Celebrate Washington State's Birthday

On November 11, 1889, Washington State was admitted to the Union by Presidential proclamation, concluding with:



How might you celebrate our State's birthday? You might take a virtual tour through materials describing life, law, and government in Washington Territory.

HistoryLink.org, Washington State's online history encyclopedia, is a great place to start. Milestones in Washington history is a guided tour through significant events in the State's history. Or just browse the FAQ page for a quick review.

Check out the territorial timeline provided by the Secretary of State's office. Washington's Digital Archives displays images of its Top 10 Treasures, including

• returns from the Territory's first election in 1854
• the first case heard by the territorial Supreme Court and
  
• the 1889 telegram from the U.S. Secretary of State to the territorial Governor announcing the Presidential proclamation on statehood.

For information on the legal sources produced by the territorial government, consult Washington Territorial Legal Materials, in 2 Prestatehood Legal Materials: A Fifty-State Research Guide 1323 (2005). KF240.P688 2005 at Reference Office.

Or, perhaps like the co-author of that chapter and writer of this blog post, you will enjoy having the day off because coincidentally, Nov. 11 is your birthday!

As a child I was impressed by the parades that took place in my honor. It was only later that I understood that I shared my special day with a national holiday. I loved watching the men in uniforms ride big, beautiful horses--finally the phrase "veterinarians' day" made sense!

Still later, I got my facts straight--veterans were being honored for their military service. My accomplishments and those of the thousands of animal doctors around the county pale in comparison.

So celebrate Nov. 11 for any and/or all of these occasions!

Contested Elections

Today the Seattle Times reports that Patty Murray and Dino Rossi are prepared to keep Washington voters in suspense long after election day passes.

Relive one of the most intensely contested elections with titles about Bush v. Gore from the Gallagher Law Library.

National American Indian Heritage Month

November is National American Indian Heritage Month. (A list of legislative and executive documents is in this blog post from the Law Library of Congress.)

Our Indian law research guide gives you leads to all sorts of resources, from the very basic (American Indian Law in a Nutshell, KF8205.Z9 C36 2009 at Reference Area) to treaties, federal administrative materials, and tribal codes. Looking for tribal court decisions? See this chart.

Play it Safe:Tips for Protecting Your Personal Belongings

Law students are busy people. With reading, briefing, writing papers, mock trials, finals looming and the holidays fast approaching, a law student's life can be hectic. Add the loss of your laptop, iPad, cell phone or other personal item and your life could get just a little bit worse. No one wants to worry about the theft or loss of personal items, and although it is not a common occurrence in the law library, it can happen. Here are some tips so it won't happen to you.

The UW police department has crime prevention and safety tips on its website. You can learn everything from parking lot safety tips to preventing laptop theft.

You can protect your electronic devices by registering them with the UW police department. It only takes a few minutes and can save you time and worry in the case of loss or theft.

Additionally, if you don't want to pack up your laptop every time you have to run to the copy alcove or bathroom, you can purchase a laptop security cable from the University Bookstore. Call the Tech Center for more information at (206) 545-4382.

Play it safe so you don't have to worry.

Positive law codification - U.S. Code

The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a codification of the federal laws in force. Some of the titles (e.g., title 17) have been enacted as positive law by Congress. When Congress amends these, it amends the U.S.C. directly. Other titles (e.g., title 42) are compiled from individual statutes and have not been enacted as a whole. When Congress amends these, it amends the original public law.

The U.S.C. titles that are not positive law are prima facie evidence of the law, but the official real-deal law is the original enactment in United States Statutes at Large. That's why you sometimes see citations to § 202 of the Social Security Act, rather than 42 U.S.C. § 402, where it's codified. Congress currently is working on enacting two more titles as positive law: H.R. 1107 (title 41, Public Contracts) and has H.R. 3237 (title 51, national and commercial space programs) have both passed the House and are pending in the Senate. The Law Revision Counsel -- the official in charge of codification -- explains why this project is important: Peter Lefevre, Positive law codification will modernize U.S. Code, The Hill's Congress Blog, Sept. 28, 2010. For more (if you think the inner workings of codification are as interesting as I do), see my short article: Mary Whisner, The United States Code, Prima Facie Evidence, and Positive Law, 101 Law Libr. J. 545-56 (2009), available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=1517999.

Drop Your Ballot in the University District

If you don't want to mail your ballot, King County Elections has set up eleven ballot drop boxes. Three are in Seattle - and the good news is that one is in the University District on the corner of NE 50th St. and University Way NE. The list of other King County locations is here. Ballot drop boxes will remain open until 8 pm, Tuesday, November 2.
Don't live in King County? Snohomish County also offers ballot drop boxes. Pierce County is the only county (out of 39) that still maintains polls, but drop off sites are an option.

New Faculty Publication: Prof. Helen Anderson on Brief-Writing Advice

Helen A. Anderson, Changing Fashions in Advocacy: 100 Years of Brief-Writing Advice, 11 J. APP. PRAC. & PROCESS 1-17 (2010).

Prof. Anderson's latest article examines

the changing nature of the brief during the early twentieth century and the transition from an abstract or outline to a fully fleshed prose argument.

