Articles Posted in Commentary and Opinion

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OVERVIEW:

In their opinion feature “‘The wrong hill to die on’: 3 writers discuss the government shutdown”, Benjy Sarlin (Assignment Editor), Robert Gebelhoff (Editorial Board), and James Hohmann (Deputy Opinion Editor) dissect the unfolding government shutdown standoff. The authors explore the tug of war between Democrats’ demand to extend health care subsidies and Republicans’ insistence on passing a clean continuing resolution,  all while President Donald Trump threatens to fire rather than furlough federal workers. The Washington Post

Together, they engage in a frank conversation about whether Democrats have picked the wrong political battlefield, who currently holds leverage, and how the high stakes of this shutdown could reshape the broader narrative over health care and governance.

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The purpose of this framework is to provide guidance to SLA Community leadership and members as SLA moves towards dissolution and merger with ASIS&T (Association for Information Science and Technology)*

INTRODUCTION:

On August 21, 2025 SLA and ASIS&T announced the approval of the merger by both association memberships. Uniting SLA Communities with ASIS&T Chapters and Special Interest Groups (SIGs) is one important step in establishing a successful merger of SLA and ASIS&T. The purpose of this framework is to provide guidance to SLA Community leadership and members as SLA moves towards dissolution and merger with ASIS&T. This framework provides SLA members with:

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In their provocative and urgent reflection, Austin Sarat and Steve Kramer confront what they view as one of the most dire questions for America today: what happens the spectacle of a public assassination becomes another battleground for opinion and outrage? In “After the Death of Charlie Kirk, America Needs to Take a Pause,” they examine the violent death of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk not merely as an isolated tragedy, but as a moment pregnant with national significance. Drawing on historical analogies, social media analysis, and a hard-eyed reading of our polarized public sphere, they call on Americans to resist the accelerating drift from deliberation to reaction, from democracy to demonization.

Sarat, a scholar of jurisprudence and political life, and Kramer, a seasoned legal practitioner, bring complementary lenses to this inquiry. For them, the more pressing danger is not just that a life was lost, but that the social response,  rushed judgments, political exploitation, binary narratives,  may deepen fractures in a democracy already saturated with distrust. Their central claim is if we fail to slow down, to “take a pause,” we risk letting the crowd, and the algorithm, decide not only the meaning of death but the future of public life. In their posting in JUSTIA/VERDICT,  Sarat and Kramer unpack the patterns of reaction, the structural forces amplifying them, and the modest but essential act of collective restraint they urge in response.

To see Sarat and Kramer’s complete posting in JUSTIA/VERDICT, click here.

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INTRODUCTION:

The legal tech landscape is accelerating, with major announcements spanning AI, blockchain, and automation. Highlights include the American Arbitration Association’s partnership with Integra Ledger on blockchain document authentication, Thomson Reuters expanding CoCounsel and Westlaw Deep Research into law schools, law firms, law libraries and new product launches from Exterro, Quo, Tonkean, and UnitedLex. Together, these updates signal how quickly legal practice, education, and dispute resolution are being reshaped by technology.

FROM CO COUNSEL TO BLOCKCHAIN…

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Introduction

Stanford Law School has recently announced the launch of the Legal Innovation through Frontier Technology Lab (Liftlab),led by Stanford CodeX research fellow Megan Ma, who will serve as liftlab’s executive director, alongside professor of law Julian Nyarko. Liftlab ia a bold new initiative designed to explore how artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies can reshape the practice of law. Unlike earlier waves of legal technology that focused mainly on cost savings and efficiency, Liftlab has a broader ambition: to make legal services not just faster or cheaper, but better, more equitable, and more accessible.

This mission has implications well beyond law firms and classrooms. Law libraries: whether academic, government, court, firm-based, or public stand to benefit greatly from Liftlab’s research, tools, and experiments. By acting as trusted intermediaries between new technologies and legal practitioners, libraries could become vital testing grounds and educational partners in this era of transformation.

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Introduction

In a recent analysis published in Justia’s Verdict, Cornell Law professor Michael Dorf critiques two high-profile television interviews in which Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Sonia Sotomayor promoted their new books, Barrett’s constitutional memoir Listening to the Law and Sotomayor’s children’s book Just Shine. Dorf suggests that, far from reinforcing the Court’s legitimacy, these media appearances risk reducing the Justices to TV personalities and sidestepping significant concerns about the Court’s institutional health. As Listening to the Law urges readers to engage with originalism and constitutional interpretation while championing judicial modesty, Dorf argues it fails to grapple meaningfully with recent shifts in the Court’s emergency docket and broader threats to democratic norms.

Executive Summary

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Executive Summary

This article examines whether the Supreme Court’s current standards for determining competence to be executed adequately protect individuals with severe cognitive impairments and mental illnesses. While landmark decisions , Ford v. Wainwright (1986), Panetti v. Quarterman (2007), and Madison v. Alabama (2019) , established that a person must possess a rational understanding of the connection between their crime and punishment, critics argue the framework remains unclear, inconsistently applied, and insufficiently protective.

The case of Ralph Menzies, a Utah death row inmate suffering from vascular dementia, illustrates these concerns. Despite serious cognitive decline and an inability to comprehend his punishment, Utah continues to pursue his execution. The Court’s standard leaves wide discretion to the states, creating procedural disparities, frequent “battles of the experts,” and significant hurdles for inmates, who bear the burden of proving their own incompetence.

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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Center (FinCEN)”is a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The Director of FinCEN is appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury and reports to the Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. FinCEN’s mission is to safeguard the financial system from illicit activity, counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and promote national security through strategic use of financial authorities and the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence.”.

On June 25, 2025, the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed special measures under Section 9714 of the Fentanyl Sanctions Act and the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, designating three Mexico-based financial institutions, CIBanco, Intercam Banco, and Vector Casa de Bolsa , as primary money laundering concerns. The action prohibits US financial institutions from processing transmittals of funds to or from these entities, or to any account or digital asset address they administer. This marks the first use of these new authorities, aimed at disrupting financial infrastructure exploited by cartels for fentanyl trafficking and precursor procurement.

According to FinCEN’s findings, the designated institutions played a key role in laundering funds on behalf of major cartels including CJNG, the Gulf Cartel, the Beltran-Leyva Organization, and the Sinaloa Cartel. The institutions processed millions of dollars in payments to China-based suppliers of precursor chemicals used in fentanyl production. Examples include a 2023 incident in which a CIBanco employee knowingly created an account to launder USD 10 million for a Gulf Cartel member, and Intercam executives meeting with CJNG associates to design laundering schemes involving US dollar wire transfers to China. Vector was linked to over USD 2 million in laundered proceeds for the Sinaloa Cartel, and over USD 1 million in payments to Chinese chemical exporters from 2018 to 2023. From TRM Blog June 25, 2025.

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Introduction

Between now and 2030, law-librarian roles will transform rather than vanish. While routine tasks like first-pass reference triage, some technical cataloging, and current-awareness pathfinders will increasingly be automated, demand will rise for librarians with expertise in AI policy, knowledge architecture, data stewardship, research quality assurance, vendor evaluation, and legal analytics.

Institutions that pair clear AI governance, staff training, and data management will not only retain headcount but also create specialist positions, reshaping the profession.
Key sources: AALL State of the Profession 2025 · ILTA 2024 Tech Survey · ABA AI TechReport 2024 · Thomson Reuters Future of Professionals 2024 · WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025

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These News Briefs and Decision Summaries are from  the  the New Jersey State Bar Association. They are an exclusive benefit of the Association in partnership with the New Jersey Law Journal. A subscription may be necessary to access the full text of some of the items listed:

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