ZiefBrief

Is Cheerleading a Sport?

I'm a child of the seventies, and I freely admit that, during fifth grade, my career goal was to become a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.  Sadly, my cheering career ended in eighth grade (I still recall that my 1981 pom poms were about ten times the size of today's tiny pom poms). But I've always had a lingering fascination with cheerleading (see this earlier post), and I love it when cheerleading and the law intersect, like in today's story on Inside Higher Ed, "But I'm An Athlete."  Women volleyball players and their coach have sued Quinnipiac University following the university's decision to eliminate the women's volleyball team and substitute it with a varsity competitive cheerleading squad.  The case has triggered intense discussions in higher ed circles about whether cheerleading can be classified as a "sport" under Title IX.

According to the story, higher ed institutions haven't received much specific guidance on the cheerleading issue from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, other than this guidance letter identifying generic factors to consider in ascertaining whether any activity can be classified as a "sport" under Title IX.  It will be interesting to see how the Quinnipiac litigation turns out and whether the federal government takes an official stance on cheering as a competitive sport. 

(Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/1yen/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Congressional Research Service Analyzes Sotomayor's Opinions

Some of SCOTUS candidate Sotomayor's judicial opinions have been analyzed in a Congressional Research Service report, "Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Analysis of Selected Opinions."  The 59-page report includes a detailed table of contents that helpfully breaks down the discussion by legal subject (Criminal Law, First Amendment: Free Speech, Securities Law, etc.).  The report concludes that "[p]erhaps the most consistent characteristic of Judge Sotomayor’s approach as an appellate judge has been an adherence to the doctrine of stare decisis." 

We've blogged before about the research utility of CRS reports here - they really are extraordinarily useful resources that every lawyer and would-be lawyer should know about.  USF students, faculty, and staff can access CRS reports through the LexisNexis Congressional Service.  You can also find a growing number of searchable CRS repositories through Internet searches, such as the University of North Texas repository.  For a complete guide to finding CRS reports on the web, see Stephen Young's report on LLRX, "Guide to CRS Reports on the Web."

Michael Jackson -- Singer, Songwriter, Inventor.

We at ZiefBrief were saddened to learn that Michael Jackson, the self-anointed "King of Pop", died today at the age of 50. What, you may ask, is the connection between the Moonwalking Mr. Jackson and the Law? Well, in his more productive years Michael was granted a patent for a "... system for allowing a shoe wearer to lean forwardly beyond his center of gravity by virtue of wearing a specially designed pair of shoes which will engage with a hitch member movably projectable through a stage surface." You can locate this and many other patents at the Google Patents site. Just click this link to find the patent description and accompanying drawings, claims, etc. To check out the invention in action you will need to track down a copy of Michael's video Smooth Criminal.

Standing Out on Your Summer Law Job - Secret Weapons

Law students lucky enough to have landed summer jobs or internships in these tough times are working harder than ever to make a good impression on their employers.

One sure bet is to get known as a great researcher. Students who've taken an advanced legal research class have the edge here, but anyone can give their research skills a big boost by following this precept (coined by Dean Cowan and Schelle Simcox, librarians at U.C. Berkeley’s law school and Paul Hastings, respectively) —

Practice Materials: The Practical Way to Practice Law

The deliberate redundancy drives home the point that researchers who start with practice guides, treatises, continuing legal ed. publications, and other similar so-called "secondary" sources will get a firmer grasp on the context of the client's problem and the issues it raises, and will wind up doing better work in less time.

So where to find practice materials? There are lots of ways. Perhaps the best is to ask the librarian, if your office has one, or to ask the attorneys you're working with for their favorites. Or you can call the reference librarians back at your law school to get their suggestions.

These web sites are handy guides to practice materials dealing with the various areas of law:

• Kent Olson's Treatises & Services by Subject — or UVa's customized version of Treatises & Services by Subject
• For California law, the Zief Library's California Practice Guides list
• Harvard Law Library's Legal Treatises by Subject
• The Georgetown Law Library Treatise Finder
• Santa Clara Heafey Law Library's Major Legal Treatises
• Pace Law Library's Subject Guide to Legal Treatises

For more advice on acing your summer job, try Suffolk Law School's podcasts on Transition from One-L to Summer Legal Work. [Hat tip on this one to the Moritz Legal Information Blog.]

