The Caveat, December 1970
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Golden Gate University School of Law GGU Law Digital Commons Caveat Other Law School Publications 12-1970 The aC veat, December 1970 Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/caveat Part of the Legal Education Commons Recommended Citation "The aC veat, December 1970" (1970). Caveat. Paper 25. http://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/caveat/25 This Newsletter or Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Other Law School Publications at GGU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Caveat by an authorized administrator of GGU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. - GOLDEN GATE COLLEGE LAW SCHOOL VOLUME 6, NUMBER ONE DECEMBER 1970 Death Shall Have LAW SCHOOL REVISION PLANS No Dominion Over Need for changes seen Verba Buena Residents by Jim Dombroski The controversial Yerba Buena redevel opment project would demolish a 12-block section located between Market and Harri son Streets and between Second and Fourth Streets. The $385 million Yerba Buena Center is one of the nation's largest urban renewal projects. The project includes a convention center, a sports arena, a high rise luxury hotel, an Italian cultural center, six office towers, an airline terminal, and garage space for 4,000 cars. e .Brief History of Litigation The following chronology outlines the events leading to the November 7 session in U.S. District Judge Stanley Weigel's courtroom. Prior to commencement of the Yerba Buena project by the S. F. Redevelop ment Agency there were 4,000 units of CCJhtroversial Faculty-Student Board votes on an issue of inestimable significance. low-rent housing available in 43 residential hotels and 92 other residential structures. Some 35 law students and faculty members met at an open meeting on Saturday, Enter Redevelopment Agency: 2,000 el December 12th, to give impetus to changing the government of the law school. derly pensioners and minority .families are The stimulus for the meeting was widespread confusion over the role of the moved to the Tenderloin District and Sixth faculty-student council on which students sat for the first time this fall. Selection of the Street area where the crime rate is the city's 6 student members was conducted through the SBA Governing Board and its president, highest and where the rents are higher for and many students were dissatisfied at the lack of notice of and participation in the the displacees since most have fixed in selection process. comes (Aid to the Disabled and Old Age A predominant attitude expressed at the meeting by faculty and students alike is Security). Tenants and Owners in Opposi that any change should promote a community of interest and reduce the divisions of tion to Redevelopment (TOOR) organize students, faculty and administration. A series of straw votes revealed that most of those .and seek legal aid from the San Francisco present want not only to change the procedures and modes of selection but also to change Neighborhood Legal Aid Foundation. The the form and. composition of law school government. attorneys from Neighborhood Legal Aid Three broad alternative ideas were suggested: file suit on behalf of TOOR against the S. F. 1. To maintain the SBA Board of Governors in a form limited to social functions, Redevelopment Agency and HUD based on and to maintain the faculty-student council with minor changes; violations of the 1949 Housing Act, 42 2. To dissolve both existing bodies and govern the law school through mass meet U.S.C. 1455(c)(1) which requires that each ings open to everyone's participation; and relocation unit must be (a) decent, safe, 3. To combine the functions of the existing bodies into a single governing body and sanitary, (b) at a rent or price the dis consisting of faculty, students, administration, and perhaps other interested persons. IIIe ca,n afford, (c) reasonably near the A committee of four students and one professor was charged with condensing the lj, acee s place of employment - if any, ideas of the meeting, formulating a recommendation for a new government form, and and (d) in an area not generally less desir drafting a referendum to be voted on by the entire law school. Another open meeting will able in terms of public and commercial be held in January to discuss the committee's recommendation and proposed referendum. facilities than the Yerba Buena area. Any interested law student, faculty or staff member is encouraged to contribute ideas to (Continued on page 8) the next open meeting. - Diana Richmond 2 Letter from the Editor Editorial: obscure relevancies which give breadth to the individual - and may perhaps even To your recurring question, "WHERE'S ARE WE SATISFIED WITH A make him a better attorney, in the end. It's THE CAVEAT?", I can finally reply that it the "who gives a damn about anything that is right here, in your