Ask MetaFilter questions in the law & government category

I demand suffrage!

fishmasta — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:43:01 -0800

How can I verify my voter registration in California? I live in LA and as far as I know should still be registered to vote, as I voted in the primaries last February. But just to be safe I tried out the page on Obama's website where you can check your status and it came up negative. It finds my previous voter registration from Oklahoma (where I voted in the 2004 election), but finds nothing in California. Where would I go to get an official confirmation of my status? Or is Obama's website just flaky and doesn't find everyone?

Are COPS Cameramen legal?

fogster — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:32:37 -0800

On TV shows like COPS, what gives the cameraman standing to enter a private citizen's home? To avoid confusion, I should mention that I'm asking solely out of curiosity, not seeking a legal opinion. I suspect that, after the incident, the TV producer will ask for your permission to use it (probably in return for compensation), but I'm not asking about that.

What I'm asking is about the cameraman coming into your home at all. It would seem to me that a FOX cameraman accompanying police wouldn't be allowed to follow them into your home. But it happens often on the show. So how does this work? Has the fact that a commercial film crew followed police into one's home ever been used, in some way, as a defense in court? Has the show ever been sued (successfully?) over the cameraman coming into private homes?

Yes, the majority of content occurs in public, like traffic stops or street brawls. I'm not asking about those.

Will granting permission for an amateur film of my story mean giving up my film rights forever?

webmutant — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:00:48 -0800

I've just found out second-hand that someone is planning on making a film out of one of my short stories. Which is fine, I suppose, presuming he actually does ask my permission, and presuming it's strictly an amateur not-for-profit film. My question is -- if I do give my permission, will that harm any rights I have to the story? Suppose I wanted to sell the rights to a "real" movie of the story someday -- will giving my permission here mean I've given up the film rights entirely?

How can the band Heart legally stop McCain/Palin from using "Barracuda"?

kongg — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:30:16 -0800

The band Heart sent a cease and desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign for using the song "Barracuda". What is the legal basis for that? I'm a musician and familiar with the basics of entertainment law. It seems if the RNC has a license from ASCAP (that in turn pays publishers, and in this case Ann and Nancy Wilson) to play music in their catalog, they can play pretty much whatever they want.

Clubs generally have to buy ASCAP/BMI licenses if they are playing covered songs in their establishments (whether on a jukebox or a band playing live). I would think similar rules apply for playing a song at a convention.

I guess maybe the political nature of the event could change things. It could imply that Heart endorses McCain/Palin. Perhaps it could be argued that the RNC is using Heart's "name and likeness".

Still, I kind of get the feeling it's mostly about the Wilson sisters letting the world now they aren't happy about this, and hope the McCain campaign chooses something else, even if there is no legal recourse.

In the link above, some people try to answer that question, but it's drowned out in partisan bickering. While I'm (way) sympathetic to the Wilson sisters on this one, I just wonder that the legal basis is.

Previously on ask MeFi: "How does Rush Limbaugh get to use the Pretenders as his theme music?"

To be American

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:41:34 -0800

Tips for US naturalization interview? I have my interview soon, and I'm a bit nervous. One reason for this is I've traveled a lot in many parts of the world since getting my green-card (though never going over the 6-month restrictions), mostly for recreation and briefly for work. I've gotten into slight trouble on reentry to the US with officials who really want to know why I go to these places, even though they're generally US-friendly areas and not say, Iran or Cuba. Another thing is I've been denied entry to a country before, and denied a visa once. On top of it all, I'm currently jobless.

What questions are typically asked during the interview and how should I handle them? Do a lot of people fail the interview for these types of reasons?

Any advice would be appreciated.

A Woman In Danger?

johngoren — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:59:40 -0800

My friend, who hasn't lived in Texas for decades, was dismayed to learn that there was a longstanding warrant for her arrest in Texas for a traffic violation she could not have committed. The warrant's for not paying a fine. (She thinks someone stole her driver's license and identity.) She's refusing to pay the fine on the grounds that it is absurd and would cost too much to fight in court. She wants to know if it's safe for her to drive in other states, or whether she runs the risk of being arrested in states like Minnesota or New York. Do police look up this kind of information on a routine stop for speeding?

