Law Librarian Blog

The Process of Selecting Judge Sotomayor

From background memos to telling special interest groups to support the choice or get out of the way, to the President reading candidates writings and calling every member of the Judiciary, "something few if any presidents have done," Sotomayor Pick a Product of Lessons From Past Battles (New York Times) describes how Judge Sotomayor was picked as the Obama Administration's first SCOTUS nominee. [JH]

Judge Sotomayor, Legal Realist?

In 1996, Judge Sonia Sotomayor delivered a speech to law students about professional morality. She then turned it into a law review article, Returning Majesty to the Law and Politics: A Modern Approach, 30 Suffolk U.L. Rev. 35 (1996)(with Nicole A. Gordon). The article gave Wall Street Journal Supreme Court reporter Jess Bravin sufficient fodder to declare Sotomayor a legal realist because she opened the article with a discussion of Jerome Frank's classic Law and the Modern Mind (1930). See Legal Realism Informs Judge's Views. Quoting Frank, of course, is the "stuff" speakers routinely do to lead into a discussion of the public's distrust of lawyers and the legal process before an audience of law students. As Chicago Law Prof Brian Leiter writes, Bravin's Sotomayor's article is "thin." See Leiter's Law School Reports blog post for more. [JH]

Court Rules OK to Extract DNA from Arrestee Without Conviction

In a case of first impression, a federal magistrate judge in California has ruled that it is constitutional to take DNA samples from individuals at the time of arrest for a felony.  The laws in question are the Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3142(b) and (c)(1)(A), and DNA Fingerprinting Act of 2005, 42 U.S.C. § 14135a.  The case is U.S. v. Jerry Albert Pool, (CR S-09-0015 EJG GGH, Eastern District of California, May 27, 2009).

From the opinion:

The court holds that after a judicial or grand jury determination of probable cause has been made for felony criminal charges against a defendant, no Fourth Amendment or other Constitutional violation is caused by a universal requirement that a charged defendant undergo a “swab test,” or blood test when necessary, for the purposes of DNA analysis to be used solely for criminal law enforcement, identification purposes.

The full opinion is here, and a news analysis from the ever thoughtful Declan McCullagh at CNET News is here.  Thanks, Declan, for a link to the case.  [MG]

Passports Now Required for U.S. Border Crossings

The rules for traveling across borders is changing on Monday, June 1.  U.S. Customs will now require citizens to have passports or other secure documentation to pass through borders to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.  More details are at www.getyouhome.gov.  

From the web site:

On June 1, 2009, U.S. citizens returning home from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean or Bermuda, by land or sea, will be required to present one of the travel documents listed below.

Many of these documents are already available, and obtaining one now will ensure that you are ready on June 1, 2009, when they will be required.

• U.S. Passport – This is an internationally recognized travel document that verifies a person’s identity and nationality. It is accepted for travel by air, land and sea.

• U.S. Passport Card – This is a new, limited-use travel document that fits in your wallet and costs less than a U.S. Passport. It is only valid for travel by land and sea.

• Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) – Several states and Canadian provinces are issuing this driver’s license or identification document that denotes identity and citizenship. It is specifically designed for cross-border travel into the U.S. by land or sea.

• Trusted Traveler Program Cards – NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST enrollment cards can speed your entry into the U.S. and are issued only to pre-approved, low-risk travelers. The cards are valid for use at land or sea; the NEXUS card can be used in airports with a NEXUS kiosk. 

  It's a good thing AALL isn't meeting in Toronto this year.  [MG]

Survey Underway to Gauge Law Librarian Unemployment and Layoff Concerns

Christine Sellers, Law Librarians of Leisure, is conducting a survey to gather statistics on how many law librarians have been laid off or are worried about being so. Here's the link to Christine's survey. The survey only takes a couple of minutes and will provide useful information to all law librarians. [JH]

What's Next for Kindle?

