CRS Legal Sidebar via LC – Can the President Close the Border? Relevant Laws and Considerations, April 12, 2019: “Does the executive branch have authority to “close” the southern border? Recently, President Trump declared that he would order the closure of the U.S.-Mexico border or at least “large sections” of it, unless Mexico acts to… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
F-words and T-shirts – SCOTUS weighs foul language trademarks
Reuters – (Editor’s note: contains language that some readers may find offensive, paragraphs 2, 13, 14, 16, 19, 22 and 23) “In the staid world of the U.S. Supreme Court, where decorum and etiquette are prized and silence is enforced by court police, the F-word could create quite a stir. Yet that expletive and others… Continue Reading
The Power of Judicial Review
In Custodia Legis: The following is a guest post by Janeen Williams, a Legal Reference Specialist with the Public Services Division of the Law Library of Congress. “The federal judiciary has the authority to review actions of the legislative and executive branches to verify that they comport with the Constitution see Marbury v. Madison). However,… Continue Reading
How the Law Can Boost Recession Recovery
Knowledge@Wharton – “In the Great Recession, the two key tools for rescuing the economy — fiscal and monetary policy — had big limitations, according to Yair Listokin, author of a new book: Law and Macroeconomics: Legal Remedies to Recessions. The big increases in government spending needed to get the economy cooking again were mostly a… Continue Reading
Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Transcripts, As Data
R Street: “We have created a new resource for those who want to learn more about Supreme Court confirmation hearings. This spreadsheet—and a web version (displayed below)—contain the text of every Supreme Court confirmation hearing for which Senate Judiciary Committee transcripts are available (beginning in 1971 with hearings for Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist and… Continue Reading
Harvard Caselaw Access Project Search
“Today we’re launching CAP search, a new interface to search data made available as part of the Caselaw Access Project API. Since releasing the CAP API in Fall 2018, this is our first try at creating a more human-friendly way to start working with this data. CAP search supports access to 6.7 million cases from… Continue Reading
40 years of major trials through the eyes of preeminent courtroom artist
Topic Magazine – For 45 years, courtroom artist Marilyn Church has captured the legal drama of everyone from John Gotti to Martha Stewart—and even one Donald J. Trump. Continue Reading
CRS – Free Speech and the Regulation of Social Media Conteny
Free Speech and the Regulation of Social Media Content. March 27, 2019 – “As the Supreme Court has recognized, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have become important venues for users to exercise free speech rights protected under the First Amendment. Commentators and legislators, however, have questioned whether these social media platforms are living up… Continue Reading
Source – Our Search for the Best OCR Tool, and What We Found
“Source is an OpenNews project designed to amplify the impact of journalism code and the community of developers, designers, journalists, and editors w”ho make it.” Our Search for the Best OCR Tool, and What We Found: A side-by-side comparison of seven OCR tools using multiple kinds of documents, from Factful – There are a lot of OCR… Continue Reading
New York City’s Bail Success Story
The Marshall Project – Judges have drastically cut back on bail and jail in criminal cases, a new study shows. And defendants are still showing up in court. “..Yet a new report analyzing more than 5 million criminal cases in New York City since 1987 suggests the city has already done a better job of… Continue Reading
The Evolution of Law Libraries
Harvard University Law School Center on the Legal Profession – The Practice, The Evolution of Law Libraries Volume 5 • Issue 3 • March/April 2019 The Harvard Library Innovation Lab Embracing change in law and libraries. Making the Law Computable The Caselaw Access Project. Pausing the Internet How Perma.cc is trying to fix legal citations. Sketching the Future Discovering… Continue Reading
The Sentencing Project 2018 Annual Report
“Criminal justice reform is a challenging undertaking, but if we take the long view we can recognize that success is possible, even if incremental at times. This was the story of reform in 2018, a year in which we saw significant gains in sentencing policy and public understanding of mass incarceration.Most prominent, of course, was… Continue Reading
