Moritz Legal Information Blog

Some new Congressional Research Service ("CRS") Reports have been made available. The Reports cover a wide-range of topics, including: Treasury's Terrorist Finance Program's Access to Information Held by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) India-Iran Relations and U.S. Interests The Department of Defense Rules for Military Commissions: Analysis of Procedural Rules and Comparison with Proposed Legislation and the Uniform Code of Military Justice Israeli-Arab Negotiations: Background, Conflicts, and U.S. Policy European Approaches to Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Trends in Terrorism: 2006 Iran's Nuclear Program: Recent Developments Recreation on Federal Lands Gasoline Prices: New Legislation and Proposals For a more complete list of recent CRS Reports, check out Open CRS .

The Concurring Opinions blog has compiled a nice list of lateral law faculty moves that occurred in 2006. From WSJ Law Blog .

Recent OSU-Law grad Ian Best has some advice for new 2-Ls . If you have not yet checked out Ian's blog, 3L Epiphany , you should.

Sara Sampson, reference librarian at the Moritz Library, is leaving us to take the Head of Reference position at the Georgetown Law Library . We will greatly miss her knowledge, experience and friendship, but we are happy for the exciting opportunities Sara's new position will provide for her. Fortunately, in today's modern world, she will remain only an e-mail or a phone call away. Good luck, Sara. ...but the Blog must go on.

The City of Chicago has recently banned city restaurants from selling foie gras, the fattened liver of ducks or geese. The ban is the result of complaints that the production of foie gras is not humane. The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog reports that litigation has ensued with the Illinois Restaurant Association and Allen’s New American Café, a Chicago restaurant, filing a complaint asserting that the Chicago ban is illegal. The claim, which municipal lawyers will be familiar with, is that the state constitution only permits municipalities to legislate regarding local problems and not activities that are more properly dealt with by the state. Stay tuned.

Judge Ann Diggs Taylor from the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, has just issued a decision striking down the NSA Wiretapping Program. The decision can be read here . An appeal is expected.

The best advice that I can give to 1-Ls about law school, very similar to Professor Brannon Denning's advice , is to treat your first year of law school like a job (rather than the third semester of your senior year). Plan on spending your days doing school work, but save time in the evenings and the weekend to spend with family and friends. Make productive use of the gaps in your class schedule, work hard, then go home and relax. There is no shortage of advice for incoming law students. 1-Ls should check out the advice links on the Heafey Headnotes blog and on CALI's PreLaw Blog . There is nothing like your first year of law school. It's new, exciting, stimulating, challenging - it's the best of times (and sometimes the worst of times). Try to enjoy it; you'll only do it once. Thanks to ZiefBrief and Law Dawg Blawg for the good information.

Orin Kerr, associate professor of law at George Washington University Law School, has written an essay, How to Read a Judicial Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students . The essay explains "what judicial opinions are, how they are structured, and what you should look for when you read them." From Law Dawg Blawg .

The Library of Congress has just announced the release of the June/July issue of the Global Legal Monitor. The PDF document can be accessed here . From the ALL-SIS Listserv .

From the Greater Ohio website : Ohio’s legislative task force on eminent domain has come out with a detailed list of recommendations that will likely be addressed by the Legislature after this fall’s election. Some say the changes are sweeping — in part as a result of the Ohio Supreme Court decision in Norwood v. Horney, which declared use of eminent domain for the sole purpose of economic development in violation of Ohio’s constitution.... The Eminent Domain Task Force was formed to study eminent domain and its use and application in the state, in light of the Kelo v. City of New London Supreme Court decision. From Cleveland Law Library Weblog .

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney wrote an article last year in the Los Angeles Lawyer magazine about courtroom etiquette. Most of the tips in the article are common sense; however, common sense can fly out the window when new attorneys attempt to navigate the unfamiliar and sometimes stressful confines of a courtroom. From Santa Clara Heafey Headnotes .

A nice article recently appeared in Legal Times dicussing the value of print resources in legal research. No surprise - print materials are often more helpful than their online counterparts. From Novalawcity .

From the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia : The following web pages link to all 1,202 exhibits admitted into evidence during the trial of U.S. v. Moussaoui, with the exception of seven that are classified or otherwise remain under seal. This is the first criminal case for which a federal court has provided access to all exhibits online. The exhibits were posted on July 31, 2006. Prosecution trial exhibits can be viewed here . Defense exhibits can be found here . From beSpacific .

" The Supreme Court of Ohio has adopted new professional conduct rules for attorneys that provide greater protection for clients' rights and help ensure the professional delivery of legal services ." Some of the changes cover enhanced communications with clients, more detailed record-keeping, and client confidentiality. The full version of the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct and other related documents can be viewed here .