Atom Films reckons Kindle can only get bigger, skipping ahead six models to the “Kindle 9XXXD.” Hat tip to Mashable. Also on Mashable, you can see how the latest version of Kindle is so advanced even illiterates can use it! [JH]

Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | More Video Clips

Miller's Submission Guide for Online Law Review Supplements

Submission Guide for Online Law Review Supplements [SSRN] by EvidenceProf Blog editor Colin Miller (John Marshall Law School, Chicago) contains information about submitting essays and articles to general online law review supplements. It covers 19 general online law reviews and will be updated on an annual basis and as law schools create new online law review supplements. See also Miller's blog post. Very helpful. [JH]

100 Tweets from the Confucius of the Legal Twittersphere

Matthew Homann, The [Non]Billable Hour, has published what I believe to be the first e-book compliation of tweets. It republishes his favorite tweets about law practice. A sample from 100 Tweets: Thinking About Law Practice in 140 Characters or Less:

• Never confuse your desire to explain something with your ability to do so.

• Trying to learn client service in ethics class is like trying to learn to ride a bicycle by watching lots of bike accidents.

Hat tipt to Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog. On Twitter, you can follow Homann at www.twitter.com/matthomann [JH]

50 Best Blogs for Law Librarians

Online University Lowdown identifies 50 "best blogs" for law librarians in four categories: University Law Library Blogs, Law Librarian Blogs, Legal Research Blogs and Law Library Blogs. LLB is listed ("In addition to its legal info, this site offers info on the technology, software, and laws most likely to affect you."). While we appreciate the recognition, we know that these sorts of lists have become a common marketing technique used by web destinations to drive people to their sites. Hat tip to also listed Cleveland Law Library Weblog. [JH]

Microsoft's New Search Engine Is Officially Announced, Previewed

The big news in the tech press is Microsoft unveiling Bing, it's upgrade to Live Search.  It should be live to the general public around June 3rd.  The name is short and designed to give people the opportunity to say things like, "Just Bing it," as they do with Google.  Microsoft has committed $100 million to advertise their new product.  Steve Ballmer said at the D7 conference that he had to gulp at the amount before he approved the budget, even at a $60 billion company.  He also damped down expectations that this was going to be an overnight game changer in the search market, committing the competition with Google in terms of years.  That's not a new statement from Ballmer or Microsoft.  It's been there during every other upgrade to Microsoft's search product these past several years.  The long term competition strategy, however, has not yielded the kind of results Microsoft is seeking given the billions invested in the technology.  

 

The features Bing brings to search, as noted in the press, represent the most ambitious change in how Microsoft engineers its  product.  The interface is aesthetically pleasing with a search box on top of a high quality exotic subject.  That's just the beginning.  Rather than simply displaying results, the engine categorizes them through types listed on the left side of the page.  ZDNET has a gallery of screen shots here that show how various types of searches are displayed.  The categories change with the type of search.  Restaurants, for example, will offer reviews, and will break them down by focus.  Cars, cameras, and other items break down against whether someone wants to buy one, fix one, by parts for one, find out more about one, all through links to grouped results.

 

Microsoft did this because of one survey that suggested a weakness in the Google search experience.  Searchers would look at an individual Google result and for more than 25% of the time would return back to the search page to wander around for what they wanted.  Hence Microsoft's approach on modeling the answers in anticipation of the likely intention behind the search.  It seems to be a more efficient type of search, but from the reports Bing seems to target the commercial and the broad types of query.  I can't imagine a set of defined categories for legal research.  I'd be curious to type in "contract of adhesion" and come up with a page that comes up with cases, commentary, statutes, jurisdictions, etc.  Microsoft is obviously going for the heart of the search market with Bing by optimizing it for the social experience.

 

The burning question is whether Microsoft will gain search market share with this move.  As I've noted, the company is expecting some initial movement in their numbers but see real gain as a slow grind.  It's not as if Google is treading water here.  They have the brand name and moreover, lots of people seem happy enough to keep using it.  Microsoft thinks searchers want something better.  Maybe they don't.  We'll find out soon enough when it goes live.  It's not as if Google couldn't add similar categorization to its results and more.  Curiously, searching Microsoft Bing in Google brings up news and other results, but also a sponsored ad link to the Bing site.  There is a "learn more" slide show there.  Microsoft, or its ad agency, is not above using the competition to get attention.

