Tips for 1-Ls

Tips for 1Ls From Around the Blogosphere

Challenge to West/Lexis Dominance?

Robert Ambrogi's post, Crashing the Wexis Gate, and WSJ Law Blog post, Coming Soon: More Publishers of Court Rulings?, both discuss Carl Malamud's recent letter to West concerning West's control of the country's case law.

AG Candidates

WSJ Law Blog has a list of possible candidates for U.S. Attorney General.

Most Commonly Misspelled Phrases

UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh has an interesting post on his blog warning law students about the use of commonly misspelled phrases. Professor Volokh mentions "all intensive purposes", "baited breath", "tough road to hoe" and "free reign". I believe I have the right to remain silent as to my participation in these crimes against English. This topic reminded me about Washington State University English Professor Paul Brians' excellent Common Errors in English Usage Website.

Students Can Now Download Audio Files of Cases

Interesting in listening to a court case while on the elliptical machine or driving to school?

The Library has subscribed to the AudioCaseFiles service. AudioCaseFiles contains downloadable audio files of court opinions and podcasts from law professors and law students. The website contains cases from many 1L classes along with some 2L and 3L subjects. To use this service, simply go to the AudioCaseFiles website (http://www.audiocasefiles.com/) and "Sign Up for An Account." Just be sure to use your OSU e-mail address(.osu.edu) when you sign up.

WikiScanner

Many people have long suspected that corporations, special interest groups and others edit Wikipedia articles anonymously. Now there's proof. WikiScanner "traces millions of Wikipedia entries to their corporate sources, and for the first time puts comprehensive data behind longstanding suspicions of manipulation, which until now have surfaced only piecemeal in investigations of specific allegations."

Read the Wired article about WikiScanner.

From TVC.

Congressional Record on HeinOnline

HeinOnline is going to be adding the Congressional Record, and related documents, to its online library.

Via DePaul Law Library blog.

Firm Librarians Like Jobs, But Not Vendors

An article from LawFirmInc. (available via Law.com) discusses its recent survey of law firm librarians. Summary: Jobs Good, Vendors Bad.

Legal Conference Watch

The Gallagher Law Library at the University of Washington School of Law have created a Legal Conference Watch Blog, to help faculty keep aware of upcoming conferences.

1-L Reading: How to Read Legal Opinions

1-L's should consider reading George Washington University Law Professor Orin Kerr's How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students.

The European Library

The European Library is the web project of 47 participating European national libraries. The website, available in 20 languages, allows users to search through the resources of 30 of the 47 national libraries involved in the project. Resources can be both digital or bibliographical (books, posters, maps, sound recordings, videos, etc.). Currently The European Library gives access to 150 million entries across Europe.

From beSpacific.

New Mega-Search Gov Docs Database

WisBlawg tells us about LOUIS, the New Mega Search Gov Docs Database.

The End of TimesSelect?

TimesSelect Watch: Yes, No, Maybe Redux: NYP Says Yes (from Forbes.com)

Via TVC.

Tonight on C-Span: Justice Alito and Carter Phillips

Tonight on C-Span: Justice Alito and Carter Phillips! (from WSJ Law Blog).

The Billable Hour Must Die

Lawyer/author Scott Turrow thinks so.

From Concurring Opinions.

Law Professor Blogger Census (2007 Version)

The 2007 version of George Washington University Law Professor Daniel Solove's census is now available.

Contentious Decision: Strickland Veto Invalid

The Ohio Supreme Court issued its decision yesterday in State ex rel. Ohio Gen. Assembly v. Brunner, 2007-Ohio-3780 (PDF). The Court determined that Governor Strickland's veto of a bill enacted during the final days of the 2006 Ohio General Assembly session was invalid. The Court's 5-2 decision was unusually contentious. The Court's press release describes the contention:

Pointing to past state and federal court decisions that he said have
consistently tied the start of a governor's ten-day review period to the date a bill is presented for his approval, Justice Pfeifer wrote:

“The majority today allows the General Assembly, through the manipulation of its adjournment, to effectively render a governor's veto power a nullity.... The majority defies common sense, the Ohio Constitution, the jurisprudence of the United States Supreme Court and the supreme courts of other states, and this court's own prior “unmistakably clear” interpretation of the very same constitutional provision that is at issue today. The majority has achieved a new level of judicial activism -- a wholesale rewriting of the Ohio Constitution. And all the General Assembly had to do was ask.”

“Why is the majority deciding this way today? I do not know. In the ultimate display of result-oriented justice, its reasoning shifts. From the day of oral argument, the unfolding of the majority opinion has been the story of a result in search of a justification and an author,” Justice Pfeifer wrote.

Justice Maureen O'Connor entered an opinion concurring in the majority judgment and syllabus and taking exception to language in Justice Pfeifer's dissent that she said amounted to an “improper accusation that the majority has not decided this case of first impression with honesty and integrity.... The dissent states that our holding in this case was reached in a result-driven process that was started on the day the case was argued and that has been fueled by political considerations since then. Nothing could be farther from the truth.” Justice O'Connor asserted that the multiple concurring and dissenting opinions entered by different justices in the case “suggests, quite strongly, that the members of this court are not of one mind—or persuasion.”

“When judges and justices engage in robust discussion in furtherance of the search for consensus, we are rightfully expected by the people who elect us to act with respect and courtesy. In turn, we have often called upon attorneys to practice their profession with civility,” wrote Justice O'Connor. “Although civility is an amorphous concept in legal arenas, at a minimum it suggests proceeding without insult and ad hominem attacks when discussing those who hold an opposite view. Unfortunately, Justice Pfeifer disregards the same civility he once espoused in favor of a dissent filled with sarcastic scurrility.”

Who's Paying for Your Senator's Trip?

LegisStorm's Congressional Travel Database is intended to make government more transparent by providing information about the specifics of privately financed congressional trips. From the site:

LegiStorm's congressional travel database provides details on 27,102 privately financed trips costing $57.1 million taken by members of Congress and their staff since the beginning of 2000. This information was obtained from the disclosure forms members of Congress and their staff are required to file after taking a privately-funded trip. From these disclosures you can learn:

• Who has accepted free travel
• Where they went and the purpose of the trip
• How much was spent on transportation, lodging, meals and other expenses
• And what private organization paid for it all

With LegiStorm's congressional travel database you can get even more. Use the icon to get details about any trip. You'll find records of everyone else who went on the trip, a map detailing where they stayed, a breakdown of how much they spent on transportation versus meals and lodging, a place for you to leave comments and much more.

From Valpo Law Blawg and beSpacific.

The American Lawyer Annual Survey

The American Lawyer Annual Survey results are out. The survey measures "the satisfaction of midlevel associates employed by the nation's top law firm's."