Are you a photographer who would like to see your work in print? This year, the Communications Office and Student Affairs is asking you to submit your best photo for the 2009-2010 calendar. The winning photo will be chosen by a committee and published in the 2009-2010 calendar. The deadline to submit is April 1, 2009. Guidelines: Photos in the law school calendar should reflect the law school or University of Florida campus, recognizable sites around the City of Gainesville or Alachua County, major sporting events, museums, landmarks and nature, just to name a few. The following are provided as suggestions, but are not required: Law school campus, Graduation,Athletics – Football, Basketball, BCS Championship, Hippodrome Theatre, Lake Wauberg, Ginnie Springs/ Poe Springs, Alligators, Nature, Payne’s Prairie, Notable/ familiar UF Symbols. Only one submission per person; photos must be high-resolution (at least 200 ppi); and photos must be submitted electronically to Katie Blasewitz by April 1, 2009. Photo disqualifications: Photos of explicit or graphic language and/or images; Portraits and/or headshots of an individual. For examples of photos used in previous calendars, visit www.law.ufl.edu/news/calendar.shtml. For more information contact Communications Coordinator Katie Blasewitz at blasewitz@law.ufl.edu or 352-273-0652. (Photo by Joshua Lukman)

Congratulations to 2009 federal judicial law clerks
Lorna Cobb, Chief Judge Hugh Lawson, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia; Larry Dougherty, Judge Charles R. Wilson, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals; Michael Friedman, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul G. Hyman; Margaret Hunt, Judge Morales Howard U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida; David Karp, Judge Susan Bucklew, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida; Sasha Lohn-McDermott, Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida; Elizabeth Manno, Judge John Richard Smoak, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida; Charles Roberson, Senior Judge Peter T. Fay, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals; Dante Trevisani, Senior Judge James L. King, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida; Lindsay Saxe, Judge Steven D. Merryday, U.S. District for the Middle District of Florida; Ben Williamson, Judge M. Casey Rodgers, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. A Judicial Clerkship is a prestigious, paid-position for a law graduate, who is employed by a judge to assist with research, writing, and review of opinions and orders, usually for a one- or two-year period. At times, the judicial clerk first will have completed a judicial externship for the particular judge who then hires the law student for the law clerk position upon graduation. A judicial clerkship is a great way to begin your legal career and opens many employment doors upon completion. Judicial clerkships are available in both the federal and state courts. Make plans to attend the two upcoming judicial clerkship programs on 4/1 at 12pm in FDR to listen to Gator judicial law clerks, and on 4/8 at 12pm in FDR to learn about the process from obtaining letters of recommendation to applying to accepting an offer. Please be aware that the judicial application process typically is accomplished over one year in advance, so don’t miss out on great opportunities by missing critical deadlines. 2L’s will be applying during SUMMER 2009 for positions beginning fall 2010.

Petition for temporary protected status for Haitians

As future advocates and social engineers, we have great civic duty to raise the concerns of our community, particularly when circumstances call for us to advocate for better public policy. Presently, our community is devastated by the forceful mass exodus of over 30,000 Haitians living in the United States. As you all may know, as of last fall, Haiti was repeatedly devastated by three natural disasters. As Haiti is a third world country struggling to recover from these natural disasters, the country does not have the capacity or resources to take in over 30,000 Haitian deportees. Consequently, the Prime Minister and President of Haiti kindly requested the U.S. government provide Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. In response, former President Bush denied the requests; meanwhile, renewing Temporary Protected Status for other countries who recovered 10 years ago by Hurricane Minch. Today, much of Haiti remains buried under mudslides after being hit repeatedly by three hurricanes. Without foreign help, the government of Haiti would not have been able to distribute meager relief to few areas within a devastated country. The overt disparity of treatment, apathy, and current state of Haiti are evidence that there is need to advocate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, as afforded to other respective groups. With the help of our law community, we can raise attention on this prolonged issue that affects our community. Throughout this week, a petition to halt the deportation of Haitians and a request for Temporary Protected Status for Haitian deportees will be circulating. Please spread, for we can not sit in silence as this travesty occurs. For more information on this matter, e-mail trichem@ufl.edu. CaribLaw will have a table in the courtyard next week if you are interested in signing the petition.

“U.S. courts are looking at the social responsibility of landowners to provide access for the health and sociability of the public,” Alexander said. “The state of New Jersey is taking the lead on this issue provoking new thoughts on private property and owners’ rights.”

Alexander explained that historically courts have ruled in favor of private landowners when challenged with land rights and access issues. But in 2005, the New Jersey Supreme Court narrowed the scope on private land ownership and broadened its view on social obligation.

“In its decision on Raleigh Avenue Beach Association v. Atlantis Beach Club, the court ruled that private, non-profit entities did not have unlimited rights to restrict public access,” Alexander said.

This ruling, based in part on an earlier NJ Supreme Court decision in Matthews v. Bay Head Improvement Association (1984), takes into account the availability and need of public access.

“The landmark ruling in 2005 by the New Jersey Supreme Court could set precedence for other states,” Alexander concluded.

The Wolf Family Lecture in the American Law of Real Property series was endowed by a gift from UF Law Professor Michael Allan Wolf and his wife, Betty. Wolf, the Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law, is the general editor of a 17-volume treatise, Powell on Real Property, the most referenced real- property treatise in the country, which is cited regularly by the courts, including several citations in the United States Supreme Court. The treatise is a legal source that lawyers, law professors and judges have relied upon for more than 50 years.