US citizen voting from Australia?

harriet vane — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:24:10 -0800

How do Americans vote when they are overseas? I live in Australia and my husband works with a young guy who is a US citizen. He'd like to vote in the upcoming election, but has never voted before and has no idea how to do an absentee vote from overseas. Where do we look to find this info, and has anyone had problems doing this before? Do you need to sort it out ahead of time?

Obama/Palin or McCain/Biden

birdsquared — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:01:15 -0800

Is Obama/Palin (or for that matter McCain/Biden) possible? Given what happened in 1836, and my understanding of the electoral college system it would appear hypothetically possible.

However, each state controls the voting system for their electors, and while Delaware has a slate voting law (see (9) at the bottom of the page), and Wisconsin has a ban on write-ins for VP standing alone (see bottom of page 5), it would still appear possible to write-in the VP from the other party with a presidential vote for a specific candidate (at least in those two states). I am not a student of US state voting laws (I found these two examples from Google), but I am wondering if there are any voting wonks who are familiar with the whole panoply of the 50 states who could advise if Obama/Palin or McCain/Biden are possible in 2008. (i.e. do enough states with enough electors have enabling legislation?)

Making an unregistered handgun legal

gally99 — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:31:00 -0800

How do I get an older unregistered handgun legal in California? My dad was given an old Ruger about 20 years ago. He's had it hiding in a drawer since then. There's no paperwork for it. How do I get it registered so that I can teach him how to shoot?
I couldn't find anything on the Bureau of Firearms website.

What are the specific tax loopholes that Obama intends to close, and how much money does each of those 'loopholes' account for?

mattholomew — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:31:09 -0800

What are the specific tax loopholes that Obama intends to close, and how much money does each of those 'loopholes' account for? This article by FactCheck.org indicates that the Obama campaign estimates the revenue from tax reform at $80 billion - so where did that figure come from?

How can I win votes without annoying people?

J-Garr — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:30:04 -0800

Which has been a more satisfying and productive use of your time, phone banking or door-to-door canvassing? Which do you feel is less intrusive? I've always given what little money I can to groups I support, political and otherwise. But now I've decided it is time to do something more to help Obama defeat McCain. Both my.barackobama.com and MoveOn encourage me to do door to door and/or phone banking. However I'm the type of person who doesn't answer the door unless I'm expecting someone and doesn't answer the phone if I don't know the number. I find solicitations of any variety terribly annoying, yet here I am considering doing just that.

When doing these activities what is your perception of the ratio of annoyed people to interested people? When going door to door do you spend more time 'preaching to the choir' or having actual discussions with undecided voters? I'm aware that both groups attempt to target only undecided voters but I'm skeptical of how many undecided are really just say they're undecided because it seems less rude than saying, "it's none of your business."

Short & Sweet Truth About Obama?

jeanmari — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:35:15 -0800

On behalf of my parents, where is a source that they can use to look up short and sweet responses to counter to the attacks on Obama leveled by their Republican neighbors? My parents (who are voting Democratic this year for the first time in, well, ever) keep getting inflammatory chain letter emails that attempt to spread misinformation about Obama. They've been asking me for short and sweet ways to counter these attacks.

I've given them some "elevator speech length" talking points with sources, but I can't find a collection of these on the internet to address the rumors that they've been sent. I've had to do my own research and give them brief statement myself. There has to be something out there, yes? I'm finding the lengthy information and the sources and documents, but nothing that has been condensed.

The information we're looking for is not the Fight The Smears site. The rumors involve distortion or denial of his record.

(P.S. We are donating gas cards to college students who want to travel for the campaign. Any websites that show the major gas stations per state? Would hate to give these guys a Mobil card for a BP state.)

As a U.S. Senator, I run an organization with a yearly budge of $_ and _ employees.

