Law Books - Page 14

The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom

Robert A. Levy, William Mellor

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Editorial Review:

A non-lawyer’s guide to the worst Supreme Court decisions of the modern era

The Dirty Dozen takes on twelve Supreme Court cases that changed American history—and yet are not well known to most Americans.

Starting in the New Deal era, the Court has allowed breathtaking expansions of government power that significantly reduced individual rights and abandoned limited federal government as envisioned by the founders.

For example:
• Helvering v. Davis (1937) allowed the government to take money from some and give it to others, without any meaningful constraints
• Wickard v. Filburn (1942) let Congress use the interstate commerce clause to regulate even the most trivial activities—neither interstate nor commerce
• Kelo v. City of New London (2005) declared that the government can seize private property and transfer it to another private owner

Levy and Mellor untangle complex Court opinions to explain how The Dirty Dozen harmed ordinary Americans. They argue for a Supreme Court that will enforce what the Constitution actually says about civil liberties, property rights, racial preferences, gun ownership, and many other controversial issues.

J.K. Lasser's 1001 Deductions and Tax Breaks 2009: Your Complete Guide to Everything Deductible (J.K. Lasser)

Barbara Weltman

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Editorial Review:

J.K. Lasser's 1001 Deductions and Tax Breaks 2009 is a well-rounded guide that provides readers with the information they need to take advantage of every tax break and deduction they may be entitled to--without running afoul of the IRS. With this book as their guide, readers will find deductions and tax breaks for:

• Individuals and families
• Homes and cars
• Jobs and businesses
• Investments and retirement savings
• Medical and dental expenses
• Health savings accounts
• Education costs
• Charitable giving
• Casualty and theft losses

The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions: Straight Advice on Essays, Resumes, Interviews, and More

Anna Ivey

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Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As dean of admissions at the University of Chicago Law School, Anna Ivey decided the fate of thousands of law school applicants. In this book-the first of its kind by a former law school admissions officer-she draws on her expertise to cover topics from the application and the essay to the interview and the recommendations, touching on hot-button issues like how much the LSAT, ethnicity, and age really matter. Offering an insider's advice on how to produce the very best application, this guide gives straight answers to questions such as:

• What kind of essay should I write to set me apart from the rest of the pack?
• Should I explain my low LSAT score, my D in chemistry, my attention deficit disorder, my time in rehab?
• Is law school worth the debt I'll face when I graduate?

Full of invaluable examples and anecdotes about real admissions decisions, The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions is certain to become the new bible for would-be law students everywhere.

Executor's Guide: Settling a Loved One's Estate or Trust

Mary Randolph

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Settling an estate can be like moving through a maze -- let The Executor's Guide lead the way.

If you're faced with wrapping up the affairs of a loved one who has died, you may feel overwhelmed by all the work ahead -- especially when you're grieving. But with the right legal and practical information, you can do it.

The Executor's Guide will show you how to get organized, get the help you need and make progress one step at a time. Let it help you navigate an unfamiliar land of legal procedures and terminology. It explains:

preparing for the job of executor or trustee

the first steps to take

claiming life insurance, Social Security and other benefits

making sense of a will

what to do if there is no will

how to determine whether probate is necessary

caring for children and their property

taxes

an overview of probate court proceedings

dealing with family members

handling trusts

looking up your state's laws

working with lawyers, appraisers, accountants and other experts

The 3rd edition contains updated tables outlining key points of each state's laws, the latest information on estate taxes and worksheets that help you stay organized and on track.

The Complete Idiot's Guide(R) to Private Investigating

Steven Kerry Brown

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Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A "must have" book for novice Private Investigators 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have finished reading this book, and here are my findings:

The book is very easy to read. In some portions, it is almost a page turner, and you could forget you're reading an instruction text. The information is presented clear and accurate, with enough personal stories to put the use of the techniques into context without becoming too "wordy" or redundant. The book does not extensively cover legal terminology or evidence collection and photography procedures (for that, I'd recommend "The Process of Investigation" by Sennewald and Tsukayama), but it does a great job of covering the basic techniques of Surveillance, Interviewing, Interrogation, Internet Database and Public Records Searchies and other Electronic Surveillance measuresOverall I would say that this book is a must read for anyone who is considering entering the field of Private Investigation.