Jon Mills, a UF Levin College of Law alumni, dean emeritus, professor of law, director for the UF Center for Governmental Responsibility, and former Florida Speaker of the House has accepted an appointment by senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez to serve a two-year term on the Florida Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC).

“I’m glad to participate in the selection process for new federal judges and prosecutors. Objective, non-partisan and high quality appointments are central to America’s justice system,” Mills said. “I look forward to working with senators Nelson and Martinez and other commission members to assure the best options for President Obama’s appointments.”

The Florida JNC is a 56-member commission charged with the thorough review and recommendation of the most qualified candidates to serve as U.S. District Court Judges, U.S. Attorneys and U.S. Marshals in Florida. Once the nominations are approved by U.S. senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, the names of the nominees are presented to the White House for the president’s consideration.

Mills will serve on the JNC Northern District Commission. There are a total of 12 UF College of Law graduates serving on the Florida JNC Commission.

Potter, a graduate of Yale Law School and former professor of the Georgetown University Law Center, has held positions in both the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Policy and the Joint Committee on Taxation of the United States Congress. Potter also practiced with the firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. Undoubtedly, her wealth of experience serves her well in her current position with the IRS.

Her lecture to the Levin College of Law focused on the challenges of creating tax policies that are enforceable and that encourage compliance, especially involving foreign accounts and income.

“If the IRS can’t administrate it, you encourage noncompliance,” she explained.

Potter said that the IRS currently employs 1,600 lawyers, with 600 or 700 of them experts in different areas of substantive tax law. These experts work closely with lawmakers in drafting tax legislation. Tax legislation may be proposed by the Treasury Department only once a year as part of the annual budget.

“The IRS provides the manpower for drafting and publishing regulations,” Potter explained. The Office of Tax Policy of the Treasury Department is responsible for additional development of revenue procedures and for general guidance.

Interestingly, Potter is not employed directly by the IRS but instead is employed by the general counsel of the Treasury Department. Potter stated that the chief counsel’s office is regarded as the lawyers to the IRS. By distancing her position from the IRS, she is able to serve as an advisor rather than an executive of the IRS, which allows her to report what she calls the “hard news” to the commissioner, who is the head of the IRS, and to sustain attorney-client privilege.

Potter often works with the IRS to help regulate offshore accounts and developing guidelines for penalizing taxpayers who hide income overseas. She explained that advances in technology that aid in easily moving money around make overseas accounts and income more difficult to track.

The IRS offers some redemption for those who have successfully evaded foreign income reporting requirements on past tax documents and wish to come clean without facing prosecution. They may voluntarily disclose past foreign income and then pay back taxes, interest, and some penalties. Potter differentiated this practice from granting amnesty, but added that it does provide protection against criminal prosecution.

In contrast, if a taxpayer willfully fails to disclose foreign income, he or she may face criminal prosecution in addition to penalties in excess of 100 percent of the hidden income.

Potter emphasized that overregulation is not the answer, as it causes honest taxpayers to worry unnecessarily about which credits they are entitled to and provides incentive for those who are dishonest to continue their noncompliance. Instead, she touts legislation and regulation that provides incentives for compliance without being too complicated.

The idea of “uncomplicated tax regulation” may seem like an oxymoron, but at least Potter intends to give it an earnest try.

While she later decided that the flag did not warrant relocation, the timing of its display, as well as the emotional distress and pain that the confederate flag still causes for many, revealed an ugly truth about American society post-election: racism is not dead.

Ifill addressed the Levin College of Law on March 16 as the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations’ annual speaker. She titled her presentation “Celebrating Civil Rights in the Age of Obama.”

Ifill has penned a book titled On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century, as well as several articles that address racism within the judicial system.

According to Ifill, one of the most recent reminders that American society is far from free of racism, is the “downright sinister” cartoon published by the New York Post in February depicting a chimpanzee shot to death by police officers with the caption “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”

Ifill acknowledged that undoubtedly the cartoon was partly inspired by the recent Connecticut chimpanzee attack that left a woman in critical condition with permanent, disfiguring injuries. Yet by incorporating the stimulus bill within the cartoon, the “connection between Obama and chimp,” as well as reminders of hurtful racist comparisons between African-Americans and primates were obvious.

Darker motives were clear as well, according to Ifill, “added in context of police brutality against young black men,” as well as the looming “spectre of assassination which surrounds Barack Obama.” In response to public outrage over the cartoon, Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon who owns the New York Post, issued a tepid, near-apology, the gist of which Ifill described as “I’m sorry if you were offended.”

“We have to counter the effort of some who seek to use Obama’s election as a symbol of the end of the civil rights, that racism is dead, that America has fulfilled her promise of equality,” Ifill urged.

She identified the two issues most discussed by the president and his staff to further racial progress as education and environmental justice, yet argues that the most pressing issue is the one least likely to be addressed by the Obama administration—the prison system.

Calling it a “huge indictment on our society,” Ifill cited society’s casual acceptance of prisons as the propelling factor behind the willingness to treat prison as a repository and inmates as though they no longer matter. Ifill also argued that society ignores the need for rehabilitation of inmates to prepare them for integration back into society upon their release.

According to Ifill, at least one bill has been proposed to help address racial disparities in the United States. Yet unsigned into law, the Justice Integrity Act of 2009 “provides projects in 10 jurisdictions to collect data, information for what we need to know about racial disparities, [and] how we can make changes to racial disparities.”

The overarching theme of Ifill’s lecture is clear— although the election of Barack Obama reflects one African-American man’s achievement of the American Dream it does not in itself fulfill the dream for all African-Americans. If racism is ever to be eradicated, the United States must zealously and deliberately continue to press forward.