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• Florida Law Weekly
Florida Law Weekly contains selected published cases in Florida, covering federal cases (FLW Federal), state appellate and Supreme Court cases (FLW) and circuit and county trial court cases (FLW Supplement). It is the only source for published opinions for trial-level courts in Florida.

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Law School Hints and News

Using Stress and Failure to Improve

There are two things that come with law school: failures and stress. Failures and stress are not usually considered positive things, but you can get the most out of them by learning to manage and focus them in productive ways.

Stress can be made useful if you recognize it as the pressure of facing a challenge. Instead of letting stress freeze you in fear or cause you to lose focus by turning into panic, use the nervous energy that it creates to tackle your projects and studies.

It can be helpful to remember that you are not alone in facing the stress of law school. Talk to your fellow students about what you are going through. You may learn new ways of dealing with your stress and make bonds with your fellow students in the process.

When stress starts to get overwhelming, focus on what you can control. A good deal of stress comes from sources that you have no control over. Do what you can with what you have and try to let the rest go.

When you tackle new ideas or and put them into practice, failures will occur. If something does not work out the first time, do not let the results turn into needless stress and worry. It has been found that failures can enhance your learning if you take the time to understand what went wrong.

Law School Tip:

Learn a topic using a variety of techniques and tools. Whenever you look at a subject from a different angle, you offer yourself a chance to gain new insights.

Read from your textbook, use topical supplements and texts to shore up your understanding of topical themes, and then quiz yourself on the fine points of a subject using study tools such as the Question and Answer and Exam Pro series.

For an even more radical approach to learning a subject, sit down and try to create your own exam for your class, including answers and corresponding grading rubrics. By reviewing your materials and notes to create the exam questions, you will gain another level of understanding of the topic. By creating the grading rubrics for each question, you will have a chance to see the smaller details of what could go into a question and what tricks could be used to make a question challenging for those who do not know the subject well and are not paying attention to details.

Monthly Showcase

The monthly display for September provides resources related to immigration law.