Xalf — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:11:50 -0800

What size organization does a U.S. Senator run? All this talk of U.S. Senators having no "executive experience" seems a little silly to me. It's my impression that each senator runs a sizable operation with an office in Washington and several offices spread around their home states (just looking at big states, Cornyn of Texas has 7, Clinton of New York has 9, but Feinstein of California has only 4). I found salary info, but I can't seem to find hard numbers on how many people each senate office employs and what their yearly budgets are. Bonus points if you can find the same information for members of the House of Representatives.

Née PleaseDon'tRemindMe?

thisjax — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:25:12 -0800

I'm about to toss my current last name and take a different one, for non-marriage-related reasons. For what/how long do I need to tell people my "maiden" name so that they realize that I existed before recently? I'm currently FirstName MiddleName Parent1Surname. Given that I've been estranged from Parent 1 and their family for most of my life, I've considered changing my name to FirstName MiddleName Parent2Surname. I'd rather not change my name to FirstName MiddleName Parent1Surname (as a second middle name) Parent2Surname — I don't want any association whatsoever with Parent 1 or their family. Also, all 4 names together are well over 30 characters.

Other than submitting all the necessary legal/financial/academic documentation, I'm not sure how to handle the logistics of entirely discarding one's surname. I'm still in university, but I've have a reasonable amount of work history (as well as employment-relevant Google results) under my current last name. At what point do I mention my previous name to prospective employers? Are there any other circumstances where I'll have to let people know about my previous name? Is this situation potentially complicated enough to warrant me keeping my current surname and adding the new one as a hyphenate?

If it matters, I'm in Ontario, Canada.

Calling all lawyers: Alienation of affection

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:09:06 -0800

How common are judgements for alienation of affection? How can someone best thwart this civil action? For ten years my brother, who is married with four children, has been seeing another woman. His plan was to leave his wife and be with her when his youngest got a little bit older. His marriage is moribund, but there was never any talk of divorce. He and his wife have essentially lived as rommates. His job and girlfriend are in another town, so he has been able to spend time significant time with her. Besides, the girlfriend is a highly paid professional and works very long hours, so she couldn't spend much more time with him even if they were officially together.

Recently, my brother's affair was uncovered and he is now separated from his wife, and still seeing his girlfriend. When he approached his wife with a plan for an amicable divorce, she essentially accepted the terms, but said that if she discovered that he was seeing the other woman, or if they moved in together she would sue for alienation of affection. (They live in a state where this is still on the books.)

Both my brother and his girlfriend have money, so the financial incentive and means to sue are there. My questions are: How seriously should he take such a threat? How likely is such a suit to succeed? What kinds of things would have to be established for his wife to win a judgement? How can he take steps to ensure that this doesn't happen, especially since he plans to be with his girlfriend?

Is this gas station running a scam?

stupidsexyFlanders — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:56:20 -0800

Charging $0.60 extra for full service? Is this gas station pulling a scam? Details: Gas station is configured so that you have the building, then one island, then another, then the street. The price marked outside is 3.59 for regular. No mention of any price differential for full serve. So I'm pulling in from the street, and both islands say "Self Service," and the only empty pump is the one nearest the building, on the side of the building. I pull up.

So I'm standing there pumping the gas, and a girl comes out of the building arguing with the attendant. Her car is parked in front of mine. She's just filled up her tank, and then noticed the price on the pump is $4.19, and that this side of the island is Full Service (sign not visible from street, but it is when you're standing next to the pump). However, as I gather from the argument, there is no one working who would have pumped her gas, even had she waited. The attendant refused to adjust her price. I had stopped pumping when I realized the price, after about a gallon.

It felt to me like a scam - first, don't you have to advertise your full serve price equally prominently? Second, if you don't actually provide the service, can you legally charge for it? 3rd - who regulates gas stations typically -- is it the municipality, the county, the state? I'm in PA, and I'm trying to figure out who to complain to, or if there's even a legitimate basis for a complaint.

How does one legally identify meat as not for human use?

jesirose — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:44:46 -0800

How does one legally identify meat as not for human use? My state's Health and Safety Code says the following regarding Meat Inspection, under meat not intended for human use.