 

It's great that Bing will find great restaurants, but a professional searcher may want more. I look forward to testing it next week.  Microsoft's virtual press kit for Bing is here.  Thanks Google for finding it for me. [MG]

Kudos to Julie Jones

Julie M. Jones, Head of Information Services & Lecturer in Law, Cornell Law Library and LLB contributing editor, has been appointed Associate Director for Library Services at the University of Connecticut School of Law Library. Julie starts her new position on June 19.

Unfortunately, because of her new gig, Julie is retiring from LLB. It's been great having Julie on board. See. e.g., Julie's Friday Fun contribution -- a clip from the never aired 1966 pilot of Batgirl, where we learn that Batgirl was a public librarian. OK, there were many more serious and informative posts over the years but... Julie, I promise (NB my short term memory lapses) that I will mail your Batgirl Poster to you at UConn. What, I'm only 20 months late in getting it to you! See you in DC. 

Congratulations Julie! [JH]

Brown and Lambert Report on Their Crowdsourcing Experiment for Law Firm Work

Toby Brown and Greg Lambert decided to run an experiment to see how well crowdsourcing might work for a firm. "We wanted to show immediate value and cost savings and to demonstrate which types of tasks might be handled this way." Using Mechanical Turk (MTurk), Brown and Lambert offered to compensate MTurk users  to supply information about General Counsels and provide bullet-point and 100-word reviews of cited legal articles.

About their two-week experiment, Lambert writes:

I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with the quality of the work. Regardless of if we paid 25 or 50 cents, the work was very good. I'm also stunned by the seriousness that the MTurkers seem to take with regards to the quality of the work. Take a look at the last bullet-point of the Finnegan Henderson article. A MTurker posted a comment saying that they had some difficulty with the article but hoped that their results were "good enough" for us. That really impressed me.

The more I test the MTurk idea, the more I see potential in crowdsourcing a number of projects that we'd love to do within the law firm setting, but generally don't have the staffing to help us complete the projects. We'll break down some of the other MTurk projects we tested over the past week and show you what we've found to be the pro's and con's of crowdsourcing.

Very interesting. [JH]

Context Awareness Widget Supports Text Composition

James E. Powell, Linn Marks Collins and Mark L.B. Martinez (all Los Alamos National Laboratory) describe their Context Awareness Tool (CAT) which supports text composition by providing awareness of relevant content and references proactively and non-intrusively in The Fierce Urgency of Now: A Proactive, Pervasive Content Awareness Tool, D-Lib Magazine, May/June 2009. As a user composes text, CAT automatically searches multiple sources, retrieves results, and displays links to the results. A working prototype of the tool has been implemented using Web 2.0 and Digital Library 2.0 technologies, and is flexible and highly configurable for both Web search engines and deep web targets. This enables near instant querying and aggregation of results from a nearly infinite combination of resources, tailored to tasks, situations, users, and communities. Very interesting. [JH]

Thomson Reuters Replaces WestBlog with Legal Current Blog

From the announcement: "The new blog, Legal Current, will introduce you to key voices - ours and others - from across the global legal marketplace, and will showcase many of the bright minds behind the technology, innovation, content and trends shaping the legal industry worldwide. We’ll share the unique perspectives of our authors and insiders, and provide new channels for feedback." [JH]

Openings: Assistant Director & Public Services Librarian, Wayne State University Law Library

The Wayne State University Library System is seeking to fill two professional positions in the Law Library:

Assistant Director (Position #036242)

Responsibilities: The Assistant Director reports to the Director of the Law Library.  Primary responsibilities include: administering daily operations for all of the Law Library’s patron services, including the faculty services, research and reference services, circulation services, ILL/document delivery services, and library reserves; assisting the Law Library Director with strategic planning for law library programs, resources, services, space and staffing; coordinating and providing  liaison services to law faculty; coordinating Law Library support for the Law School’s legal research and writing program; developing and participating in instructional programming for legal research; coordinating and contributing to the development of bibliographic and research aids; participating in the daily and weekend reference rotation; participating in collection development for the Law Library. 

