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Judge Dave and the Rainbow People is a book by US Federal Judge David B. Sentelle about his involvement with the 1987 annual Rainbow Gathering.
The gathering was held in North Carolina where Sentelle was a U.S. District court judge. The State tried to prohibit the gathering because the Rainbow family failed to acquire a permit for the event. Sentelle's book is a humorous first person narrative about the event.
North Carolina's permitting law was intended for large commercial events and primarily to ensure public safety. The Rainbows satisfied most of the safety requirements but, as an amorphous group with no leadership structure, were unable to comply with the bonding requirements. Additionally, the Rainbows had a long history of eschewing any permitting process as an infringement on their First Amendment rights to assemble and practice their religion.
Judge Sentelle (and Garrick Beck, in a postscript) explained the conflict as having no easy solution; if Sentelle granted the state a restraining order to shut down the gathering, the Rainbows' first amendment rights would be violated. On the other hand, if the Judge allowed it to proceed it would undermine the State's permitting law, which was intended for public safety at large commercial events. Furthermore, the Pullman doctrine prohibited federal judges from invalidating state laws except in case of emergency, which was the pretense under which the case landed in his court.
Sentelle solved the conflict by getting the two groups to agree to a consent judgment, whereby the court wouldn't have to invalidate the state law, and whereby the Rainbows wouldn't need a permit, as long as they met the safety and environmental requirements as detailed in the agreement.
The book includes several humorous trips by the court to the gathering, including a jury view and some later inspections. Sentelle recounts the discomfort he felt at being videotaped while chatting with a pretty nude female hippie, and the effect it might have on his upcoming confirmation hearings to the United States Court of Appeals. He also talks of an elephant roaming around the North Carolina forest and an almost mythical Shanti Sena (Rainbow peace keeper) who seemed to appear out of thin air anytime there was trouble.
Sentelle also documents the complicated relationship between the Rainbows and law enforcement officers, who generally didn't interfere with the gathering, except in cases of blatant misbehavior. There were undercover agents at the event, but they would turn a blind eye to minor infractions, like recreational drug use, looking instead for dangerous situations or criminals who might be at the gathering. When a wanted person was observed the undercover agents would communicate the identity to uniformed agents, who would then ask the Shanti Sena to produce the person. This method avoided public confrontation between the Rainbows and law enforcement. The Shanti Sena produced all the criminals the authorities identified, including one who was allegedly delivered in an unconscious condition.
Throughout the book Sentelle portrays the Rainbows management in a positive light: all kitchens had proper sanitation; the first aid station was staffed with nurses and physicians, latrines were to Marine specifications (minus the privacy screens); water supply and disposal was environmentally sound, and the group completed a comprehensive cleanup and restoration after the gathering. Cases of dysentery, however, caused by shigellosis appeared in some attendees, who apparently failed to boil the water per instructions at the water supplies. In some ways the site was left better than before the gathering, as the rainbows hauled pre-existing garbage out of the forest. Other areas were damaged by soil compaction and the forest service required heavy equipment to aerate the soil.
In the United States, the Miranda warning is a type of notification customarily given by police to criminal suspects in police custody advising them of their right to silence and, in effect, protection from self-incrimination; that is, their right to refuse to answer questions or provide information to law enforcement or other officials. Named for the U.S. Supreme Court's 1966 decision Miranda v. Arizona, these rights are often referred to as Miranda rights. The purpose of such notification is to preserve the admissibility of their statements made during custodial interrogation in later criminal proceedings. The idea came from law professor Yale Kamisar, who subsequently was dubbed "the father of Miranda."
Article Six of the United States Constitution establishes the laws and treaties of the United States made in accordance with it as the supreme law of the land, forbids a religious test as a requirement for holding a governmental position, and holds the United States under the Constitution responsible for debts incurred by the United States under the Articles of Confederation.
Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or an agent of the state induces a person to commit a "crime" that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit. It "is the conception and planning of an offense by an officer or agent, and the procurement of its commission by one who would not have perpetrated it except for the trickery, persuasion or fraud of the officer or state agent".
