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Category Archives: Courts

Supreme Court and Law Enforcement Access to Cell Phone Location Data

EFF: “Protecting the highly personal location data stored on or generated by digital devices is one of the 21st century’s most important privacy issues. In 2017, the Supreme Court finally took on the question of how law enforcement can get ahold of this sensitive information…EFF filed briefs both encouraging the court to take the case… Continue Reading

Paper – A Logic for Statutes

Lawsky, Sarah B., A Logic for Statutes (December 14, 2017). Florida Tax Review, Forthcoming; Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 17-28. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3088206 “Case-based reasoning is, without question, a puzzle. When students are taught to “think like lawyers” in their first year of law school, they are taught case-based common-law reasoning. Books on… Continue Reading

New York State Courts Announce High-Tech Courtrooms

National Center for State Courts – “A state-of-the-art courtroom designed to speed the progress of complex commercial cases is now up and running in Westchester County Supreme Court’s Commercial Division, which serves as a forum for the resolution of complicated business disputes. The Division’s Integrated Courtroom Technology (ICT) part, located in Westchester County’s Supreme and… Continue Reading

Court case documents more than decade long litigation over Texas property seized for border wall

United States of America v. 15.919 Acres of Land (More or Less) by Susie Cagle, Special to ProPublica. December 20, 2017.  This story was co-published with the Texas Tribune.  [A fine example of a graphic narrative – well done – succinct – direct – and understandable.] “In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security began building… Continue Reading

Open Data for Case Law: A Digital Republic for Predictable and Attractive Legal Rules

Dahmani, Maher and Vermeille, Sophie, Open Data for Case Law: A Digital Republic for Predictable and Attractive Legal Rules (September 13, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3084841 “The “Lemaire Act” for a Digital Republic, dated October 7, 2016, establishes two new default principles with respect to government data and public court opinions – with the enactment… Continue Reading

ABA issues ethical guidance on when judges should use the internet for independent factual research

“The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility has issued Formal Opinion 478  that provides the nation’s judicial branch guidance related to the ethical boundaries of independent factual research on the internet. The guidance is consistent with the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct, but notes that judicial notice is governed by… Continue Reading

Crowdsourcing Accurately and Robustly Predicts Supreme Court Decisions

Crowdsourcing Accurately and Robustly Predicts Supreme Court Decisions — By Daniel Martin Katz, Michael Bommarito, Josh Blackman – via SSRN “ABSTRACT:  Scholars have increasingly investigated “crowdsourcing” as an alternative to expert-based judgment or purely data-driven approaches to predicting the future. Under certain conditions, scholars have found that crowd-sourcing can outperform these other approaches. However, despite… Continue Reading

American Bar Association focus of attacks in efforts to approve unqualified judges

Politico: “Senate Republicans have declared war on the American Bar Association. Since 1953, the venerable legal organization has played a critical, behind-the-scenes role in assessing judicial nominees and their fitness to serve on the bench.But with the ABA emerging as a major stumbling block in President Donald Trump’s effort to transform the courts, the GOP… Continue Reading

Federal Weapons Prosecutions Rise for Third Consecutive Year

TRAC: “The latest case-by-case records from the Justice Department covering all of FY 2017 indicate that federal criminal prosecutions for weapons offenses grew by 10.8 percent over the levels seen during FY 2016. This is the third year in a row to see an increase in federal weapons prosecutions. Prosecutions during FY 2016 had risen… Continue Reading

Court Recognizes First Amendment Right to Anonymity Even After Speakers Lose Lawsuits

Aaron Mackey – EFF: “Anonymous online speakers may be able to keep their identities secret even after they lose lawsuits brought against them, a federal appellate court ruled last week. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Signature Management Team, LLC v. John Doe is a victory for online… Continue Reading

Law on the Market? Abnormal Stock Returns and Supreme Court Decision-Making

Law on the Market? Abnormal Stock Returns and Supreme Court Decision-Making. Daniel Martin Katz, Michael J. Bommarito II, Tyler Soellinger, James Ming Chen. Illinois Institute of Technology – Chicago Kent College of Law, CodeX – The Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. Michigan State University College of Law. May 16, 2017. “What happens when the Supreme… Continue Reading