In his memorandum of March 19, 2009 to heads of executive departments and agencies, Attorney General Holder rescinds former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s October 12, 2001 memorandum which states that records could be witheld by the Department of Justice “unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an…
Book Review by David Badertscher* March 6, 2009. The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice Antioio Cassese, Editor in Chief Oxford University Press 2009 Book Review: The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice Antonio Cassese, General Editor. Oxford University Press, 2009. When Antonio Cassese, Professor of International Law at the…
DAVID BADERTSCHER Tomorrow is Lincoln’s birthday; it is also the 200th anniversary of his birth, all of which calls for a special celebration of the life, works, and thought of such an inspiring individual. Our current President has said that he has found the thoughts and deeds of Abraham Lincoln…
I was going to post something about the comparative funding levels between the House and Senate versions of the stimulus legislation, but have just learned that ProPublica has already done so on their blog. Congratulations to ProPublica for a really good posting. Here is the link. http://www.propublica.org/special/the-stimulus-bills-house-vs.-senate
A Report of the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform, dated January 30, 2009 and released on February 3, 2009. The Report, Future of Sentencing in New York State, calls for reforms to New York Stae drug laws; determinate sentencing, graduated and sanctions for parole violators are among the…
The above titled January 27, 2009 article by John Markoff, published in the New York Times is relevant because it discusses digitization, preservation and authentication of records (and by extension information) in terms of continuously preserving these qualities in an authentic state as the underlying technology constantly changes or “shifts”…
State of New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library (New York County) Inspired by the recent New York Unified Court System Report Green Justice: An environmental Action Plan for the New York State Court System*, the New York Supreme Court Law Library, Criminal Term (New York County) is pleased to…
On December 22, 2008 we posted a list of House committee assignments preferred by many freshman in the 111th congress. Although we have heard nothing more about House commitee assignments, we have heard from the Senate. Senate Majority Harry Reid has announced a partial list of the committee assignments he…
At the beginning of 2007, the steering committee of OpenTheGovernment.org put a spotlignt on the importance of developing recommendations for the next administration and Congress to strengthen government transparency. OMB Watch agreed to spearhead such a project and to work with the OpenTheGovernment.org coalition and others including the AALL Government…
One of the historic functions of libraries has been preserving and providing access to information in various media. In many ways, digitization of information has positively altered the information landscape. However, with the dynamic nature of such information, vital information preservation issues arise. In a timely September 13, 2008, New…