Minimum Qualification: J.D. degree from an A.B.A. accredited program and an M.L.S. from an A.L.A. accredited program by date of hire; eight years of experience providing patron services in an academic law library; five years of experience teaching legal research (credit or non-credit) in a law school environment; demonstrated ability to set priorities, organize tasks, and meet deadlines in a diverse and fast-paced work environment; strong organizational, communication and interpersonal skills.

Salary & Benefits: Salary and rank: commensurate with education and experience.  Wayne State offers dental and health plan options; TIAA/CREF or Fidelity, tuition assistance for employees and family members, relocation assistance and liberal vacation.

Application Procedure: Please submit electronically to posting # 036242 a complete resume and letter of interest including the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of at least three professional references to: Wayne State University’s ON-LINE HIRING SYSTEM at https://jobs.wayne.edu.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Public Services Librarian (Position #036196)

Responsibilities: The Public Services Librarian I/II for the Arthur Neef Law Library will report to the Assistant Director.  Primary responsibilities include: providing research and reference services  for Law Library patrons and participating in the reference rotation;  providing research instruction, including topical bibliographic lecturers, research-oriented workshops, and electronic database training; serving as liaison to assigned law faculty; developing bibliographic and research aids for Law Library patrons on designated topics; participating in collection development for the Law Library.

Minimum Qualifications: J.D. degree from an A.B.A. accredited law school and an M.L.S. from an A.L.A. accredited program by date of hire; knowledge of the American legal system and legal bibliography; proficiency with Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis, and internet-based legal resources; and, excellent written and oral communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications: Admission to a state bar and experience providing patron services in an academic law library preferred.

Salary & Benefits: Salary and rank: commensurate with education and experience.  Wayne State offers dental and health plan options; TIAA/CREF or Fidelity, tuition assistance for employees and family members, relocation assistance and liberal vacation.

Application Procedure: Please submit electronically to posting # 036196 a complete resume and letter of interest including the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of at least three professional references to: Wayne State University’s ON-LINE HIRING SYSTEM at https://jobs.wayne.edu.  Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Inquiries: Please contact Virginia C. Thomas, Director of the Law Library and Search Committee Chair, for additional information regarding the specifics for either position at ed5497@wayne.edu.

The Campus & University Libraries: Wayne State University is located in the heart of Detroit’s University Cultural Center, the home of renowned museums, galleries and theatres, most within walking distance.  The WSU main campus encompasses 203 acres of beautifully landscaped walkways and gathering spots, linking 100 education and research buildings. The University Library System includes Public Services, Shiffman Medical Library, Arthur Neef Law Library, New Media and Information Technology, Office for Teaching & Learning, Library and Information Science Program, Detroit Area Library Network (DALNET) and Library Administrative Services.  For more information, please visit: http://www.lib.wayne.edu/.

Wayne State University is an equal opportunity/affirmative-action employer.

Kudos to Slaw

Congratulations to Slaw on being awarded the Hugh Lanford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing by the Canadian Association of Law Libraries. [JH]

Sotomayor: The News Coverage Angle

Joe posted some wonderful links to resources for the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.  I'd like to augment them with a few of my own.  Many of the news outlets have their own take on the nomination, and speculation runs rampant as to the "meaning" of the nomination and the story behind it.  Here is a roundup of some of the reporting.

CNN has its own page devoted to the nomination with statements from political leaders and noted commentators, some of whom have negative feelings towards the nominee.  There is a large collection of short videos (around 2  minutes each) that track Judge Sotomayor's personal story, her work on the Second Circuit, and the reaction of various interest groups to her nomination.

The Washington Post is all over the nomination in its general news coverage.  However, the Post has its Opening Arguments blog that tracks all things related to the nomination.  The blog tracks the political aspects of the nomination, as well as links to documents that are relevant to the discussion. 

