Moritz Legal Information Blog

Love Pandora for finding music? Try BookLamp , home of the Book Genome Project. To Kill a Mockingbird inspired you to go to law school? BookLamp gives you almost fifty comparables with varying degrees of similar elements to To Kill a Mockingbird so you can make your next reading selection. (And we probably have many of these titles in our collection here at Moritz or we can get you a copy within just a few days!) BookLamp can also be used for buying gifts: if you know your mom LOVES Stephen King's It , you can easily search for similar titles making holiday shopping a breeze.

Mere days ago, we posted about ongoing litigation related to the vague admission fee policy of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Now, an update : Clarifying four decades of legal vagueness, the Bloomberg administration has amended New York City’s lease with the Metropolitan Museum of Art , spelling out that the Met is allowed to charge a suggested admission fee, as the museum has done since 1971 under an agreement with the city. The amendment adds that fees for special exhibitions may also be charged, a widespread practice in the art world but something the museum decided against in the 1980s. According to the New York Times, It is unclear what the amended lease will mean for the lawsuits — one of which says that the museum deceives its visitors and is guilty of fraud, and the other a class-action suit seeking recompense for people who claim that they were duped by the policy. Arnold M. Weiss, a lawyer for the plaintiffs in both cases, was highly critical of the city and t

Two Native American men recently wed in Oklahoma, a state with a constitution that bans same-sex marriage. The two men were married under tribal law. According to an article on Slate.com , "[S]tates have virtually no civil jurisdiction within tribal territories. There are a few exceptions, but domestic relations isn’t one of them." So, the marriage is recognized by the tribe, by the federal government since the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was ruled unconstitutional, and by other states that recognize same-sex marriage. The marriage, however, will not be recognized by the state of Oklahoma. For up-to-date info on the legal status of same-sex marriage around the United States, check out our research guide . We also have dozens of books on the subject.

Find the answer in this online article from the Washington State Bar Association.

Although this November’s election is an off-year vote, some important issues will appear on Ohio ballots, including several judicial seats .   Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, among others, argues against electing judges , claiming that such elections “ create the impression, rightly or wrongly, that judges are accountable to money and special interests, not the law.”   That argument has not swayed the state of Ohio.   Our Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor has, however, argued for reforming the judicial election process.   As the Columbus Dispatch explains, her ideas include increasing qualifications for judges and making the primaries nonpartisan.   Justice O’Connor’s complete proposal is presented here . If you’re curious about arguments in favor of judicial election, check out our title, In Defense of Judicial Elections .  

How many times have your ignored the liability waiver you sign when you register for a fun run? Did you know you might be agreeing the race organization will have no liability whatsoever for any injury? In effect, you may be signing a " death waiver ." Companies producing events like Tough Mudder are facing increased scrutiny over safety practices in light of recent injuries and even deaths. But if a participant signed a waiver (that he or she may not have read), he or she may be out of luck if injured. Worst case scenario: the surviving family members may have no recourse in the event the participant dies. But waivers aren't just an issue for obstacle races. They arise in the elementary and middle school settings as well. A recent article by the Washington State Bar Association explores the myriad releases, permissions, and waivers parents of school children (and school children themselves!) are asked to sign each year. Are these contracts binding and enforceable? 

From the New York Times : Two members of the Metropolitan Museum of Art have sued the museum, contending that it misleads the public into thinking that its admission fees – $25 for adults, and less for seniors and students – are mandatory and not simply suggested. (The museum’s original lease with the city specified that it had to be accessible free of charge several days of the week, but the museum says that changes in city policy in the 1970s allowed it to institute a voluntary admission fee.) We've written previously about finding old New York Law; perhaps the Hall of Records is just the place to look if you have to track down the museum's old contracts with the city. Interested in tracking the litigation? Go to Bloomberg Law, select the tab "Litigation and Dockets," and in the search boxes choose "All New York State Court Dockets" for "Courts" and type the plaintiff name "Grunewald" as a party option. Your first search result w

