In Custodia Legis: “The Law Library of Congress, in collaboration with the Library of Congress Web Archiving Team, is excited to announce the release of a new web archive, The United States Supreme Court Nominations Web Archive. This archive collection consists of blogs, academic articles, congressional press releases, and media articles related to the nominations… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
‘OK, Boomer’ makes a Supreme Court appearance in age case
AP: ““OK, Boomer” made its first appearance in the Supreme Court Wednesday, invoked by baby boomer Chief Justice John Roberts 12 days before he turns 65. The meme is a favorite of younger generations and Roberts used it in questions in a case about age discrimination in the workplace. “The hiring person, who’s younger, says,… Continue Reading
Trump impeachment trial: legacy of judicial independence at stake
The Christian Science Monitor – As Roberts enters fray, legacy of judicial independence at stake – Why We Wrote This: “Presiding over an impeachment trial, Chief Justice John Roberts will seek to embody the judicial independence he often promotes. But the remainder of the Supreme Court term may be a tougher test…For an institutionalist like… Continue Reading
EFF Asks Supreme Court To Reverse Dangerous Rulings About API Copyrightability and Fair Use
EFF: “Washington D.C.—The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that functional aspects of Oracle’s Java programming language are not copyrightable, and even if they were, employing them to create new computer code falls under fair use protections. The court is reviewing a long-running lawsuit Oracle filed against Google, which… Continue Reading
Technology Can’t Fix Algorithmic Injustice
Boston Review:”…Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates have all publicly expressed their concerns about the advent of this kind of “strong” (or “general”) AI—and the associated existential risk that it may pose for humanity. In Hawking’s words, the development of strong AI “could spell the end of the human race.”…These are legitimate long-term worries.… Continue Reading
Dictionaries and the Law
Davis, Laurel, “Dictionaries and the Law” (2019). Rare Book Room Exhibition Programs. 33. “Exhibition program from a Spring 2019 exhibit presented in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room at the Boston College Law Library. The exhibit focused on the history of legal dictionaries published over the last 500 years.” “The law is a profession… Continue Reading
Will Artificial Intelligence Eat the Law? The Rise of Hybrid Social-Ordering Systems
Wu, Tim, Will Artificial Intelligence Eat the Law? The Rise of Hybrid Social-Ordering Systems (August 25, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3492846 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3492846 “Software has partially or fully displaced many former human activities, such as catching speeders or flying airplanes, and proven itself able to surpass humans in certain contests, like Chess and Jeopardy. What… Continue Reading
Judge backs Reveal’s suit to end secrecy around Silicon Valley’s diversity
Reveal: “A federal judge on Tuesday struck down attempts by the U.S. Department of Labor and several major Silicon Valley firms to keep companies’ staff diversity numbers secret, siding with the argument made by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting that the records are not confidential business information. Magistrate Judge Kandis A. Westmore of… Continue Reading
Robert Mueller’s Secret Memos Part 3
Jason Leopold via BuzzFeedNews – The Documents The Justice Department Didn’t Want Congress To See – “BuzzFeed News sued the US government for the right to see all the work that Robert Mueller’s team kept secret. Today we are publishing the third installment of the FBI’s summaries of interviews with key witnesses…BuzzFeed News has obtained some… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 29, 2019
Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 29, 2019 – Four highlights from this week: What You’re Unwrapping When You Get a DNA Test for Christmas; Ring and Amazon sued in federal court over security concerns; Smart Home Tech, Police, and Your Privacy: Year in Review 2019; and Fake… Continue Reading
Protecting the Legal Foundation of the Internet: 2019 in Review
EFF: “When someone says something unlawful online, they should be the one held responsible for it, not the website or platform where they said it. Section 230—the most important law protecting free speech online—reflects that common-sense principle. This year, EFF defended Section 230 in Congress, the courts, and on the Internet…” Continue Reading
Emojis Have Unsettled Grammar Rules
…and Why Lawyers Should Care – Eric Goldman – “A new article by three Dutch researchers sheds some fascinating light on the grammar of emojis, or more precisely, the lack thereof. Their abstract concludes: “while emoji may follow tendencies in their interactions with grammatical structure in multimodal text-emoji productions, they lack grammatical structure on their… Continue Reading