(b) A person may not buy, sell, transport, offer for sale or
transportation, or receive for transportation in intrastate
commerce a carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or a meat food product
that is not intended for use as human food unless the article is
naturally inedible by humans, denatured, or identified as required by rule of the commissioner.

I've looked up denature and that would not work in this case, as the meat needs to be edible still, but not for humans. I've been searching for days and I can't find the rule or regulation on how to identify meat as not for human use. Does "identified as required by rule of the commissioner" simply mean to identify it as in label it not for human use? It sounds like there is a specific way you have to do it but I can't find it.

Does anyone know what needs to be done, or where I could find the information on identifying meat as such so it can legally be sold? Specifically looking for Texas law but if I can get more info on any rules regarding this it would help.

I've already emailed the department of agriculture and waiting on a response, I am not sure who to call about this topic.

Need to help mom stay in the house.

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:51:47 -0800

Need to help mom stay in the house. In the interest of justice, I humbly summon the hivemind to aide in this most important matter. Our Landlord has raised the rent by $200. My mother cannot afford it. Furthermore, The landlord has not increased the rents of the other tennants in the building. I asked the landlord why this is being done. He replied that it's because the increase of his utility bills (which my mother alone will shoulder). I reason that he is raising the rent because he was forced to fix our bathroom (by court), which fell to trerrible disrepair. My mother is refusing to accept the new lease, reserving to move out. However, I want to keep this apartment. In the spirit of fairness, I will have to champion my mother who is being bullied by this hypocrite. Tips on finding out who is the owner of the building, If the landlord/super is in the process of buying the building, what are his expensises will be much appreciated. I ask the hive mind to direct me to any agencies In crown heights, Brooklyn, zip 11225, which helps the renter and any legal recourse, or any ideas of how to fight this or force him to prove the reason for the rent hike. Or reduce the hike at least to $100. Because my mother works the overnight shift and can barely buy food for herself. This is the nicest neighborhood we've lived in since we moved to Brooklyn and would hate to be forced to move out. We live in a brick building which contains four apartments.

I, for one, welcome our new search engine overlords.

ga$money — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:46:52 -0800

CorporateOverlordFilter: Does Google already know the winner of the next election? I'm posting this question for a friend without a MeFi account:
Google is the preeminent profile data mining organization in history. They know what we blog, email, search, quote, buy and read. Google can track us by state, precinct and address. They're experts in finding patterns and inferring intent (the better to target us with ads). They can track billions of keywords per minute, and I assume they can distill thought trends and track them as they ebb and flow. Google may well have algorithms to extrapolate political decisions from information flow. (There are already published correlations between polling data and search data.) Our “private” searches and gmail contents are probably more candid and accurately predictive than answers to pollsters, even if the contents aren’t overtly political, and the data sample is orders of magnitude larger than traditional polling. The correlation between likely voters and internet users is probably high. So does Google already know who will win the election? If not now, how close to election day will we need to get before Google could determine the winner with 96 percent accuracy? And is it counterproductive to our political system for that information to exist?

First Church of Gern

GernBlandston — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:03:19 -0800

Can I somehow declare my house as a church and not pay property taxes? What tax benefits can I enjoy by starting my own church? Where can I find the laws that govern this?

"Can I come in and have a look around?"

greytape — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:32:13 -0800

How feasible is nuclear disarmament? I'm a big fan of nuclear disarmament.
I don't support unilateral disarmament, but I think a major focus of all governments should be dismantling the world's nuclear arsenals and rigorously inspecting and enforcing a ban. At the moment, this idea doesn’t seem to be taken seriously anywhere outside of Norway.
However, I've read various things which have suggested that such an inspection system would be completely unworkable. Not politically, but practically. So even if, let us imagine, the inspectors had powers to look anywhere, rifle through government files, march into Area 51 and the Kremlin, there's still no way that they'd be able to find all the missiles buried out in the mountains somewhere, ready to launch at the flick of a switch. Is this true? I suspect it would be difficult to create new nuclear weapons without inspectors noticing, even with the smokescreen of a civilian nuclear programme, but surely hiding already existent weapons would be fairly easy? Have there been any feasibility studies on this? At the time of the Iraq war it was assumed that inspectors were fairly ineffectual, but hindsight has perhaps suggested otherwise.
I appreciate that the main barriers to nuclear disarmament are political, but let us suppose that the majority of the world’s governments came to their senses for long enough, would it be remotely practical?