hand, and I hope you BENEVOLENT DICTATORSHIP? goes on in school if it isn't goinll to be on & can dig it. Publication of the first issue this exam?" attitude which is impossible to., year was delayed for numerous reasons; the I ronically, law students, who are trained done. Consider, for example, that exams next issues should be easier, faster, and to distinguish gut issues from collateral their topics, frequency, grading, and even better - particularly if you are willing. to ones, often seem incapable of doing so, their very existence in the law school respond with comments, contributions, particularly when the subject matter con process - are discussed and voted on at ideas, and just plain work, in any shape or cerns them. Recently confronted with those meetings about which so few give form. Let anything motivate you - a desire problems of student representation in the a damn. Beware of complacency. to communicate information to the rest of governing of this law school, an alarming Do we want a participatory democracy 'the law school, an egotistical longing to be number of students, their minds cluttered published, an excess of spare time, (what?), at all? The second year day class was with misplaced emotionalism, complacency, presented with an opportunity to partici past experience in journalism, graph ics, etc., or perhaps just laziness, gave tacit approval or just a gratuitous flash - follow it up; pate in a second election, with all students to an invalid election and to arbitrary ap receiving notice, with the already elected all is appreciated. pointments of student representatives to The CAVEAT will be what you want rep running along with other candidates, the new Faculty-Student Policy Board. it to be. with a new understanding of the meaning Admittedly, it is difficult to guess what is We don't have an office, or a desk, or a of the election - in other words, a valid at stake until the Board progresses from its typewriter, or very much money. We do election - and they rejected this chance. now infant state. However, as it is the only Perhaps the same individual would have have a "Letters to the Editor" box, a mail existing comprehensive representative gov slot in the basement, groovy secretaries in won. How did they justify waiving a valid erning organ of Golden Gate College Law election at the expense of those who felt the office who are willing to receive copy SchOOl, it deserves serious attention. for us, and me, whom you can usually find their rights had been usurped? Were they Issues and controversies are likely to too immature to accept the responsibility lurking about here and there. Typed, arise, the resolution of which will bear sig double spaced is nice, if it's verbal; large, which flows from decisions they might nificantly on students, faculty, and staff - participate in making? Or were they just so black and white and glossy if it's photo· as individuals, as a group, or as a school; graphic. Any special expenses incurred will hungry that when they balanced fairness thus it seems wise to make provision for against a sandwich, lunch prevailed? be reimbursed; our credit is good. Please such future instances. Perhaps for some, sign everything; if you wish your item to who appear to voluntarily disenfranchise It is imperative that all students who be anonymous, I will withhold your name themselves from school politics, there is care about this school and their educatia\ from publication. If you know of anyone nothing at stake at all. The singlemindedness show their concern by strenuous partici.) (attorneys, etc.) outside of the school who of a law student whose eye is fixed on tion. Isn't it embarrassing that the faculty is might wish to contribute, let me know. graduating, passing the bar, and making a more interested in conferring power on the A groovy, relevant newspaper in a law lot of money - though none of these goals students than students are in responsibly school like this can be a great communica is inherently objectionable - tends to exercising that power? Think about it. tive tool - so use it! Marge ANOTHER GREAT SURPRISE unworkable distinctions of the old rule. CAVEAT (For a more precise discussion of this issue, Editor-in-Chief Marjorie Goldblatt by Chuck Rothbaum see the dissent of Justice Fortas in Snyder.) The reactionary forces of death struck But moving for the moment beyond the We got by with a little help from our friends: another blow for gluttony and piggishness judicial debate to the political reality which Graphics Advisor Laurence Kaufman recently when a measure which would have courts seldom acknowledge, except perhaps Production Assts. Michal Offutt, Steven Landes allowed class action suits for damages to implicitly, in their total perversion of the Advertising Tim Stewart be brought by defrauded consumers was intellectual process by continually ruling Staff Joe Altschule, Sandy Bovetti blocked in the U.S.