One of the most fun political blogs is FiveThirtyEght, written mostly by Nate Silver.  This was a great resource for the last election cycle as its strength is forecasting results based on statistical tracking and analysis.  The site accurately predicted the electoral margin of victory for Obama, as well as most House and Senate races (compared to other political sites).  In one current post, the site notes that current senators voted 36-11 to confirm Sotomayor in 1998. 

This story from the Chicago Tribune notes comments from various individuals.  One of the best quotes in it comes from former Yale Dean and current Judge Guido Calabresi of the Second Circuit:  "We have some judges on the left end of the spectrum. Sonia's well in the middle.  That's one of the things I have been pointing out to people. . . . Activism has a meaning -- judges who reach out to decide things that aren't before them. Sonia simply doesn't do that."

The New York Times has its own "Choosing the Next Justice" page with a roundup of all of its coverage.

In case anyone is wondering, foreign newspapers hardly have any coverage on Judge Sotomayor's nomination beyond single news stories about it.  The news frenzy is purely American.  [MG]

Sotomayor: "Court of Appeals Is Where Policy Is Made" In Context (and More Important Resources Like SCOTUSblog's Summary of Sotomayor's Opinions)

The question asked during a panel discussion at Duke Law School in 2005: Where should a law school student clerk? District Court ("doing justice to the individual case" by examining the facts) or Court of Appeals ("always thinking about the ramifications of the ruling"). SCOTUS nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor's response in context in the below video clip.

SCOTUSblog is summarizing Judge Sotomayor's opinions in a multi-part series. First installment, Judge Sotomayor’s Appellate Opinions in Civil Cases, to be followed by a summary of additional civil cases, as well as Judge Sotomayor’s leading criminal law opinions.

Early Reactions. See Room for Debate Blog's Sotomayor: Does Biography Matter? (New York Times) for comments by Cristina M. Rodríguez, Richard A. Epstein, Lani Guinier, Eugene Volokh,  Glenn Greenwald and others. Nareissa Smith (Florida Coastal) is reviewing initial reaction to the nomination on Constitutional Law Prof Blog: Part I and Part II: On the Issues.  

Predictions. On Brookings, Richard Wheeler says there is no doubt that U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed to replace retiring Justice David Souter in Will Judge Sonia Sotomayor be Confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice? (video clip) See also the ABA Journal's The Four Likely Lines of Attack Against Sonia Sotomayor according to SCOTUSblog contributor Thomas Goldstein. [JH]

Revising the AALL Competencies of Law Librarianship: An LLB Interview with Julie Pabarja, CPE Chair

The AALL Continuing Professional Education Committee (CPE) is in the process of revising the AALL Competencies of Law Librarianship. In April and May 2009 the CPE hosted a lively listserv discussion, available at http://share.aallnet.org/read/?forum=aall-cpe, for the purpose of soliciting input from AALL members respecting how the Competencies should be revised. This month Julie Pabarja, CPE Chair, kindly agreed to be interviewed by email to give us a better understanding of the Competencies revision process. The interview also reveals how innovative Web 2.0 technologies, including the Law Libraries and Librarians Ning (developed by Jim Milles and currently administered by Lyonette Louis-Jacques, Connie Crosby, Elizabeth Farrell, & Roger Skalbeck), and the AALL Tools for Success in Today's Economy wiki are enabling AALL members to participate in the work of the association.  Here is a lightly edited version of the interview:

LLB: What led the CPE to revise the Competencies at this time?

JP: Law librarians were discussing the AALL Competencies [of] Law Librarianship on the Law [Libraries and] Librarians Ning and questioning whether the language was still relevant today. A few members of the . . . (CPE) and the AALL Board are members of the Ning and noticed the discussions. The Board and CPE felt this was a good time to review the Competencies to see if any changes need to be made. The Competencies fall under the charge of CPE which is why this committee is handling the review process.

