Criminal Law Library BlogMarch, 2009 Volume 21 Issue 2
LEAD ARTICLES:
Strategies for Combating Anti-Gay Sentiment in the Courtroom by Sean Overland
Articles Posted in Commentary and Opinion
An Appeal to A Jury of Your Twittering Peers
Written by: Ira Winkler March 24, 2009. For the Internet Revolution Blog:
“The ‘CSI Effect’ is what people call juror expectations of forensic evidence that unequivocally proves the defendant guilty. Unfortunately, there is now a “Twitter Effect,” where defense attorneys hope for mistrials because jurors just can’t control themselves and have to tweet what’s going on inside courtrooms or deliberation areas….” See entire posting at:
http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=515&doc_id=173990&
Law Library Association of Maryland News
March 2009 Issue
The Law Library Association of Maryland (LLAM) is a chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL):
The March 2009 issue of LLAM News is available for viewing at:
From the Library Journal Academic Newswire
March 19, 2009
Intentional Upheaval: ACRL Report Says Libraries Must Turn Crisis into Opportunity
New FOIA Guidelines Issued In Memorandum By U.S. Attorney General Holder
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 unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records” Topics included in the Attorney General Holder memorandum include: A presumption of openess; FOIA is the Responsibility of Everyone, and the importance of agencies working productively and properly.
To quote from a statement on the U.S. Department of Justice website:
“By restoring the presumption of disclosure that is at the heart of the Freedom of Information Act, we are making a critical change that will restore the public’s ability to access information in a timely manner,” said Attorney General Holder. ‘The American people have the right to information about their government’s activities, and these new guidelines will ensure they are able to obtain that information under principles of openness and transparency.’ “
ABA Journal Weekly Newsletter. March 20, 2009.
Top Ten Stories of the Week ending March 20, 2009:
Law Practice Management Layoff ‘Herd Mentality’ Ignores Greater Savings of Pay Cuts, Prof Says
Mar 17, 2009, 08:19 am CDT
Q&A: To What Extent and Under What Conditions Are Congressional Research Reports Official Documents? *
Q\UESTION::
In a recent e-mail, someone from Canada asked asked how she could obtain an “official copy” of a Congressional Research Service report, “one from Congress,” not one from the website of an organization such as the Federation of American Scientists. The responses which follow are very interesting; they address a variety of related issues including the following: Are Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports that contain added designations such as watermarks, trademarks, or copyright notices official and are they in the public domain? Does the U.S. Government have any special rights to use copyrighted materials? and can CRS reports always be freely disseminated as government documents?
RESPONSES:
Legal Division Quarterly: The Winter/Spring 2009 Issue
The Legal Division Quarterly is the Newsletter of the Legal Division of the Special Libraries Association:
The 2009 Winter/Spring issue of the Legal Division Quarterly is now online at:
http://units.sla.org/division/dleg/Newsletter/LDQ%20Winter%20Spring%20v16n1&2.pdf
Two Twitter Stories
Stories about popular, exciting topics, often appear almost together , sometimes on the same day. On March 13 two stories published in the InformationWeek Daily Newsletter caught our attention and we wanted to pass them on to our readers:
In “The Intruder Story: Man At His Best”, Michael Hickins writes:
“As far as I’m concerned, David Prager is a hero. I would love to meet the man with enough sangfroid (that’s French for cojones) to Tweet and to even set up a Ustream of the event, all while reflecting on the relative degree of danger in which he found himself.”
Book Review: Trial Advocacy Planning, Analysis and Strategy
REVIEWED BY: THEODORE POLLACK*
Title: Trial Advocacy: Planning, Analysis, and Strategy
Authors: Marilyn J. Berger, John B. Mitchell, Ronald Clark