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Memorial Day

poppies.jpegCurrent federal law designates Memorial Day as the last Monday in May — in 2008 that’s today, May 26th. It was officially proclaimed as Decoration Day on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11. It was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states, but the South did not observe Decoration Day, preferring to honor their dead on separate days until after World War I. In 1882, the name was changed to Memorial Day and soldiers who had died in other wars were also honored.

140 years later, Memorial Day is still celebrated at Arlington National Cemetery with a ceremony in which a small American flag is placed on each grave and a wreath is laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But today, there other, less historic, ways to pay your respects; there are picnics, parades and fireworks — or you can skin your phone with an American flag.

Our favorite quotes: Thomas Jefferson

jeffersonsmall.jpegA strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

Thomas Jefferson. Letter to John B. Colvin, September 20, 1810, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Paul L. Ford, vol. 9, p. 279 (1898).

58 years for 180 degrees

plessy.jpegYesterday — May 18th — was the anniversary of Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 US Supreme Court case that upheld a Louisiana state law requiring separate railway cars for blacks and whites. The Court found that separate facilities satisfied the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution so long as they were equal. The separate-but-equal doctrine remained good law in the United States until it was finally repudiated by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Educationdecided 58 years later, on May 17, 1954.

In Brown v. Board of Education, the Court held that state laws that established separate public schools for black and whitebrownvboard2.jpeg students violated the Fourteen Amendment by denying black children equal educational opportunities. The case was a judicial watershed that eventually dismantled the legal basis for racial segregation in schools and other public facilities, and laid the foundation for the civil rights movement.

Healthcare fraud:definition of the day

health-care.jpegTypes of fraud include kickbacks, billing for services not rendered, billing for unnecessary equipment, and billing for services performed by a lesser qualified person. The health care providers who commit these fraud schemes encompass all areas of health care, including hospitals, home health care, ambulance services, doctors, chiropractors, psychiatric hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, and nursing homes. Violators may be prosecuted under: 18 U.S.C. 1347 Health Care Fraud. See, also, White-collar crime and Health Law.

It’s a minefield out there

money.jpegTo start a business it takes 19 separate procedures in Belarus
in the United States — 6
in Australia — 2
To enforce a contract it takes 62 separate procedures in Burundi
in the United States — 32
in Austria — 26

Free legal information for anybody.

Did you know?

fed-regs.jpegBetween 1996 and 1998
15,286 new federal regulations went into effect.
222 of these had an annual effect on the economy of
$100 million — each.

The LII has access to them all.

Advisory opinion:definition of the day

dry-run.jpegAn advisory opinion is a sort of judicial “dry run” — the court states a non-binding opinion on a legal question submitted by a legislature or government official without the filing of a case. See, e.g., the advisory opinion of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on civil unions.