Can I take a J.D. abroad, or should I not bother coming back to get one?

xanthippe — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:27:58 -0800

Can I export my law degree from the USA? If not, where else should I consider going to law school? I've just decided that I would like to go to law school. I'm going to apply at Columbia and NYU because of their high caliber and the fact that I'd love to spend some time in Manhattan; it would also be most convenient for me to finance graduate school in US$ in the near future. I have an American BA as well. I am relatively confident that I could be successful as a lawyer and tolerate working long hours under pressure, so this question isn't really about whether I should go to law school, except insofar as this is influenced by geography (and I am open to suggestions of other similar career paths that would accommodate my geographic inclinations).

I have been living abroad for several years and currently have no expectation that I will ever wish to permanently resettle in the USA. I would like to get my J.D. and take it overseas to embark on a wildly successful international career in law; is this possible? How and where can I make it happen?

If so, who are my potential employers, and what might I end up doing? Should I have a focus in international law, or are other areas viable for positions overseas? Would I have any hope of working in the EU? Currently I'd prefer to be in the developing world, but I wouldn't like to rule out settling in Europe by going to law school in the USA.

If not, where else should I study law? German is my best second language, and I'd be enthusiastic about studying in Germany; however, I'm equally hesitant to make a permanent commitment to any country at this point. I would be open to getting a law degree in a reputable program in just about any interesting country; I am aware that I may not be qualified to walk into a graduate program in another academic system, though I'd like to explore this complication here as well. I do not intend to live in any country whose only official language is English, so the UK, Canada, Australia and NZ are not preferable alternatives.

Have any lawyers or former law students out there gone on to an interesting international career? Please tell me your story along with any advice you can offer!

Predicting the winner of the US Presidential Election.

clearly — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:24:55 -0800

How can I accurately predict the overall winner of the 2008 US Presidential Election. I would also like to know the best methods of accurately predicting the winner of the electoral votes of each individual state. I am familiar with the Iowa Electronic Markets as a fairly good indicator of predicting the national election, but what are some other good indicators or predictors of which candidate will win each individual state. These may be past voting trends, current registered voters by party, and others. Please lead me to these resources.

Thanks.

It's my money, and I want it now!

mudpuppie — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:19:32 -0800

As of January 1, 2008, California law requires merchants to redeem gift cards for cash if the balance is less than $10. However, the statute lists an exclusion for gift cards issued for "perishable food products." Before I send my nasty letter off to Quizno's, help me out here. I attempted to redeem a gift card for Quizno's. The manager didn't know about the law and was extremely rude, although after I repeated the phrase "state law" about 80 times, she did finally give me cash.

So here I am, busily writing a shame-on-you letter to Quizno's corporate, when I come across California Civil Code, Section 1749.5(d)(3), with the above exclusion for "perishable" food items.

Perishible food isn't defined in the title. To me, the Quizno's card isn't hampered by this exclusion because they wouldn't even make a sandwich until I ordered it, so it's not like it's going to spoil if I don't order it.

I wanted to get some input, though, before firing off this letter. I'd hate to get toasted, pepper-bar-flavored egg all over my face. Does the perishable food exclusion apply to restaurant chains?

The statute I cited, by the way, refers to gift "certificates." However, section 1749.45 specifically states that gift cards are included in that term.

Greenest UK council rankings?

knapah — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 04:04:57 -0800

Are there any good ranking systems for how well United Kingdom local government districts are doing on environmental issues? The closest thing I've found so far is a Guardian article from January 2007 listing their top 10. I'd prefer something more recent if possible, but in the last year or two is acceptable.

Do any charities (Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, etc.) do something like this?