Editorial Review:

The gumshoe go-to—revised and updated.

Easy-to-use and fantastically inclusive, this is the book on private investigation, whether you want to establish yourself as a professional or just use some of the tools of a P.I. for your own business. You’ll get the low-down on pre-employment research, tenant screening, adoption searches, safeguarding yourself from investigation, and much more.

—Completely revised with all-new chapters on skip tracing and due diligence searches
—Skills and techniques for average citizens, as well as professionals
—Includes the most useful—and little-known—databases

The Federalist Papers (Penguin Classics)

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

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Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fascinating...For the Right Person 5 out of 5 stars.
17 of 22 people found this review helpful.

You don't need to be told that the Federalist Papers are not for everyone, but for a niche audience of which I happen to be a member. And so, the qualifications: you need to have a pretty fluent command of the English language, and not just modern usage but also more archaic structure and vocabulary; you have to have a good grasp of history, at least a rough outline of it solidly in mind; you have to have a love for politics, political science and the Constitution.

If all of that is true of you, you'll probably enjoy reading this. At least, to a point. The Federalist Papers, written mainly by "Father of the Constitution" James Madison and "Shot by Aaron Burr/Closet-Monarchist" Alexander Hamilton, is a very lengthy defense of the then-proposed Constitution, point by point. And what I mean is, they will take items over which there could be seemingly no substantial debate and then write a series of three or four essays on that point. And so, it is possible that even the die-hard history/political science buff will be bored by the thirtieth page of the debate over whether standing armies should be allowed to be kept during peace time.

The most laugh-out-loud moment (and yeah, there are a few) is when the "Interstate Commerce clause" is dismissed in a slip of a paragraph, which is, of course, one of the most important and controversial passages to the modern reading of the Constitution, forming the basis for a good deal of our current legislation. Whatever one feels about our current "construction" of the Constitution, I think a fair reading of the literature will show that it is not the same construction as that of its authors.

Not laugh-out-loud at all, however, is the roaring silence on the subject of slavery. It does come up, from time to time, but the lack of debate on these matters (there are, maybe, 2-3 pages on the 3/5 compromise and a paragraph on the ending of the slave trade) proclaims the volatility of the subject matter, even 100 years before the Civil War. Madison wasn't looking to offend his audience, after all.

Of course, all of these debates are mostly moot (with a couple of exceptions) and so the Federalist Papers are largely a historical artifact... but there is something very telling about them. That is, how incredibly learned, intelligent and eloquent our Founding Fathers really were. They debate calling on historical antiquity, philosophies ancient and modern, then-current foreign political systems, the Constitutions of the several states and the Articles of Confederation. These people knew what they were doing and it all mattered to them, very much. It's kind of sobering to see with what care and deliberation they forged this Constitution, and then to compare it with the "guardians of the flame" today who can't even seem to agree on the meaning of terms like "liberty," "democracy," or, in the case of one former President, "is." When reading, you'll wish we had Madisons and Hamiltons today, or even politicians who bothered to read them... or, maybe we do, but the general level of care and education of our country today does not allow men such as those to rise. The Federalist Papers is an interesting insight into the incredibly well-thought-out origins of our country.

Editorial Review:

Written at a time when furious arguments were raging about the best way to govern America, "The Federalist Papers" had the immediate practical aim of persuading New Yorkers to accept the newly drafted Constitution in 1787. In this they were supremely successful, but their influence also transcended contemporary debate to win them a lasting place in discussions of American political theory. Acclaimed by Thomas Jefferson as 'the best commentary on the principles of government which ever was written', "The Federalist Papers" make a powerful case for power-sharing between State and Federal authorities and for a Constitution that has endured largely unchanged for two hundred years.

Black Like Me

John Howard Griffin

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Total reviews: 156 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Black Like Me 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Though approaching the fiftieth anniversary of the events in this book, reading BLACK LIKE ME today shows both the inroads America has made towards erasing the blight of racial intolerance, as well as the limits that America has in truly educating itself about all kinds of Hate. Indefensible Hate still exists here, and there is no indication that it will make as great a stride in the next fifty years as it has in the last fifty.

Without question, this book should be required reading for all teenagers (and adults) across the country. To understand another's perspective is the first, primary step in eradicating intolerance. This book (which is a slight bit didactic at points) is the remarkable journey of a man who bothered to really try to understand the life of the black man in the American South as best as he could. Of course he could never truly KNOW, but he certainly took pains to do what he could to understand the experience better than anyone before.

