Moritz Legal Information Blog

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.