She reviews what a brief is or has been and advice on brief-writing proferred by judges, textbook authors, and others. Her research indicates that the modern appellate brief is a "relatively recent invention" and she concludes by observing "that the wisest advisors have always urged appellate lawyers to use both logic and narrative as they attempt to persuade the judges before whom they appear."

CRS Report: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell": A Legal Analysis

The Congressional Research Service issued a 16-page report in September analyzing the constitutional challenges to Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The report is now available on OpenCRS. In March 2010, CRS issued “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell:” The Law and Military Policy on Same-Sex Behavior.

Previous versions of both reports are also available.

For other sources of CRS reports, see the Gallagher Law Library guide.

Honoring Those Who Served: Commemorating Veterans Day in Seattle and Beyond

Veterans Day, November 11, honors the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. Several area events commemorate the day:

The UW's Veterans Day 2010 Ceremony will take place on Thursday, Nov. 11, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The event will honor the men and women in this region "for their dedication and service in our Armed Forces." Advance registration is requested. Click here for details.

• The city of Auburn is hosting the Vietnam Veterans Traveling Wall from Nov. 4-7 in Auburn's Veterans Memorial Park. The wall, a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., will be open to visitors 24 hours a day. See here for more information.
• The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs has a list of events and observances taking place state-wide.

Upcoming CLE: Advocating for Immigrant Survivors of Domestic Violence

The Immigrant Families Advocacy Project (IFAP), the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project (NWIRP), and the University of Washington School of Law are presenting a Continuing Legal Education program on Friday, November 5, 2010, in downtown Seattle.

Find more information about the program, "Immigration Options for Immigrant Survivors of Domestic Violence: U-Visa under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act," including registration information, here.

New Faculty Publication: Steve Calandrillo on Penalizing Punitive Damages

Steve P. Calandrillo, Penalizing Punitive Damages: why the Supreme Court needs a lesson in law and economics, 78 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 774-821 (2010).

The most recent edition of The George Washington Law Review has published Professor Calandrillo's article, which analyzes modern punitive damages jurisprudence from a law and economics standpoint and calls for the abolition of the current ceiling on punitive damages.

Wall Street Reform Act: A Brief Legislative History

The Law Librarians' Society of Washington D.C. announced a new web site,
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act: A Brief Legislative History with Links, Reports, and Summaries. "The history is designed in a streamlined fashion so as to allow users to more easily check when provisions in the law got into bill and then check for related remarks concerning those provisions. It also has links to earlier legislation related to different titles of the Act, to the Administration's proposed legislation in 2009, to related CRS reports, and to various summaries and commentaries of the law on the Web."

First Year Course Study Aids on CD

The library has new study aids available on CD. See the catalog records--linked below-- for more detailed information on what each disc covers:

• Sum & Substance series: Contracts


• Law School Legends series: Contracts


• Sum & Substance series: Constitutional Law


• Law School Legends series: Constitutional Law


• Sum & Substance series: Property Law


• Law School Legends series: Torts

Each CD within a title is boxed and barcoded separately.

Three CLE Opportunities this Friday

The UW School of Law is hosting three separate CLE opportunities on Friday, October 29, 2010:

• Mobile Payments: Global Markets, Empowered Consumers and New Rules? Click here for details.
• Whose Right? Corporations, People and the 1st Amendment. Click here for details.
• Justice for Washington's Wrongly Convicted? Click here for details.

For more information about CLE programs, please contact the UW School of Law's Continuing Legal Education office.

Prof. Paul Steven Miller

Prof. Paul Steven Miller's death has led to an outpouring of both grief at his passing and praise for all that he accomplished. Both the New York Times and the Seattle Times published obituaries and President Barack Obama issued a statement, saying (among other things):

He dedicated his life to a world more fair and more equal, and an America where all are free to pursue their full measure of happiness – and all of us are better off for it.

The School of Law will hold a public memorial service honoring Prof. Miller and his many contributions on Monday, Oct. 25th.

The following reception will take place in the Library, from 4:30-6:30pm. The Library will remain open during the event, although the Law Student Lounge will be closed from 3-7pm.

Out thoughts are with his family and the many people who admired and respected Paul.

Credit Reports for Jobs - Learning More About a News Story

This evening I heard a news story on the car radio: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is considering a rule about employers using credit reports in hiring and promotion decisions. I decided to look up some more information when I got home. Here's what I did (and what you can do, too!).

First, I made it a point to remember what I could:

• The agency held a hearing (at least, I think a sound bite I heard was someone testifying).


• The National Consumer Law Center (I think) is concerned about the practice of using credit reports for employment.


• Someone in Congress is proposing (or has proposed?) legislation.

Next step: find the news story on the radio program's website. I knew it was on KUOW, but was it on All Things Considered (National Public Radio) or Marketplace (American Public Media)? The schedule indicates that Marketplace starts at 6:30, and I think I heard the story after that, so I clicked there. Sure enough, today's front page for Marketplace included a headline, Could Credit Affect Getting Hired for a Job?

Next step: see if my recollection of the story was correct and see if it links to other resources. