Former senior transport official gets life sentence

HCM CITY — Huynh Ngoc Sy, a former senior transportation official already serving time for "abuse of power", was sentenced to life in prison yesterday for accepting bribes from a Japanese contractor.
The HCM City People's Court also demanded that the defendant submits to State coffers the US$262,000 (equivalent to VND5.9 billion at yesterday's foreign exchange rate) that he is accused of receiving from Japanese firm Pacific Consultants International (PCI).
The court ordered a lien placed on two of his houses in the city in order to retrieve the money.
The panel of judges rejected both the arguments of Sy's lawyers on legal value of testimony in the case as well as their proposal for returning the case documents to concerned agencies for further investigations.
The panel felt there was strong evidence to show that Sy had done favours to PCI in order to receive bribes from the firm's officials.
PCI gave Sy 10 per cent of the design consultancy contract worth $900,000, and 11 per cent of the supervision consultancy contract, worth $1.7 million, the court said.
According to the documents tranferred by Japanese authorities to the Vietnamese Government, on May 28, 2003, the chief of the PCI Rep Office in Viet Nam, Sakano Tsuneo, and another Japanese man named Takasu Tunio came to Sy's office at 3 Nguyen Thi Dieu Street in District 3 and gave Sy $262,000 (equivalent to more than VND4 billion at that time).
The court said Sy's action had stained the image of Viet Nam in the global community and damaged the country's anti-corruption efforts.
His act had also caused serious consequences, affecting the Vietnamese Govern-ment's strategies on official development assistance (ODA) mobilisation, it said.
The court said receiving $262,000 was just one of six acts of bribery committed by Sy while he served as the director of the HCM City-based East-west Highway Project.
The court also proposed that the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Agency and the People's Supreme Procurary conduct further investigation into Sy's other acts.
Sy, 57, had stood trial in March this year when he was sentenced to six years for "abusing power" while performing Government service.
Sy was defended by lawyers Phan Trung Hoai, Tran Van Tao and Pham Cong Ut at the trial which began last Friday. — VNS

Source: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/Politics-Laws/Law-Justice/204826/Former-senior-transport-official-gets-life-sentence.html

Federal Judge Strikes Down Proposition 8

Today, a federal judge strikes down the California Proposition 8 in his 136 pages ruling because it's unconstitutional.

Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

Wow! A judge can invalidate the law enacted by million California voters. Let see how the higher courts ruling.

CNN: Ruling on Proposition 8 (PDF)

Penetration Testing

Blaming the Good Samaritan
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/481

Presently, unauthorized access, even with good intent, is seen as an unlawful action. In the minds of law enforcement, unauthorized access is unauthorized access.

Waive Goodbye to Liability
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Waive+Goodbye+to+Liability.-a069982804

Penetration testing of a computer network requires careful planning and limits on the scope of work.
...
But both the company and the consultants can open themselves to legal liability if something goes wrong. For example, if a client's data is compromised or a third-party system is broken into as a part of the test, that third party or client might bring action against the company or the consultant or both. Additionally, an unscrupulous member of a penetration test team might steal and resell corporate secrets.

thefreedictionary.com: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is a law passed by the United States Congress in 1986 intended to reduce "hacking" of computer systems. It was amended in 1994, 1996 and in 2001 by the USA PATRIOT Act.

18 U.S.C. § 1030. Fraud and related activity in connection with computers
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html

One more time

Few weeks ago, on this entry, I wonder should I take the FYLSX on June 2010 again. The fee go up and I'm a little bit frustrated. I thought I should quit. But, I love to learn about law. I would like to become a lawyer. Finally, I say YES to myself. I will try one more time. This month, I review Contracts. Next month on Criminal Law and Torts on June.

Let pass the Baby Bar this time.

McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 514 U.S. 334 (1995)

Excerpt from U.S. Supreme Court:

...

Under our Constitution, anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent. Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.

...

Anonymity thereby provides a way for a writer who may be personally unpopular to ensure that readers will not prejudge her message simply because they do not like its proponent.

...

Don't underestimate the common man. People are intelligent enough to evaluate the source of an anonymous writing. They can see it is anonymous. They know it is anonymous. They can evaluate its anonymity along with its message, as long as they are permitted, as they must be, to read that message. And then, once they have done so, it is for them to decide what is 'responsible,' what is valuable, and what is truth.

...

More detail at:
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-986.ZS.html
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1990-1999/1994/1994_93_986
http://supreme.justia.com/us/514/334/case.html
http://openjurist.org/514/us/334
http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/514/514.US.334.93-986.html 

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3281990700387373626
http://www.constitution.org/ussc/514-334a.htm

First-Year Law Students' Examination - June 2010

June 22, 2010 is the June 2010 FYLSX. April 1st is Timely Filing deadline without late fee. I'm still thinking should I try again?

The Cost of Law School

According to e-Journal for California Law Student, December 2009 issue:

A new report from the U.S. General Accounting Office has concluded that the desire by law schools to place high in U.S. News and World Report rankings and a move toward more hands-on clinics has helped push tuition and fees up.

Read more here.