LLB: What role do the Competencies play in the work of AALL, and what Competency-related activities did the committee engage in prior to the April/May 2009 listserv discussion of the Competencies?

JP: The Competencies[,] which were approved in 2001[,] play an important role when program proposals are being submitted for the [AALL] annual meeting and when AALL members are applying for the AALL/BNA Continuing Professional Education grants. [Program and grant proposal evaluators use the Competencies to assess proposals, while AALL members use the Competencies to plan their professional development, including selection of AALL Annual Meeting programs to attend.—Editor’s note.]  Prior to the listserv discussion, CPE is unaware of any other activities related to the Competencies. This is the first time CPE [has reviewed] the Competencies since they were passed in 2001.

LLB: Each stage of the Competencies listserv discussion began with a CPE member’s posting several “leading questions” designed to spur discussion. How did the CPE develop these "leading questions"?

JP: CPE members reviewed the Competencies and identified keywords and points that would make good questions and get members thinking about the language. They also used keywords and concepts from what was specifically discussed on the Law [Libraries and] Librarians Ning.

LLB: What were the CPE’s major findings from the listserv discussion?

JP: The committee is still in the process of evaluating the comments. However, based on the listserv discussion, the existing Competencies appear to have been well written and many found them to still be relevant. There is no indication that members are asking for a major overhaul of the Competencies. CPE will be recommending minor language changes and possibly adding to the Competencies on skills that are also prevalent in our profession today.

LLB: What if anything most surprised you and/or the committee about the Competencies listserv discussion?

JP: When you do a listserv discussion, you hope that people will participate. The amount of people who signed up for this discussion and actively participated was a good surprise for the committee. CPE received a lot of really good, well-thought [out] comments that will be helpful as we go through the review process.

LLB: What are the next steps in the Competencies revision process, and what are the dates of upcoming important events in that process?

JP: CPE would like to continue the discussion on the Competencies and hear from law librarians who are interested but did not have a chance to contribute in the listserv discussion. CPE is offering another opportunity to discuss the Competencies on the AALL Tools for Success in Today's Economy wiki. . Members can post their comments and suggestions on the wiki as we continue the review process of the Competencies. Members are also encouraged to contact the CPE Chair or any CPE [] memberif they would like to discuss the Competencies. [Professor April Schwartz will become CPE Chair as of July 29.—Editor’s note.] Suggestions and comments will be accepted until the beginning of August.  CPE will review all the comments, recommend any changes, and submit them to the [AALL] Board for approval. The committee would like to see this review process completed by Spring 2010.

LLB: When do you expect a draft of the revised Competencies to be available to the AALL membership?

JP: We are unsure when a draft will be available. CPE hopes to take advantage of the wiki that is on AALLNET by posting [the committee’s] progress on there so that people can monitor and comment.  Members are also encouraged to check the CPE website for updates. To view the current Competencies, go to http://aallnet.org/prodev/competencies.asp.

LLB: Julie, many thanks for taking time to speak with us, and thanks to you and the CPE members for your great work on the Competencies, a very important resource for our profession.  We encourage AALL members to post their comments on the Competencies on the AALL Tools for Success in Today's Economy wiki.

[Robert C. Richards]

Transparency Lite at Launch of Data.gov

Last week, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, announced the launch of a new initiative to open government, WhiteHouse.gov/Open [video on Administration's Open Government Blog]. With the announcement comes the long anticipated Data.gov website. "The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government." See Personal Democracy Forum's coverage, White House Opens Doors on Major Open Government Initiative.

Data.gov includes a searchable data catalog that includes access to data in two ways: through the "raw" data catalog and using tools provided by the site. Note well, you have to agree to the site's Data Policy. See also the site's tutorial.

According to ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick, "the initial offering is a bit of a let down." Wired's Alexis Madrigal concurs, "Data.gov launched ... with 47 datasets from across the government. ... That’s a tiny fraction of the Feds’ gargantuan information stores, and the site is clearly in beta, but open-government advocates see the new site as a sign of good things to come for government transparency." [JH]