ZiefBrief

Fortieth Anniversary Edition of The Paper Chase

USF Law has long enjoyed a close association with John Osborn, the author of The Paper Chase, the quintessential story of life as a first year law student at Harvard in the 1970's. As a professor of law and Distinguished Scholar in Residence  he has taught on wills and estate planning as well as a very popular course on the law in literature. To mark the Fortieth Anniversary of publication, The Paper Chase is being republished in a new edition with a brand new preface by the author. While much has changed in law schools and legal education in the last four decades, this book should still resonate with anyone who has lived through the rigors of an American legal education.

Though it hasn't been easy to find a new copy of The Paper Chase the last few years, this new edition is available in both a high quality trade paper back print edition as well as a digital edition readable on you Kindle, iPad or other compatable e-readers.

Freiwald's Fourth Amendment Arguments Sway Court

A U.S. District Court Judge has sided with compelling constitutional law arguments made by USF Law Professor Susan Freiwald and the Magistrate Judge in the decision below. In a single-page Order on Objections, Judge Lynn Hughes of the Southern District of Texas noted Professor Freiwald's amicus brief, along with a brief submitted by the EFF and ACLU, as an aid in arriving at his decision.

This most recent action arises out of an opinion by Magistrate Judge Stephen Smith of U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas. He denied the government access to a cellphone subscriber’s data absent a search warrant. Judge Smith's decision noted that cellphone tracking could allow the government to compile a "digital dossier" tracking a cellphone users movements and activities. To read the full decision click here.

The present Order is in response to the government's appeal of Judge Smith's decision. In her amicus brief Professor Freiwald urged the court to treat such records as deserving the full protection of the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Such protected records could only be released to investigators who have received a warrant issued on probable cause. As the court put it, cell phone location records "... would show the date, time, called number, and location of the telephone when the call was made. These data are constitutionally protected from intrusion."

This decision is sure to generate discussion, starting with an entry in a Wall Street Journal blog: Judge Declares Law Governing Warrantless Cellphone Tracking Unconstitutional

Click here to read full order (.pdf).

Click here to read Professor Freiwald's full amicus brief (.pdf)

Good Luck, USF Grads!

Bar Result Friday is this Friday, November 19.  We hope that all of our graduates receive good news when they sign on at 6 pm on Friday! 

Third Circuit Hands Down Decision On Case Briefed and Argued by Professor Freiwald

As reported earlier, University of San Francisco School of Law Professor Susan Freiwald authored an amicus brief and took part in the oral arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The case involves the compelled disclosure of cell phone records and whether the police must get a warrant when seeking such records. The Court's decision is a partial victory for privacy advocates because it grants Federal Magistrates discretionary power to require a full probable cause search warrant when the government is seeking location information from cell phone providers. Unfortunately, the Court failed to definitively address the broader issues of Fourth Amendment protection of cell phone location that Professor Freiwald was seeking. Professor Freiwald has been fielding questions from the national media about the impact of the decision and was singled out for special thanks by the Court and the Electronic Frontier Foundation for her work on this case.

Click here to download a .pdf version of the decision.

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.