The Rainbow Family of Living Light is a counter-culture, in existence since approximately 1970. It is a loose affiliation of individuals, some nomadic, generally asserting that it has no leader. They put on yearly, primitive camping events on public land known as Rainbow Gatherings.
Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004), held that, in the context of mandatory sentencing guidelines under state law, the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial prohibited judges from enhancing criminal sentences based on facts other than those decided by the jury or admitted by the defendant. The landmark nature of the case was alluded to by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who characterized the decision as a "Number 10 earthquake".
Rainbow Gatherings are temporary, loosely knit communities of people, who congregate in remote forests around the world for one or more weeks at a time with the stated intention of living a shared ideology of peace, harmony, freedom, and respect. In the original invitation, spread throughout the United States in 1971, the "Rainbow Family Tribe" referred to themselves as "brothers & sisters, children of God", "Families of life on Earth", "Friends of Nature & of all People" and "Children of Humankind". All races, nations, politicians, etc. were invited in the desire that there could be peace among all people. The goal was to create what they believed was a more satisfying culture — free from consumerism, capitalism, and mass media — one that would be non-hierarchical, that would further world peace, and serve as a model for reforms to mainstream society. However, the values actually exhibited by the group have at times varied quite a bit from this ideal, with recent decades showing increasing levels of crime at the events, and some organizers stating the core principles have been modified, and become more mainstream, in an effort to attract more people.
David Bryan Sentelle is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He previously was a U.S. district judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina from 1985 to 1987.
The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association (NYSRPA) is the U.S. state of New York's largest and oldest firearms advocacy organization. Established in 1871, the NYSRPA is dedicated to the preservation of gun rights, firearm safety and education, and shooting sports. It is associated with the National Rifle Association of America ("NRA") and engages locally in many activities similar to the NRA.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund is an American animal law advocacy organization. Its stated mission is to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. It accomplishes this by filing high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm, providing free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are punished for their crimes, supporting tough animal protection legislation and fighting legislation harmful to animals, and providing resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. In addition to their national headquarters in Cotati, California, the Animal Legal Defense Fund maintains an office in Portland, Oregon.
Gun laws in California regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the state of California in the United States.
West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish, 300 U.S. 379 (1937), was a decision by the United States Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of state minimum wage legislation. The court's decision overturned an earlier holding in Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923) and is generally regarded as having ended the Lochner era, a period in American legal history during which the Supreme Court tended to invalidate legislation aimed at regulating business.
Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court dealing with the doctrine of qualified immunity.
United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs, 402 U.S. 363 (1971), is a United States Supreme Court decision in an in rem case on procedures following the seizure of imported obscene material. A 6–3 court held that the federal statute governing the seizures was not in violation of the First Amendment as long as the government began forfeiture proceedings within 14 days of the seizure.
Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288 (1984), is a United States Supreme Court case with the National Park Service's regulation which specifically prohibited sleeping in Lafayette Park and the National Mall at issue. The Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) group had planned to hold a demonstration on the National Mall and Lafayette Park where they would erect tent cities to raise awareness of the situation of the homeless. The group obtained the correct permits for a seven-day demonstration starting on the first day of winter. The Park Service however denied the request that participants be able to sleep in the tents. The CCNV challenged this regulation on the basis that it violated their First Amendment right.
Gun laws in the District of Columbia regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in Washington, D.C.
Gun laws in Indiana regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the U.S. state of Indiana. Laws and regulations are subject to change.
Gun laws in Maryland regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the U.S. state of Maryland.
Gun laws in North Carolina regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the U.S. state of North Carolina.
Kachalsky v. Cacace is a case regarding the constitutionality of "may-issue" concealed carry laws. The plaintiffs, Alan Kachalsky, Christina Nikolov, and the Second Amendment Foundation, represented by Alan Gura, originally sought an injunction barring Susan Cacace, handgun licensing authority for co-Defendant Westchester County, New York, from enforcing a requirement of New York State law that applicants for handgun carry permits demonstrate "proper cause" for the issuance of a handgun license and subsequent carry of a handgun in public.
Gun laws in the Northern Mariana Islands regulate the sale, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. As the Northern Mariana Islands is a commonwealth of the United States, many federal laws apply, as well as Constitutional rulings and protections.