Libraries are bridges to information and knowledge.

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Apparently prosecutors in Queens County New York think so. This month Queens prosecutors have charged two women with stealing more than $30,000 from three elderly men they had befriended separately. The women were charged with grand larceny as a hate crime.

This strategy of treating some hate crimes as larcenous behavior is considered a novel approach. Indeed Kathleen Hogan, president of the New York State District Attorneys Association and Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys’ Association have both said they had not heard of another jurisdiction using this Queens County approach to hate crimes.

According to a New York Times article by Anne Barnard, A Novel Twist for Prosecution of Hate Crimes, “the legal thinking behind the novel method is that New York’s hate crime statute does not require prosecutors to prove defendants ‘hate’ the group the victim belongs to, that they commit the crime because of some belief, correct or not, they hold about the group.”

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Holder (Attorney General) v. Humanitarian Law Project et. al. 08-1498

A Service from the ABA Criminal Justice Section, http://www.abanet.org/crimjust

This summary has been created by Professor Rory K. Little (littler@uchastings.edu), U.C. Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, who has long presented “Annual Review of the Supreme Court’s Term” program at the ABA’s Annual Meetings. It represents his personal, unofficial views of the Justices’ opinions. The original opinions should be consulted for their authoritative content.

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Retired New Jersey Appellate Division Judge Geoffrey Gaulkin released his report in State v. Henderson today June 21, 2010. . The New Jersey Supreme Court appointed judge Gaulkin in May 2009 to serve as special master and to hold hearings and issue a report “to test the validity of our state law standards on the admissibility of eyewitness identification.” According to news comments, the report suggests that eyewitness testimony should be treated more like physical evidence and be subjected to pretrial hearings to assess how reliable it is.

According to a June 21, 2010 New York Times article ” Use of Eyewitnesses in New Jersey Courts Needs Change, Ex-Judge Says” by Richard PÉREZ-PEÑA, the report recommends that”Courts should do more to gauge the accuracy of witnesses to crimes, and to let juries know how flawed their testimony can be, according to a former appellate judge assigned by the New Jersey Supreme Court to review the matter….In particular, [judge Geoffrey Gaulkin] wrote, judges should assess factors that might limit a witness’s reliability in picking someone out of a lineup, either in person or in a photo array…”

Click on the link below the see the complete report:

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NOTE: This posting includes Professor Little’s perspective on City of Ontario v. Quon, the cfase whch includes interesting discussion about whether public employees have a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding text messages went on government owned equipment during working hours.

A Service from the ABA Criminal Justice Section, http://www.abanet.org/crimjust

This summary has been created by Professor Rory K. Little (littler@uchastings.edu), U.C. Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco, who has long presented “Annual Review of the Supreme Court’s Term” program at the ABA’s Annual Meetings. It represents his personal, unofficial views of the Justices’ opinions. The original opinions should be consulted for their authoritative content.

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American Bar Association Judicial Division

Can judges give testimony before a legislative body? Is it permissible for judge to participate in a family business as the company’s lawyer? Can a judge charge for giving a speech to a civic organization? What role can judges play in supporting and participating in activities that promote a culture of pro bono and access to justice within the legal profession?

Off the Bench: The Ethics of Engaging in Extrajudicial Activity While Advancing Pro Bono

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Ellen McGrath of the Charles P.Sears Law Library at the University of Buffalo has forwarded the following announcement from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). We are posting it here in recognition and appreciation of the importance of NISO’s ongoing work to the library community:

David Badertscher

Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:24:09 -0400 From: Cynthia Hodgson

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This is indeed the season for presenting awards. The ABA Silver Gavel Awards honor those in media and the arts that foster a better understanding of the law. All are invited to the Gavel Awards presentation at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C. on July 7 at 5:00 p.m. The event is preceded by a reception and registration is required [http://www.abanet.org/publiced/gavel/presentation.shtml

Here are the event details sent to us by the ABA:

Event Details Wednesday, July 7, 2010 5:00 – 6:30 P.M.

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Catherine Lemann, President of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has announced the winners of the 2010 AALL awards that will be presented at the AALL Annual Meeting in Denver. These awards provide recognition to achievements of law librarians based on services to the library profession and contributions to legal literature and materials. AALL is to be commended for this Awards Program. We offer our congratulations to all the winners.

Here is a list of the AALL Awards and nmes of the recipients::

The Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award

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On October 1, 2009 I posted an appalant brief for U.S.A v. Justin K. Dorvee on this blog. The Brief was prepared by Paul F. Angioletti, attorney for the defendant-appellant.

Mr. Angioletti has now informed me that the Court of Appeals Second Circuit issued an opinion on the Dorvee appeal on May 11, 2010. In this posting we are including a paragraph from the Second Circuit decision which summarizes the conclusion that the sentence imposed on Dorvee by the District Court was “substantively unreasonable”, therefore vacating the judgment and remanding the case to the District Court for resentencing.;

EXCERPT FROM OPINION:

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According to George Prager, Head of Cataloging at the NYU Law Library, the examples offered by the Library of Congress illustrate differences between Anglo American Cataloging Rules Second Edition (AACR2 )and Resource Description and Access (RDA). Some examples have only a few fields; others are more complete. Some are made-up examples. Some examples illustrate more than one category but only appear in one category. RDA citations and other comments accompany some examples.

To see the various categories of examples offered, with commentary, go to:

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/RDAtest/rdaexamples.html

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