Short Takes On The News

The New York Law Journal is reporting that a federal judge refused to allow Chase Bank to serve a defendant via Facebook.  The rationale is that there is no guarantee that the person holding the profile is the person in question, or if that person, will even see the service.  The judge directed service by publication in areas where the person in question has maintained addresses.  The case, ironically, involves identity theft where a daughter is alleged to have stolen her mother’s identity and fraudulently opened credit card accounts in her mother’s name.  Service by publication may be just as iffy in whether a defendant will see the notice, but at least it is authorized by the New York Civil Practice Law.  If publication is viable under those circumstances, why not publish and send notice via email or Facebook?

The Boston Globe is reporting that the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Law was given provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association.  The school could receive full accreditation if it remains standards compliant for the next three years. 

In the say-it-ain’t-so category, the Telegraph is reporting that the Bodleian Library at Oxford is considering lending books for the first time in its existence.  The History Faculty Library is moving into the Bodleian via merger, prompting the policy review.  The very idea has stirred up a heated controversy with traditionalists firmly against the idea, at least if the quotes in the Telegraph are accurate. 

Dr. William Poole, a tutor in English at New College stated “It is worth asking how we propose to charge £9,000 a year when we'll just lend out books to whoever, so that students can't read what they have been invited to read.”  I imagine that Dr. Poole made the statement with all the indignation that Graham Chapman used to muster when he played the put-upon Englishman.  Examples are here.  Lend books to “whoever” indeed.  I can imagine a student saying "I pay £9,000 a year in tuition and I can't borrow a bloody book!"  

Finally, Bloomberg Businessweek profiles the argument style of Justice Scalia when policies of the Obama administration are involved in the case.  The profile suggests that Justice Scalia has a political axe to grind and uses examples from environmental and health care cases to make the point.  Really?  And the magazine just noticed this after Justice Scalia’s 26 years on the Court?  While we’re on the subject, the ABA Journal lists the high profile decisions that await release by the end of the current term.  [MG]