Welcome

About

Welcome to Living With The Law. This monthly publication is designed to give voice and vote to the voiceless and vote less, power and strength to those who consider themselves without recourse. It will center on providing information to consumers and tenants, those of us who it seems these days face maltreatment and mistreatment at the hands of providers of goods and services because they believe we will not fight. Information will be provided on family matters, domestic relations, including wills, estates and insurance, housing issues and consumer questions. It will also center on the situation in Washington, D.C., the Nation's "last Plantation."

This Publication is dedicated to the Publisher’s parents, now deceased --- his Father, a tough man, and his Mother, a tender woman ---and to his children and grandchildren, who will one-day takeover. Living With The Law will take on tough people and tough issues, yet, it will always reflect compassion, concern for others. An Expert on the Federal and Local Legislative Process and the Bill of Rights, the Editor and Publisher of Living With The Law, Johnny Barnes, spent more than a quarter of a century in various Congressional staff positions, including service as Chief of Staff for two Members of Congress. In addition, he has taught law and college courses at area schools and has practiced law in the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. “Someone had to do it,” said Barnes.

A Distinguished Military Graduate, Commissioned and Honorably Discharged, Regular Army, Combat Engineer Officer, Barnes graduated, Cum Laude, from Central State University and received his Juris Doctor Degree from Georgetown University Law Center. He is the Father of two grown sons, a grown daughter and two grandchildren. Barnes currently serves as the Executive Director of a local nonprofit organization. During his time with Congress, Barnes worked on a range of issues. He was very much involved in the successful effort to secure passage of a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would have given Full Voting Representation to the District of Columbia. That amendment passed by supermajorities in the House and Senate, but later died during the ratification process in the states. And, he drafted the first D.C. Statehood Bill, H.R. 51, following the District of Columbia’s Constitutional Convention.

More recently, he helped draft and secure passage of a Bill that opened the door for African American farmers to have their discrimination complaints heard in federal Court, despite the passage of time and the impediment of the Statute of Limitations. And, he engineered the impressive caravan of 750 individuals, congresspersons and their staffs, Democrats and Republicans, who journeyed to North Carolina to assist in the clean up of the historic Town of Princeville, following the unprecedented flooding of Hurricane Floyd. Compared to the history of the world, our Bill of Rights is in its early infancy, very fragile. Yet, despite constant threats America’s constitutional guarantees mean more overall today than they meant two centuries ago. The Founders created a document of freedom that could not be cabined within the constraints of their world. It has taken a civil war, constitutional amendments and landmark court decisions to make the Founders’ promise real. And, the effort continues. The Publisher and Editors are pleased to have the opportunity to make some contribution to protecting and defending our most precious possession, the first ten amendments to the Constitution as applied to the states by other amendments.” Welcome to "Living With The Law."

Johnny Barnes