ZiefBrief

Professors de la Vega and Leighton File Amicus Brief

Professors Connie de la Vega and Michelle Leighton recently filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Amnesty International and other human rights organizations. (Download a PDF version of the brief here:Download Amicusbrief) The brief, filed in support of appellants Graham and Sullivan, urges the Court "to consider international law and opinion when applying the Eighth Amendment's clause prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments."

Both Graham and Sullivan involve juveniles sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. In Graham v. Florida, Graham pled guilty to armed burglary and attempted armed robbery and received a sentence of time served and three years probation. He was sentenced to life without parole at the age of 17 after violating probation.  In Sullivan v. Florida, Sullivan was sentenced to life without parole for his involvement in a rape committed at age 13.

Good Luck on the Bar Exam!

Best of luck on the bar exam to all of our recent grads - you're going to do just fine!

Students Have Mixed Reaction to E-Book Readers

The Wall Street Journal reported today on several higher education initiatives designed to test student reaction to e-textbooks.  At Northwest Missouri State University, 200 students received the Sony Reader loaded with course texts.  Although some students stuck with the Reader, dozens traded it in for old-fashioned print texts, finding the devices "awkward" and "inconvenient."  University officials quoted in the story said that "students didn’t like that they couldn’t flip through random pages, take notes in the margins or highlight text."  (Sony's latest version of the Reader now has note-taking and highlighting features.)

Will law schools join in the digital text experiment?  The Zief librarians have heard of several publishers that are moving in the direction of digital texts, including the Practising Law Institute, which is now releasing Kindle editions of some of its titles.  But PLI concentrates on practicing attorneys, not the academic market.  West has released at least one digital casebook and plans to release more in the near future.  Some law professors aren't waiting around for the publishers to develop these products.  They're seizing the initiative and creating their own digital casebooks and statutory supplements.  At least one expert predicts in this article that e-textbooks will be the norm in law schools in "3-5 years."  One thing is certain - law students are highlighting and note-taking maniacs, and producers of digital texts and readers must incorporate these tools into their products if they want them to be attractive to the law student market.

Reading 1194 Sotomayor Opinions So You Don't Have To

From above the 49th Parallel, our colleague Library Boy alerts us to the latest entry in the "read and analyze all of Judge Sotomayor's opinions" sweepstakes. NYU Law School's Brennan Center for Justice gives us: Monica Youn, Judge Sotomayor's Record in Constitutional Cases. The Executive Summary concludes: "in constitutional cases, Judge Sotomayor is solidly in the mainstream of the Second Circuit." Details are in the full 50-page report

Digging Deep Into the Sotomayor Record at National Archives

Today we heard that the National Archives has just added 122 Clinton-era emails mentioning Sonia Sotomayor [ginormous 310 MB zip file… took us over 20 minutes to download at T1+ speeds] to its collection of documents related to or mentioning the Supreme Court nominee.

These emails join the previously released:

•  "5,032 pages of [Clinton Library] Presidential records relating to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit"
• 62 pages of records from the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library

ZiefBrief pities the Senate Judiciary Committee, White House, and other staffers who have to comb through these emails. The first one we picked to open (with the titillating title  "id-11761905-sneak-and-peek-.pdf" turned out to be the results of a Lexis federal case law search (for: sneak w/5 peek and warrant), and the others we skimmed were no more enlightening about the life and philosophy of Judge Sotomayor. Still, for the persistent researchers (not us, not today), there might be fascinating nuggets in there.

Hat tip:  Emily Carr, reference librarian at Law Library of Congress

Justice Ginsburg's Candid NYT Magazine Interview

The New York Times Magazine just released a very candid and far-ranging interview with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Justice Ginsburg answers questions about the importance of having women on the Court, her thoughts on Court nominee Judge Sotomayor, affirmative action, and reproductive rights.

My favorite part -- when asked what it would be like to work on a Court with six or seven female justices, Justice Ginsburg replied, "The work would not be any easier. Some of the amenities might improve." 

Bar Study Break: Awful Library Books Blog

We are reaching that time of year when bar studiers need a little humor and something to distract them -- something that doesn't have anything to do with contracts, community property,  con law, civ pro, corporations, crim law, crim pro, evidence....you get the idea.  I suggest taking a little study break with the blog, Awful Library Books.  The authors are librarians who scour library collections to find "old, obsolete, awful or just plain stupid" books, scan the most amusing pages, then mock them on their blog. 

One of my favorite lines from a brake repair "how to" manual from 1973:

“Are you at the mercy of an unscrupulous mechanic who
insists you need $100 worth of work when in truth you only need a $2.00 to
$5.00 adjustment?”

Ah, those were the days.  If our annual car repair bill ever drops below $500, I will kiss the feet of our mechanic. 

The scanned illustrations from books like Roller Disco, Aleene's Craft Quickies, and Dee Snider's Teenage Survival Guide are fabulous.  Enjoy!

Thanks to the New Yorker's book blog, Book Bench, for the tip!