Students (eighth-graders) in my Honors Language Arts class are required to read this book, and I hope they will discover from where we as a nation have traveled. Those who easily bandy about epithets or think unkind thoughts about others (whether because of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, or ability) might get an honest sense of perspective by taking the trip with John Howard Griffin.

Better yet, after reading this book, ask yourself these questions (and I will ask my students): "If given the opportunity to change my appearance so dramatically as to appear to be from a different race for six weeks, would I do it? What would I fear going into it? Suppose I was told after four weeks that it was impossible to change back; how would it make me feel?"

For a country that falsely prides itself on equality for all, I believe that our conversations about racial equality are sorely lacking in our public dialogue. BLACK LIKE ME would be an excellent place to start a meaningful conversation.

Editorial Review:

He trudged southern streets searching for a place where he could eat or rest, looking vainly for a job other than menial labor, feeling the "hate stare." He was John Griffin, a white man who darkened the color of his skin and crossed the line into a country of hate, fear, and hopelessness--the country of the American Black man.

The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom

Yochai Benkler

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With the radical changes in information production that the Internet has introduced, we stand at an important moment of transition, says Yochai Benkler in this thought-provoking book. The phenomenon he describes as social production is reshaping markets, while at the same time offering new opportunities to enhance individual freedom, cultural diversity, political discourse, and justice. But these results are by no means inevitable: a systematic campaign to protect the entrenched industrial information economy of the last century threatens the promise of today’s emerging networked information environment.

In this comprehensive social theory of the Internet and the networked information economy, Benkler describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing—and shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people can create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront us and maintains that there is much to be gained—or lost—by the decisions we make today.

Maximum Achievement

Brian Tracy

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Total reviews: 85 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

BECOME THE ARCHITECT OF YOUR OWN FUTURE One of America's top professional speakers and seminar leaders, Brian Tracy has been a consultant and trainer for hundreds of corporations large and small. His bestselling audio and video programs have been translated into 14 languages and are used in 31 countries. More than one million people have attended his programs on success, sales effectiveness and personal fulfillment. Now in "Maximum Achievement," Tracy presents a proven system of powerful ideas and principles you can use to rapidly improve your life. He has combined insights and methods from psychology, philosophy, metaphysics and human potential research to create a unique program that will: * Streamline your focus for maximum results * Remove mental barriers that stand in the way of your dreams * Provide you with the essential conditions for change * Develop superior relationships in your personal and professional life By following the principles of "Maximum Achievement's" Master Plan, you can build a foundation for a life of happiness, health, harmony and prosperity.

Law 101: Everything You Need to Know about the American Legal System

Jay M. Feinman

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Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The best-selling first edition of Law 101 provided readers with a vividly written and indispensable portrait of our nation's legal system. Now, in this revised edition, Jay M. Feinman offers an updated survey of American law, spiced with new anecdotes and cases, and incorporating fresh material on topics ranging from the President's war powers, to intellectual property, standard form contracts, and eminent domain.
Here is an exceptionally clear introduction to law, covering the main subjects found in the first year of law school, giving us a basic understanding of how it all works. Readers are introduced to every aspect of the legal system, from constitutional law and the litigation process to tort law, contract law, property law, and criminal law. Feinman illuminates each discussion with many intriguing, outrageous, and infamous cases, from the scalding coffee case that cost McDonald's half a million dollars, to the sensational murder trial in Victorian London that led to the legal definition of insanity, to the epochal decision in Marbury v. Madison that gave the Supreme Court the power to declare state and federal laws unconstitutional. He broadens the reader's legal vocabulary, clarifying the meaning of everything from "due process" and "equal protection" in constitutional law, to the distinction between "murder" and "manslaughter" in criminal law. Perhaps most important, we learn that though the law is voluminous and complex, it is accessible to all.
Everyone who wants a better grasp of current legal issues--from students contemplating law school, to journalists covering the legislature or the courts, to fans of Court TV--will find here a wonderful source of information: a complete, clear, and colorful map of the American legal system.
"An entertaining and informative introduction to the law.... For journalists, those interested in the law, and fans of television law dramas, this book should be required reading."--Library Journal