300+ partygoers.

Holloway, a motivational speaker, is trying to turn the event into a teachable moment.  He has created a website for identifying participants but also to invite them to get involved in community service - starting with coming over to clean up his house.

Holloway suggests:
 Suppose these students came together and created a voice of accountability and reconciliation that spread across the county with all the power and speed of social media?    It’s happened before?    That would definitely save lives.

Featured prominently among tweeted pictures of youths at the party is a girl wearing a UConn sweatshirt. Ouch!

Autotune The Law - Melding Law and Popular Culture

Our students are all well familiar with "Autotune the News". (The oldtimers among us will remember Peter Frampton autotuning his guitar licks in "Show me the Way".) The Gregory Brothers take video news clips and creatively turn them into songs and music videos.  The Bed Intruder Song (video below)has well over 35 million hits as of the time I am preparing this post. NPR has reported on the phenomenon.

Here is the video clip of the underlying incident reported in the news:



Here is the song created from the news video:



There is much academic discussion about how the law is portrayed in poular culture.  There is also scholarship on how popular culture acts to shape the law and its understandings.  I believe that we are seeing a new dimension, here, where the law is not merely reflected in the poular culture but has melded or fused into the popular culture in a way not previously found.  I'm not sure what it means for the law or for enhancing the understandings of law, but its worthy of discussion.

Return of The Pink Panther - Interpretation of Statutes

This video clip from The Return of The Pink Panther shows Inspector Clousseau engaged in a battle of wits with a beggar over the interpretation of statutes. Law enforcement involves discretion; first at the street level, then later at the prosecutorial level.