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Think you know a lot about the jury system in the United States? Test yourself with NPR's Jury Quiz with answers, which I found on the always-useful blog on juries, Deliberations. Here's a sample question to test your knowledge:
In what year did the U.S. Supreme Court rule that it is unconstitutional to allow women to opt to serve on a jury, rather than making their service mandatory?
A: 1967
B: 1975
C: 1984
Those of you who venture to the far side of the reference desk to our "leisure reading" area will notice a new addition next to the newspaper rack. A magazine wall rack has been installed, containing current issues of magazines/newsletters published by the various special interest sections of the American Bar Association. (Click below for a list of titles.) Some of these publications are of general interest, but many are targeted toward attorneys who practice in specific areas, such as IP, antitrust, environmental law, labor law, etc. They are a good way to keep current with developments in the law and also can be a great source if you are looking for paper or law review topics. Download aba_leisure_reading_list.doc
We hope you will find these periodicals useful and entertaining. Please feel free to read the materials in the library, but we ask that you return all issues to the rack or to the Reference or Circulation Desks. Thank you.
WSJ's Law Blog picked up a story from the Los Angeles Times about 18-year-old Kathleen Holtz, who entered UCLA Law at 15, graduated at 18, and sat for the bar exam last July. If Ms. Holtz passes, she will be the youngest lawyer in California. She is already working as a first-year associate at TroyGould, a Los Angeles firm. One of the lawyers at TroyGould told the L.A. Times that the firm "wondered about child labor laws" when they recruited her as a summer associate since she was only 17 at the time that the firm extended an offer to her. We hope that Ms. Holtz and all of our USF Law grads get great news on Friday, November 16th!
Who hasn't faced the dreaded 50-state survey project as a summer or a new associate? I estimate that I had to do at least three or four of these things during my first couple of years at a firm. Fortunately, Lexis and Westlaw both offer 50-state surveys of laws in a number of substantive areas. Westlaw ventured into this field first, but librarians everywhere are glad to see that Lexis is now offering its own 50-state surveys as well. Hopefully, the two vendors will struggle mightily to outdo each other, eventually offering 50-state surveys on every legal subject under the sun.
So how do you find them? From the Lexis research system home page, click on "View More Sources" under the heading "Legislation & Politics - U.S. & U.K." At the next screen, click on "LexisNexis 50 State Surveys, Legislation & Regulations." Scroll through the list of topics until you find the one that you need. Click on the link, and Lexis will generate an Excel spreadsheet for you, containing citations and links to the laws governing your topic in all 50 states. If you're still in law school, you don't need to worry about the "$" sign that appears next to the links. Academic users don't incur any charges for using these materials. However, if you're in a firm, it's always best to check with your librarian or your office manager before clicking on any Lexis or Westlaw item with a dollar sign next to it.
From the Westlaw law school research home page, click on "50 State Surveys" under the "Statutes" heading. At the next screen, you can search for your state law topic using a "terms and connectors" search to find the survey topic that you need. An easier approach may be to click on "table of contents" in the upper-right hand corner of the screen to browse a list of all of the topics for which Westlaw has created a 50-state survey. When you find the subject that you need, simply click on the topic link, and Westlaw will open a new window with links to the statutes governing your topic.
I received information about the Santa Clara Law roundtable discussion, "Blogging, Scholarship and the Bench and Bar," but wasn't able to attend. Fortunately, the National Law Journal has a transcript of the roundtable discussion available online, and it makes for fascinating reading. Lots of interesting debate about whether law professors' blogs should count as legal scholarship in tenure decisions and how blogging is breaking down communication barriers between practicing attorneys and legal academics. Cindy Cohn, legal counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, had this to say about blogs and legal scholarship: "I don't have the time to read a law review article from beginning to end very often on my issues. I'd like to see legal scholarship be more accessible to practitioners, more useful to us." Other interesting tidbits: Judge Michael Daly Hawkins of the Ninth Circuit noted that the Ninth Circuit judges do read blog posts about cases that they've either decided or will decide soon -- compiled for them by the Ninth Circuit's librarian, of course!.
The Recorder is reporting this morning that Boalt Hall, UC Berkeley's law school, will announce a new name in January. Apparently, there is concern that the name "Boalt" is not well-recognized outside of California. I can certainly attest to that -- I lived in California for four years before I realized that Boalt was part of UC Berkeley, and I only found out that little tidbit of information because I started applying to law schools in the Bay Area. No word yet on what the possible new names might be!
One of ZiefBriefs most popular posts, as measured by hits from web search engines, was an early entry about USF Law alumna Cupcake Brown (click here to read.) Ms. Brown's story of redemption is truly remarkable and her autobiography A Piece of Cake received popular acclaim from many quarters.
So we were interested to read in a recent article appearing in the San Francisco Recorder that Cupcake has decided to leave the firm of Bingham McCutchen to pursue other, non-legal opportunities. In the article she expresses the desire to take the message of her personal story to others and work on a movie adaptation of her autobiography. She also says that she might return to the practice of law some day in the future, perhaps as a public interest lawyer.
Whatever she decides to do and wherever her path takes her, ZiefBrief wishes her the best of luck and will look forward to the next chapter in her life.
In honor of the 175th anniversary of their creation, the Law Library of Congress unveiled a newly redesigned web page. ZiefBrief would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the LLOC on their anniversary and to remind our readers about what a useful research destination they can be. Two useful resources of special note are:
Guide to Law Online:
This is a very useful list of links maintained by the Law Library of Congress Public Services Division designed to provide a portal of Internet sources of interest to legal researchers. In addition to providing links to the full text of cases, codes, regulations the pages of the Guide provide useful links for lay people interested in the law.
The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)
GLIN is a searchable online database containing laws, judicial decision, legislative records and legal literature for jurisdictions spanning the globe. Contributors are governmental agencies and international organizations that add original-language, officially published, full text documents in electronic format. Unofficial summaries (generally in English) accompany each document. Full texts of materials in the GLIN are available as PDF files.
The American Library Association has announced the celebration of Banned Books Week on September 29–October 6, 2007.
We at ZiefBrief urge all our loyal readers to go out and read a banned book. As the ALA says: "Free People Read Freely®"
If you aren't sure what to read you might consider one of the the most frequently challenged books of 2006. Thankfully, many of the titles that are challenged stay on the shelves, but in many cases a simple challenge is sufficient to get a book yanked off the shelves forever. The most challenged book of the year is And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. It tells the story of two male penguins who raise an egg from a mixed-sex penguin couple. Reviled as being "anti-family" the story was also recognized as an American Library Association Notable Children's Book as well as receiving numerous other awards (some editorial reviews are collected at Amazon.com at this link).
Linda Greenhouse describes the Supreme Court's "polarizing new docket" in today's New York Times. The justices have agreed to hear cases on lethal injections and the Eighth Amendment, the rights of Guantanamo Bay detainees, racial discrimination, and voting rights. It promises to be a momentous term!