Like Judge Richard A. Posner , many of you may view the Bluebook as a “monstrous growth,” one that recalls “Mr. Kurtz’s dying words in Heart of Darkness – “‘The horror! The horror!’”   Deciphering whether to put a space between F. and 3d, figuring out when to use signals, and the like have probably puzzled law students and practitioners since the Bluebook ’s first edition in 1926 .   A new edition, the 20th, is in the works.   And you have an opportunity to give feedback to help improve this complex citation manual.   Fill out the survey here , and in addition to making your mark on legal citation history, you may win a Kindle Paperwhite e-reader and, even better, your very own copy of the new, improved edition!

If the federal shutdown continues, federal courts will have to triage cases, hearing only those they are constitutionally obligated to hear. It sounds grim, but it seems to be the case that federal courts have been operating on a slim budget for quite a while. "Following sequestration last March, $350 million was stripped from the courts’ budget ," says Slate.com. This is the case in spite of rising caseloads. For more, read Slate.com's full article here .

A librarian saves the day! One of the hardworking librarians at Rutgers-Camden just posted a video response to that common One L question: “How many cases should I cite?” In the video, the librarian chose to answer the real question students were asking –  “What tools do I have to assess the thoroughness of my research?” The best news of all? It's just three minutes long. h/t: Sarah Ricks at Rutgers

Who doesn't love Halloween candy , pumpkin chucking , and  vintage Halloween costumes ? And Halloween humor from professors? Wait, what? They haven't started in on that yet? Well here are a few links to get you prepped for class: Stambovsky v. Ackley Ghostbusters and False Imprisonment Halloween Law (available through OhioLINK) Halloween and the Law

From the beSpacific blog  comes news that only 2% of U.S. counties are responsible for the majority of death penalty cases. The blog post concerns a report created by the Death Penalty Information Center, the author of which states "Eighty-five percent of the counties in the U.S. have not had a single case resulting in an execution in over 45 years." While the report may be factually accurate, as a researcher you should be wary of the conclusions to be drawn from the data. For example, the percentage could indicate crimes warranting death penalties occur more frequently in those counties. In the alternative, the concentration could reflect charging practices of prosecutors in those counties. Want to learn more? Grab a copy of The Interpretation of Data .

A few months ago, a small town in Georgia made a change to its local ordinances reflecting the fact that though Americans have a right to bear arms , they also have a right not to bear arms. Ever wonder what to make of gun laws, bullets, and ballistics from a practical perspective? We have a number of books (both in print and electronic) in the law library on ballistics and evidence. Also, give a look to this compelling photo blog of the cross section of ammunition.

Six years ago, we posted about a lawsuit in which a student sued a university over dissatisfaction with the grading curve. Did Mr. Marquis appeal? To find out, log in to Bloomberg Law . Under the Litigation and Dockets tab, select "Docket Search." In the party fields, enter Marquis and Massachusetts, and select the radio button " All of the following." Then see whether you can find any appellate cases between these parties. If you try the links in that post from 2007, you may notice the Boston Globe story is no longer freely available. We have online access available to the Boston Globe for the date of the story in question . You could also use the Wayback Machine on Internet Archive. Simply click on the story link in the old blog post. Next, copy and paste it into the Wayback Machine and hit enter. This is a great workaround for many of those pesky broken links you might stumble across now and then.

October 1 typically marks the beginning of a new federal fiscal year.   This year, however, it marks the beginning of a federal government shutdown.   Many websites offer lists of impacts in light of the shutdown (see the Washington Post , for example).   The shutdown is already affecting legal research.   The website of the Library of Congress are not accessible, except for legislative information on Thomas.gov and its successor site congress.gov .   Researchers cannot access the research guides, digital collections, or the library catalog, for example, removing a free, authoritative information source from their repertories.   This internet glitch underscores potential instabilities in the world of online research.   One more reason to learn a bit about print research!    As we have discussed before , print still matters!