New England Law Professors

As a former student of Professor Dargo's at NE...

2012-01-17T20:58:28.712-05:00

As a former student of Professor Dargo's at NESL from 2003-2007, I am greatly enriched by having gleaned his insights into the areas of Constitutional law, Administrative law, and Law and Literature, and vastly increased my understanding of these areas as a result of having studied under his dedicated leadership. He was a keen reader of many subjects and he helped me to develop an interest in the life of Franz Kafka as well as an abiding interest in the area of Administrative Law which I have made my concentration. I am greatly enriched by having known Professor Dargo and enjoyed his wonderful sense of humor and unique perspective on all things related to the law and to becoming a lawyer.

I miss him very much. He undoubtedly gave me one ...

2012-01-17T15:33:38.175-05:00

I miss him very much. He undoubtedly gave me one of the most simple and evident lessons in law: Seek beyond the obvious! I shall Dargo. I am; because of you.

The legal analysis of this case, in its most simpl...

2011-09-13T01:40:34.634-04:00

The legal analysis of this case, in its most simplistic form, is pragmatic. "[I]t is a suspect's right to limit the scope of a search to which he consents" Even the first year law student in his/her final weeks of instruction understands that precedence expands "property" to include the biological. We know that probable cause or something akin to this legal term of art must be present before extracting the intimate diagram of one's being mapped out by urine, blood or the the like. A person suspected of kidnapping absent probable cause may consent to a search of their premises for inculpatory evidence and limit that search to places where a person may be found. The Amato case warrants the same analytical approach: Amato, under the auspices of detectives acting under the scope of state employment, consented to a limited search of his being. Given Amato's cognizance of his constitutional rights and diligence in pursuing the enforcement of those rights, it is clear that his cooperation with law enforcement was proffered with the understanding that his DNA would be used for the purposes of aiding in the capture of this particular perpetrator alone and not as a submission of his most intimate self to a database, which could easily access his genetic diagram for any future purpose.
Technological progression brings information privacy to the forefront of constitutional concern. As technology evolves, so must the analysis and cognizance of its effect on individual notions of protected seclusion. Amato, aware of his own innocence, wished to aid law enforcement in the capture of a public enemy. The US Constitution permits him to do so without subjecting himself to the unwarranted submission of his property to indefinite scrutiny and future use. It is encouraging that Massachusetts is catching on to this fact.

Certainly a place where greed of lawyers isn't...

2011-06-06T10:30:51.755-04:00

Certainly a place where greed of lawyers isn't an issue is lawyers suing the most avarice person on earth. Silvio Berlusconi is the center piece of a system that keeps our brain activated WiFi internet spirit channel experience tragic in comparison to the reliability of the mechanical. So hopefully some lawyers will make an effort for a reduction in the chicken/pig disease that is the result of destruction extortion of Silvio etc.
With honesty and an effort for pertinence, Cures

I agree with you professor. Now, let's broach...

2011-01-27T00:05:12.939-05:00

I agree with you professor. Now, let's broach a historic though some may say radical idea. Should we go back to a pre-Seventeenth amendment U.S. Constitution? As you know, The Seventeenth Amendment established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. Prior to 1913 Senators were elected by each of their state's legislature and sent to Washington. If the Senator's votes didn't please the State Legislature, the Senator's tenure would be short lived. The State Legislatures are, in theory anyway, more directly accountable to that state's electorate. To my mind, this served as a kind of state nullification as well. The problem of a Corporate Sponsored U.S. Congress, is especially egregious in the U.S. Senate. Every Senator needs to raise millions of dollars of mostly corporate money, to pay for political ads to keep his seat. Given that the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, gave foreign and domestic corporations the right to essentially buy and sell politicians at will. A more local legislative appointing power as first crafted by the Founding Fathers seems a perfectly reasonable remedy. And has always seemed to me the reason that Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution was put there in the first place.

And today I read in the paper how this disaster no...

2010-07-06T22:27:38.466-04:00

And today I read in the paper how this disaster now reaches ALL the Gulf states...

I am not a lawyer so I can't comment on its le...

2010-06-04T22:54:06.651-04:00

I am not a lawyer so I can't comment on its legal importance, however, I think there are a few things that should be pointed out.

First, the part on natural barriers protecting NO is not really true. NO is a city that never should have been built because the Miss. River would overwhelm it if it weren't for artificial design and construction. It is both physically below the water level and diametrically opposed to the river's flow. The delta is important from a wildlife perspective but not from protecting the city except to the extent that the artificial construction has enabled the delta to become a protective barrier. I would read more about the actual design of the city relative to the river before making the assumption that the natural deltas are protecting NO. There was a book written on the great flood of 1927 (much more severe than the impact fr Katrina) which demonstrates how the amount of water by the time it hits NO is physically overwhelming. And if there are significant rains or such like in 1927 the city is cooked.

Secondly, the city should have been destroyed in 1927 but due to political deal making it was saved. Instead the poorer parishes surrounding the city were flooded and were completely destroyed. Among actions taken were intentional dynamiting of certain levees that would assure that NO would be protected but not the other parishes. NO had promised to rebuild these parishes but it essentially reneged on their promises.

Also if it is a microsm of America then does that mean that most of America is corrupt as NO and the state historically have been. Again the 1927 book provides plenty of evidence of how corrupt the city was even back then. It is one reason, in my opinion, that the recovery process from Katrina was impaired/slowed.

Finally, I agree it has provided a unique piece of our culture but in the last 50 yrs it has been much less an influence on our country (excluding culture) then it was back in 1927 or before. Back then because cotton was an important part of our economy and freight traffic up-down the Miss River was very robust it translated into NO being a very important city in terms of commerce and finance. Once the cotton crop died off and lost its relevance NO lost its relevance except as a tourist spot.

And more recently its commercial influence has grown again, although not always the most prominent, until the BP disaster. Most people never knew that the Gulf was producing 25% of U.S. produced oil (5-6% of total oil consumed), making the state much more important than most people realize.

"Rising Tide"
http://www.amazon.com/Rising-Tide-Mississippi-Changed-America/dp/0684840022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275704131&sr=1-1

Chris Decker (I received this comment fr Sarah Coffey)