Latinos and the Law by Richard Delgado; Juan F. Perea; Jean Ann Stefancic
ISBN: 9780314161246
Publication Date: 2008-05-21
This casebook contains an array of issues relating to this important and rapidly growing group: legal, social construction, language, education, immigration, stereotyping, workplace discrimination, rebellious lawyering, and the special issues of Latinos. Beginning with histories of the main subgroups, early sections discuss theoretical approaches such as post-colonialism, critical race theory, and the black-white binary of race that have proved useful in understanding the Latino condition. With a rich selection of cases, statutes, documents, notes, questions, and bibliographic references, this volume represents a welcome resource for teachers, scholars, and students.
New Destination Dreaming by Helen Marrow
ISBN: 9780804773089
Publication Date: 2011-03-31
New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have long been shaped by immigration. These gateway cities have traditionally been assumed to be the major flashpoints in American debates over immigration policy--but the reality on the ground is proving different. Since the 1980s, new immigrants have increasingly settled in rural and suburban areas, particularly within the South. Couple this demographic change with an increase in unauthorized immigrants, and the rural South, once perhaps the most culturally and racially "settled" part of the country, now offers a window into the changing dynamics of immigration and, more generally, the changing face of America. New Destination Dreaming explores how the rural context impacts the immigrant experience, how rapid Hispanic immigration influences southern race relations, and how institutions like schools and law enforcement agencies deal with unauthorized residents. Though the South is assumed to be an economically depressed region, low-wage food processing jobs are offering Hispanic newcomers the opportunity to carve out a living and join the rural working class, though this is not without its problems. Inattention from politicians to this growing population and rising black-brown tensions are both factors in contemporary rural southern life. Ultimately, Marrow presents a cautiously optimistic view of Hispanic newcomers' opportunities for upward mobility in the rural South, while underscoring the threat of anti-immigrant sentiment and restrictive policymaking that has gripped the region in recent years. Lack of citizenship and legal status still threatens many Hispanic newcomers' opportunities. This book uncovers what more we can do to ensure that America's newest residents become productive and integrated members of rural southern society rather than a newly excluded underclass.
Issues in Race, Ethnicity, and Gender by CQ Press Editors
ISBN: 1568028725
Publication Date: 2004-07-01
The 16 CQ Researcher articles reprinted in this book are reproduced essentially as they appeared when first published in this weekly U.S. policy brief. Each article chronicles and analyzes past legislative and judicial action in addition to current and possible future maneuvering. In the second edition, more that half of the reports are new, while
A Different Mirror by Ronald T. Takaki
ISBN: 0316831115
Publication Date: 1994-06-01
A Different Mirror is a dramatic new retelling of our nation's history, a powerful larger narrative of the many different peoples who together compose the United States of America. In a lively account filled with the stories and voices of people previously left out of the historical canon, Ronald Takaki offers a fresh perspective - a re-visioning - of our nation's past.
Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez
ISBN: 9780140255393
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Spanning 500 years of Hispanic history, from the first New World colonies to the 19th century westward expansion in America, this narrative features family portraits of real-life immigrants along with sketches of the political events and social conditions that compelled them to leave their homeland.
Citizens but Not Americans by Nilda Flores-González; Nilda Flores-González
ISBN: 9781479840779
Publication Date: 2017-10-03
An exploration of how race shapes Latino millennials' notions of national belonging Latino millennials constitute the second largest segment of the millennial population. By sheer numbers they will inevitably have a significant social, economic, and political impact on U.S. society. Beyond basic demographics, however, not much is known about how they make sense of themselves as Americans. In Citizens but Not Americans,Nilda Flores-González examines how Latino millennials understand race, experience race, and develop notions of belonging. Based on nearly one hundred interviews, Flores-González argues that though these young Latina/os are U.S. citizens by birth, they do not feel they are part of the "American project," and are forever at the margins looking in. The book provides an inside look at how characteristics such as ancestry, skin color, social class, gender, language and culture converge and shape these youths' feelings of belonging as they navigate everyday racialization. The voices of Latino millennials reveal their understanding of racialization along three dimensions--as an ethno-race, as a racial middle and as 'real' Americans. Using familiar tropes, these youths contest the othering that negates their Americanness while constructing notions of belonging that allow them to locate themselves as authentic members of the American national community. Challenging current thinking about race and national belonging, Citizens but Not Americans significantly contributes to our understanding of the Latino millennial generation and makes a powerful argument about the nature of race and belonging in the U.S.
Hispanics in the U. S. Criminal Justice System by Martin Guevara Urbina (Editor)
ISBN: 9780398088156
Publication Date: 2012-09-25
Historically, most studies that have explored the experiences of criminal defendants in the American criminal Justice system, whether it is in the area of policing, courts, or corrections, have focused almost exclusively on race. Hispanics have resided in the United States since 1598 and recently bypassed African Americans in the general population for the first time in history. In this context, this book will examine the Hispanic experience in the criminal justice system by exploring a series of crucial factors. Major topics include: Hispanics and the American police, policing the barrios, immigration lockdown, the dynamics of arresting Hispanics, criminalizing Mexican identity, Latinos and the 4th Amendment, the exclusion of Latinos from Grand and Petit juries, the penal system and the critical issues facing Hispanic prisoners, probation and parole, the legacy of capital punishment, life after prison, and the dynamics of education and globalization in America. This text presents a variety of studies that illustrate alternative ways of interpreting crime, punishment, safety, equality, and justice. The findings from these studies reveal that race, ethnicity, gender, and class continue to play a significant role in the legal decision-making process. Hispanics in the U.S. Criminal Justice System is written for professionals and students of criminal justice and law enforcement in helping to understand the historical legacy of brutality, manipulation, oppression, marginalization, prejudice, discrimination, power and control, and white America’s continued fear about racial and ethnic minorities.
