Legal Research

Hooray for Habeas Corpus!

Posted on June 12, 2008
Apparently our good friend and favorite civil liberty,the Writ of Habeas Corpus, is making a comeback. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that detainees held at Guant??namo Bay have the right to challenge their detention in U.S....

What do you find in Books?

Posted on June 11, 2008
People put things inside books and forget them. For example: Money. Baseball Cards. Tickets. This article describes the amazing things discovered inside books. HT: The Chronicle.

Cocktail Refused in Ohio

Posted on June 11, 2008
A trial court judge in Ohio has ruled that the three-drug executioner's cocktail which the Supreme Court upheld in Baze v Rees may not be administered to Ohio Death Row inmates. In April, the Supreme Court held that the three-drug...

200 ABA Accredited Law Schools

Posted on June 10, 2008
With Elon and Charlotte, legal academia can boast 200 ABA accredited law schools. More from the National Law Journal.

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EPA Blog Invites Comments re: Improving Public Access To Environmental Information

Posted on June 10, 2008
I just love fresh posts off of GOVDOC-L. They go great with my morning coffee. The post below is especially awesome in light of the ongoing hoopla surrounding the forced closure and (semi) re-opening of several Environmental Protection Agency Libraries...

Our Courts - gaming for legal education

Posted on June 09, 2008
Described as an "online interactive civics forum," the avatar-based website is being developed by the ASU College of Law with input from Justice O'Conner (among others). The website is free, but the game is still under development. See a preview...

National Museum of Crime and Punishment

Posted on June 07, 2008
The current issue of ABA Journal features a profile of the new National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C: The new National Museum of Crime and Punish­ment?opening May 22 in Washington, D.C.?will focus on that nation­al fascination with...

Video of the Week: Barbri Girl

Posted on June 06, 2008
This week's video, nominated by reference librarian Deb McGovern, comes from the talented students of NYU's 2008 Law Revue. Recent grads, this one's for you!

Baseball: you may fantasize freely

Posted on June 06, 2008
Linda Greenhouse reports that the Supreme Court has rejected Major League Baseball's appeal in its case seeking to require fantasy baseball leagues to pay licensing fees for using MLB's player names and stats. In its appeal to the Supreme Court,...

The L Word

Posted on June 05, 2008
Now that it appears there's only one lawyer left in the race for the Presidency, it's time for a quasi-legal history quiz. How many of the ten men who occupied the office in the past 50-odd years (and some of...

Law School Movie

Posted on June 04, 2008
"The trials of law school" is documentary film about law schools, legal education, and personal growth. The website is worth checking out too. Film HT: Legal Research Plus

Florida State Courts Downsize

Posted on June 03, 2008
The Daily Business Review has the details on the over two hundred jobs at stake in Florida's State Courts. Article

Are you ready for hurricane season?

Posted on June 03, 2008
June 1 marked the official start of hurricane season. If you're new to Florida and need to start a hurricane kit, or just need a reminder to replenish your kit with fresh supplies, I recommend taking a look at Broward...

Web 2.0 Discovered?

Posted on June 02, 2008
This article in LAW.COM considers the intersection between Web 2.0 communications and pre-trial discovery. Requests to produce documents may soon include, in addition to more traditional items such as memos and emails, a request for social or business networking information...

Transitioning from One-L to Summer Legal Work

Posted on May 30, 2008
Students, if you're starting summer legal work for the first time this year, you may want to check out a new podcast series from Suffolk University Law School called Transitioning from One-L to Summer Legal Work. The podcasts feature faculty...

Improper Redaction Makes Sensitive Information Easily Accessible via PACER

Posted on May 28, 2008
Sealed documents in a 2007 sex discrimination lawsuit filed against General Electric were improperly redacted before being uploaded to PACER, reports Law.com. As a result, the "redacted" information is easily revealed by copying and pasting to a Word document...

Victory for the blind on currency issue

Posted on May 27, 2008
American paper currency has long been a problem for the blind and visually impaired. Those of you who have seen Ray probably remember the scene where Ray Charles insists on always being paid in singles, because it was the only...

Want to be an academic?

Posted on May 27, 2008
Concurring Opinions features tips for students interested in entering legal academia. There's also a lively debate about the teaching market and law school hiring in the comments.

Putting Some Refinement Into Your Open Internet Searches

Posted on May 27, 2008
The Virtual Chase has a useful page on using advanced commands on the Web. One tip is to add (site:.gov) to your searches to limit your results to .gov websites. And did you know that Google lets you search synonyms...

Uh-oh! Everybody makes mistakes sometimes...

Posted on May 23, 2008
There's a great post on Slate.com explaining the mix-up this week in which the President vetoed a different version of a 673-page farm bill than the one passed by the House and the Senate. Since the Supreme Court ruled (Field...

Why do you wear purple?

Posted on May 22, 2008
Ever wonder why law graduates wear purple? In honor of his university's graduation, Dave Hoffman at Temple re-posted his thoughts at Concurring Opinions on the origin of purple academic regalia and law: Interestingly, the dominant theory seems to be that...

Cornell provides RSS Feeds for the U.S. Code

Posted on May 20, 2008
Thomas Bruce, Director of Cornell's Legal Information Institute, has announced a few feature: RSS feeds to alert subscribers to new legislation affecting individual titles of the U.S. Code. Check it out here.

PublicMarkup.org

Posted on May 16, 2008
The Sunlight Foundation has launched a new project, PublicMarkup.org, to encourage public participation in the construction of a model government transparency bill, which they've named Transparency in Government 2008. Read more in Joe Hodnicki's post on Law Librarian Blog.

Legal Jobs Take a Passage to India

Posted on May 16, 2008
The Professional Ethics Committee (PEC) of the Florida Bar has decided that the ethical rules, as presently drawn, don?t prevent Florida attorneys from outsourcing paralegal work to India - or any other foreign country, for that matter. Its Advisory Opinion...

Picking names for characters in law school exam questions

Posted on May 14, 2008
Law exam questions commonly use the names of pop culture or literary characters. Do these influence the test-taker? The 'Concurring Opinions' blog looks at the question.

U.S. Constitution by popular name or nickname

Posted on May 13, 2008
Need to identify the Basket Clause, Comity Clause, Elastic Clause, or any of the other 80 nicknamed sections of the Constitution? Check out the full list from UW.

They Don't Shoot Horses Anymore

Posted on May 12, 2008
Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court stayed the execution of Earl Wesley Berry. Last Saturday, Eight Belles, the filly who fractured both her front ankles in the Kentucky Derby, was euthanized at the track. What is the common denominator here? The...

Video of the Week: Congratulations, graduates!

Posted on May 09, 2008
To all our graduating students: congratulations! Soon-to-be 2Ls and 3Ls: see you next year!

Views on tenure & the memorandum on torture written by John C. Yoo in 2003

Posted on May 09, 2008
The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the interaction of the memo with the role of tenure and quotes many views from the legal academy. Chronicle.

Open Access at Harvard

Posted on May 09, 2008
The faculty at Harvard Law School has unanimously voted to make all of the faculty's scholarly articles available online for free. See details here. Hat tip to Law Librarian Blog

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