Blogs

Panama creates Registry of Beneficiaries The Private and Unique System for Registration of Final Beneficiaries of Legal Entities has been approved under Law 129 of March 17, 2020. The law imposes obligations on the beneficiaries of corporations and foundations to update the information they maintain with resident agents similar to those already in Law 23 of 2015. The information may only be accessed by competent authorities. The full text of the law appears in the Official Gazette or can be requested to [email protected] laglex.com. ------------ Panamá crea Registro de Beneficiarios El Sistema Privado y Único De Registro de Beneficiarios Finales de Personas Jurídicas ...

It's emergency be safe

The big news now is obviously Coronavirus Disease 2019 aka COVID-19 and the response to it raises some big civil rights issues.  Health officials and governments around the world are working to prevent or re3duce the spread of the disease.  COVID-19 spreads from person to person via respiratory droplets created when an infected person sneezes or coughs.  You can be exposed to those droplets directly if you are close enough to the source (within 6 feet) or by touching a surface that has droplets on it and then touching your eyes or mouth.  Clearly the best way to avoid the illness is to wash your hands and keep things clean. Another method is staying away from ...

Climate Change Blog 28 I have been focusing on some of the big ticket items, melting polar ice caps, rising, warming, acidifying seas with altered currents affecting weather systems, major natural disasters such as draught, flood and wildfire. In this Blog I will focus on some of the effects, retreat, managed and forced. Except this just happened (Feb 8-9): an iceberg twice the size of Washington DC calved from the Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica. The Pine Island Glacier is one of the fastest-retreating glaciers in Antarctica, and along with the Thwaites Glacier nearby, it is being closely monitored. The danger is that these glaciers have begun ...

In October of 2018, I posted a blog promoting a program co-sponsored by the Civil Rights Committee titled The War on Science is a War on Civil Rights.  It was held on October 26, 2018 and was a fantastic program.  It was also frightening and enraging.  Just this past week, at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the New York State Bar Association, the Environmental & Energy Law Section presented a program on Lead in Drinking Water, co-sponsored by the Civil Rights Committee. Once again fascinating and frightening. What does lead in drinking water have to do with Civil Rights I hear you ask?  Why would you claim that the war on science is a war on civil rights?  ...

There is no explicit right to privacy set out in the United States Constitution.  It is referred to in the 4th Amendment with the language "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects…”. [i]   The Fifth Amendment includes the right not to be a “witness against himself” [ii] and the 14th Amendment has the due process clause [iii] .  There are some federal and state laws protecting privacy in certain circumstances, but no overall right to privacy.    In three cases the Supreme Court developed a theory of a right to privacy.  In Griswold v. Connecticut [iv] the court held that a right to privacy could ...

Climate Change Blog 27 Facts on the Ground: Extreme weather, it appears, will always lead off this Blog. It is what climate models have predicted for years, and the models predict more to come. Only worse. California again was hit with deadly, costly and disruptive fires. The Tick Fire burned over 4,300 acres and was one of a dozen fires in the state propelled by strong winds. Schools were closed in the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys and 50,000 people evacuated in Los Angeles County where the fire spread through canyons north of Los Angeles, jumping a freeway and threatening thousands of homes. 16,000 acres of Sonoma County were engulfed by the ...

In the past I have discussed voting rights and the attempts by some to limit or restrict certain groups’ right to vote.  I have written about voter purges, voter ID laws and the reduction in the number of polling places.  You won’t be surprised to hear that the voter purges are still going strong. Wisconsin has been ordered by a judge to remove approximately 234,000 voters from the voting registration rolls. [i]   The Wisconsin Election Commission sent a letter to 234,000 registered Wisconsin voters telling them they had to re-register because the commission believed they may have moved from the address on their registration.  The list was generated using ...

In May, 2019 the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued The Denial of Care Rule, a rule that would allow any health care worker to deny medical treatment to patients because of personal religious or moral beliefs. [i]   “Health care worker” includes doctors, nurses, EMTs, administrators, janitors and clerical staff.  Since the landmark ruling of Roe v Wade in 1973, anti-abortion groups have been searching for ways to limit women’s access to abortion services.  At that time so called “conscience protections” were brought forth to allow doctors and others to refuse to perform abortions if it conflicted with their personal beliefs.  Over the ...

Climate Change Blog 26 Facts on the Ground: I had just written that hurricane (usually a violent storm over water) season is over so now it’s wildfire season in the US, but then a tornado (usually a violent storm over land) tore into Dallas, TX. The tornado caused panic at the Memphis airport and at least one death in Arkansas and destruction in Missouri and Tennessee. Passengers at Memphis International Airport were pulled off planes and directed to take shelter in terminal restrooms. In Dallas, the tornado brought golf-ball-size hail and lightning. About 85,000 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth region lost power. In California, given the persistent drought ...