Immigration and American Democracy by Robert Koulish
ISBN: 9781594604065
Publication Date: 2009-12-14
While the idea of immigration embodies America's rhetorical commitment to democracy, recent immigration control policies also showcase abysmal failures in democratic practice. Immigration and American Democracy examines these failures in terms of state sovereignty, neoliberalism, and surveillance-based techniques of social control. The ideological argument for privatization is not new. But immigration has provided a laboratory for replicating on American soil the sorts of outsourcing travesties that have occurred in America's war in Iraq. As an outcome, abusive executive powers--many delegated to state and local governments and private actors--are manifested every day in data collection, spying, detention, and deportation hearings, and in many cases bypassing the Constitution. The practice of privatization extends this leviathan immigration state by clamping down on civil liberties without having to oblige the courts. Ultimately, Koulish examines the contested terrain between democratic and undemocratic forces in the immigration policy domain and concludes with recommendations for how democratic forces might well still win out.
No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed by Cynthia E. Orozco
ISBN: 9780292721098
Publication Date: 2009-11-15
Founded by Mexican American men in 1929, the League of United Latin-American Citizens (LULAC) has usually been judged according to Chicano nationalist standards of the late 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on extensive archival research, including the personal papers of Alonso S. Perales and Adela Sloss-Vento, No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed presents the history of LULAC in a new light, restoring its early twentieth-century context. Cynthia Orozco also provides evidence that perceptions of LULAC as a petite bourgeoisie, assimilationist, conservative, anti-Mexican, anti-working class organization belie the realities of the group's early activism. Supplemented by oral history, this sweeping study probes LULAC's predecessors, such as the Order Sons of America, blending historiography and cultural studies. Against a backdrop of the Mexican Revolution, World War I, gender discrimination, and racial segregation, No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed recasts LULAC at the forefront of civil rights movements in America.
Latin America and the United States by Robert Holden; Eric Zolov
ISBN: 9780195385687
Publication Date: 2010-07-14
Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History brings together the most important documents on the history of the relationship between the United States and Latin America from the nineteenth century to the present. In addition to standard diplomatic sources, the book includes documents touching on the transnational concerns that are increasingly taught in the classroom, including economic relations, environmental matters, immigration, human rights, and culture. The collection illuminates key issues while representing a variety of interests and views as they have both persisted and shifted over time, including often-overlooked Latin American perspectives and U.S. public opinion. Now fully revised in its second edition, Latin America and the United States: A Documentary History features updated selections on current trends, including key new documents on immigration, regional integration, indigenous political movements, democratization, and economic policy. The second edition adds twenty-one documents and revises ten existing texts to ensure maximum clarity. The first edition's careful consideration of the Latin American perspective on hemispheric relations has been strengthened in the second edition, with many selections translated from the original Spanish by the editors. Comprehensive introductions to each document provide the reader with essential information about its historical context and significance. The book's detailed index identifies and cross-references the themes, events, problems, personalities, and nations discussed in both the documents and their introductions. Ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses in Latin American history and U.S.-Latin America relations, this book also serves as a unique reference tool for foreign policy professionals, international law specialists, journalists, and scholars in a variety of disciplines.
Replenished Ethnicity by Tomás R. Jiménez
ISBN: 9780520261419
Publication Date: 2009-11-18
Unlike the wave of immigration that came through Ellis Island and then subsided, immigration to the United States from Mexico has been virtually uninterrupted for one hundred years. In this vividly detailed book, Tom#65533;s R. Jim#65533;nez takes us into the lives of later-generation descendents of Mexican immigrants, asking for the first time how this constant influx of immigrants from their ethnic homeland has shaped their assimilation. His nuanced investigation of this complex and little-studied phenomenon finds that continuous immigration has resulted in a vibrant ethnicity that later-generation Mexican Americans describe as both costly and beneficial. Replenished Ethnicity sheds new light on America's largest ethnic group, making it must reading for anyone interested in how immigration is changing the United States.

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FAMU Law Library Online Repository

Be sure to visit the Library’s Online Repository at http://commons.law.famu.edu/.

The Repository holds a variety of publications and documents that could be useful for projects and research. Alumni, faculty, and student academic publications are available free to access to anyone on the web and cover a wide variety of topics. Through the online repository platform, FAMU College of Law’s Scholarly Commons scholarship has reached thousands of researchers around the world. To see the readership that the College's scholarship has, you can view the daily downloads of the Repository’s holdings through a map located at the bottom of the main page.

The Repository also hosts materials on FAMU College of Law’s founding, including information on the efforts of Virgil Hawkins to enter into the profession of law.

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