From the banning of sledding in most public parks in the City of Dubuque to the banning of all fracking in the State of New York, state and local governments continue to affect our lives in many ways, small and large. In the next few months, your Section will be dealing with issues which span this entire range.
April 30, 2015
Chair’s Message
James C. Hanks
In January, we tackled the wild worlds of cannabis, cybersecurity, and content neutrality in sign regulation. All these topics were covered in webinars that the Section co-sponsored. We will soon be rolling out a new two-part webinar series: Strategies for Success: Implementing and Improving Citizen Oversight of Law Enforcement and Section 1983 Civil Rights Cases Against Police Prosecution and Defense After Ferguson. The webinars will delve into the issues of the militarization of state and local governments, citizen oversight of police departments, and § 1983 litigation. In the wake of the deaths of unarmed suspects and the killing of police officers, this webinar series could not be more timely.
The ABA’s Midyear Meeting in Houston provided us with another opportunity to continue our diversity efforts in presentations and recruiting and to address issues that are both national and local in their scope and impact.
President Obama’s recently announced initiative to improve access to affordable community college education is a reminder that too many students are forced to choose between a life without higher education and an education with suffocating student debt. The Midyear program by the Attorneys General & Department of Justice Issues Committee focused our attention on the legal issues related to student debt. Later that same day, Section member Dan Dalton’s book Religious Land Use Litigation since 2000 was the jumping off point for an excellent discussion of another important topic that has no boundaries but presents many interesting constitutional challenges. Our programming concluded with a review of hot topics by our Diversity Law Committee—a presentation that has been a highlight of the Midyear Meeting for a number of years.
Before you know it, winter will be over and we will be in Philadelphia for our Spring Meeting. Please consider joining us, if you can. I have been assured by the creators of a certain television show that the weather will be fine (because it’s always sunny in Philadelphia), and I can assure you that the programming will be great. Working jointly with the Public Contract Law Section, we have an agenda filled with fracking and public health, converting vacant municipal properties into urban gardens and farms, building and financing sports and entertainment venues, privatization of public schools, reconfiguring municipal finances to resolve insolvency issues, cloud computing, hot topics in land use law, ethics, and more.
While we are on the topic of the Spring Meeting, I have been flooded with literally no emails, text messages, or calls about singing at the Council Meeting. Among the excellent suggestions that I did not receive, but which regrettably would have been rejected in any event, were the following: songs with a reference to the city in the title (“Streets of Philadelphia”—Bruce Spingsteen, “Philadelphia Freedom”—Elton John, “Philadelphia”—Neil Young), a medley of some Hall & Oates songs (“Rich Girl,” “Kiss on My List,” and “Private Eyes”), or a tribute to Philadelphia Soul (featuring the songs of Melvin & the Blue Notes, The Delfonics, Teddy Pendergrass, and The Spinners). While these are all sound ideas, we will instead be singing songs with a Key West connection. So, if you can come to the Council Meeting, please join me by wearing your favorite tropical attire and bring the attitude for the latitude.
A few weeks ago when I was writing a holiday letter to family and friends, I shared an observation made centuries ago by a local government official, Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Seneca was a Roman philosopher, statesman, and dramatist who lived about 2,000 years ago. He observed that the Roman citizens of his time waited anxiously for the arrival of ships into port and hurried to retrieve from them whatever mail they might receive from distant parts of the Empire. They would then spend much of their day reading the letters and composing responses. Seneca lamented the impact of this practice on the time left in a day for quiet contemplation or any other endeavor. This was his wisdom: “Measure your life. It just does not have room for so much.” As the time that I have left to measure in my life diminishes, I think more about what I have room for in my life. I hope that you can measure your life and make room for what matters most to you.