Climate Change Blog 25. Facts on the Ground: Environmental injustice is an important part of discussions involving climate change. The fact is that those least culpable for the existence of climate change suffer disproportionately from it. Dorian, a Category 5 hurricane destroyed much of the Bahamas over two deadly, terrifying days. When Dorian made land-fall on the Bahamas, its winds were a sustained 185 mph gusting to 220 mph, making it the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded on land. At least 51 people were killed. Over 2,500 people have been reported missing. All survivors are traumatized. Many will suffer PTSD. None can imagine a future on ...

In 2000 the United States declared that measles had been eradicated in the country. [i]  Yet, as most of us are aware, there has been a resurgence of measles in the United States.  One of the hotbeds of the disease is New York State. Since the beginning of the epidemic there have been 654 measles cases in New York City and 414 in other parts of the state. [ii]   The epicenters of these outbreaks has been Hasidic communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County.  Thankfully the threat seems to have run its course.  This week Mayor Bill DeBlasio and Dr. Oxiris Barbot, the NYC Health Commissioner, announced an end to the outbreak, noting that there have been no ...

Climate Change Blog 24 Facts on the Ground: The US women’s soccer team beat and heat and the Netherlands to win the World Cup. The Tour de France rode through record-breaking heat. But in NYC, I was denied the opportunity to compete in my 10 th NYC Triathlon as the heat forced the cancellation of the event for the first time ever. It’s summer and it’s record-breaking hot in many places globally. The Arctic, including much of Siberia, is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the world, and the permafrost — “permanently” (i.e., year-round) frozen ground — is thawing. As it thaws it releases huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas which ...

I haven’t written on the current immigration crisis, mostly because it is in the forefront of the news and I didn’t have much to add.  The situation is appalling and inhumane.  As I discussed previously [i] , entering the United States at a designated border crossing and requesting asylum is legal.  Those doing so have not committed any crime and there is no reason for them to be detained, let alone sent to a concentration camp. Throughout this process, the administration has been looking for ways to deport asylum seekers from the US. We have seen examples of people brought to the United States as small children, who grew up and whose entire life has been ...

A Further Update on Transgender troops in the Military As we know, President Trump has gone ahead and instituted a ban on all transgender service members in the United States military. Following the April 12, 2018 decision by the Court of Appeals to deny an injunction on enforcement of the ban and the Supreme Court’s decision to not review the case [i] , the administration has decided to go ahead with the ban. His ban applies to the US military, but the Federal Government does not control the various state’s National Guards.  The National Guard is controlled by the Governor of each state. At last count, at least six states have announced they will ...

Climate Change Blog 23. Facts on the Ground: Hurricane Barry, the first of the season, had sustained winds of 75mph on July 13 and flooded coastal Louisiana. Its immense scope reached much of the midwest, southeast, the Gulf Coast, Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Great Lakes region, the northeast and southern Ontario. Over 23” of rain fell in LA., the French Quarter was flooded, a flash-flood emergency was declared in New Orleans and a tornado struck the Gentilly neighborhood there. Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency, deployed search and rescue teams and requested a federal disaster declaration for the entire state on July 11 which was granted. ...

A quick informational post. The New York State Senate and Assembly have passed legislation that will amend the NYS Human Rights Law. [i]   It is expected to be signed by Governor Cuomo and will go into effect as soon as he signs. The amendments will do the following: Independent contractors and domestic workers will now be protected under the law for all forms of discrimination and harassment, not just sexual harassment. In other words, independent contractors and domestic workers will be treated the same as employees. It changes the definition of “employer” to include “all employers within the state, including the state and all political subdivisions ...

Climate Change Blog 22. Facts on the Ground: A rare tornado warning was issued in the New York region on May 28, causing confusion and concern as a thunderstorm struck. That was unusual. But given the horrific storms in much of the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest and South, why not here?  Between April and May alone, tornadoes have caused at least 40 deaths and scores of injuries there. Floods damaged parts of Oklahoma in late May. The town of Braggs was turned into an island. To get gas, people wrote their names on their gas cans as a friend or neighbor made a gas run by boat to the mainland. There were feed runs for livestock, medicine runs, and grocery ...

Climate Change Blog 22. Facts on the Ground: A rare tornado warning was issued in the New York region on May 28, causing confusion and concern as a thunderstorm struck. That was unusual. But given the horrific storms in much of the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest and South, why not here?  Between April and May alone, tornadoes have caused at least 40 deaths and scores of injuries there. Floods damaged parts of Oklahoma in late May. The town of Braggs was turned into an island. To get gas, people wrote their names on their gas cans as a friend or neighbor made a gas run by boat to the mainland. There were feed runs for livestock, medicine runs, and grocery ...

Climate Change Blog 22. Facts on the Ground: A rare tornado warning was issued in the New York region on May 28, causing confusion and concern as a thunderstorm struck. That was unusual. But given the horrific storms in much of the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest and South, why not here?  Between April and May alone, tornadoes have caused at least 40 deaths and scores of injuries there. Floods damaged parts of Oklahoma in late May. The town of Braggs was turned into an island. To get gas, people wrote their names on their gas cans as a friend or neighbor made a gas run by boat to the mainland. There were feed runs for livestock, medicine runs, and grocery ...