Judge Sotomayor's Senate Judiciary Committee Questionnaire — and More

The Senate Judiciary Committee has released the questionnaire prepared by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The questionnaire comes with a raft of varied and fascinating attachments which include: news stories going back to the 1970s; speeches; minutes of the State of New York Mortgage Agency; reports of the New York City Campaign Finance Board; course syllabi from Columbia, New York University, and the University of Puerto Rico; the Report of the Second Circuit Task Force on Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts; and transcripts and questionnaires from Judge Sotomayor's 1992 and 1997 Senate confirmation proceedings. 

All this and more is available from the Committee at:

Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court - Sonia Sotomayor - Questionnaire

(All of the Committee's materials on Judge Sotomayor's nomination are collected here: Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court - Sonia Sotomayor.)

Savvy Investors Say "It’s always a good time to invest in litigation"

The New York Times recently ran a short article about a practice that is proving profitable even during the current economic meltdown. According to the article "Investing in Lawsuits, for a Share of the Awards" by Times writer Jonathan Glater,  hedge funds and other investment groups are betting on the outcome of pending litigation. While this may sound wildly speculative, the money men say that by avoiding cases of first impression or mercurial juries they can show an attractive return on their investment. One such investment firm, Juris Capital out of Chicago, invests $500,000 to $3 million in a hopeful case. While they don't publicize what they make on their litigation investments, the fund as a whole posted a 20% return last year. Oh, and one other requirement before they pony up -- some seriously deep pockets on the other side.

Search Engine Feature Smackdown

Microsoft released a new search engine this week, bing.  I was immediately taken by the bold images on the bing home page -- I add custom images to everything, my Google home page, Firefox, my desktop, etc., so the splashy bing home page really appeals to me.  But how does bing measure up to the other search behemoths, Google and Yahoo, on common searches?  Tom Spring at PC World has done the heavy lifting for us, recently publishing "Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo: Feature Smackdown."  Tom analyzes how each search engine handles travel, health, video, map, and shopping search queries.  And surprise! -- Google doesn't win every category!  Thanks to bespacific for pointing us to this helpful resource.

Judge Sotomayor: In-Depth Background

If you're looking to get your hands on comprehenisve information about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, these sources should help.

• Sonia Sotomayor page, Law Library of Congress.

  Lists articles and other publications; has information on Judge Sotomayor's 1992 and 1997 confirmation hearings; links to other web sites. [Hat tip to Emily Carr, Legal Reference Specialist, Law Library of Congress.]

• Supreme Court Nominations Research Guide, Georgetown Law Library.

  Includes or links to biographies, transcripts of the 1992 and 1997 confirmation hearings; citations to publications by Judge Sotomayor; background information about the nomination and confirmation process.

• Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor Opinions and Papers (SOTOMAYOR-NOM), from Westlaw (for subscribers only).

  Contains "opinions joined or authored by Judge Sotomayor while sitting on the United States Court of Appeals and the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York … federal or state decisions in which Judge Sotomayor was an attorney of record or party … [selected] articles written by or about Judge Sotomayor … a current resume of Judge Sotomayor by West's Profiler … her biography from the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary … congressional documents related to the nomination process."

• Articles by or about Judge Sotomayor, from HeinOnline (for USF subscribers only).

  Over 170 articles containing at least one mention of the nominee. [If you belong to another institution that subscribes to HeinOnline, try this link to HeinOnline's Sotomayor articles.]

Helping Vets Apply to Law School

The Connecticut Law Tribune's Patrick Linsey has a really interesting story this week about a recent Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who wants to help members of the military with the law school application process.  Drew Schaffer is forming a new organization, Law Students Assisting Troops, which will advise "military personnel on the unique challenges of applying to law school while serving."  Schaffer decided to apply to law school while on combat duty and it wasn't exactly easy for him to complete the law school application process while in the field.  He studied for the LSAT "between combat patrols" in Afghanistan and took the LSAT "at a military base subject to Taliban artillery fire."  Schaffer was admitted to the University of Connecticut School of Law and just finished his first year. 

The Dean Tweets From Cambodia

Twittering on war crimes trials and genocide: it sounds like a tasteless joke, or an indictment of social media.

But USF's Dean Jeff Brand manages to pull it off in his updates from Cambodia, where he has visited the killing fields and is attending the war crimes trial of Kaing Guek Eav (aka Duch). The 140-character limit gives his tweets a haiku-like poignancy:

Killing Fields: The dirt at your feet eroded, revealing remnants of clothes worn by the murdered. Next to the clothing incense burns.

Killing Fields: Clouded sky. Beautiful trees pushed by a hot breeze. "Tainted beauty" says one student. "Overwhelming" says another.

For more, follow the Dean on twitter (@deanbrand) or on his blog.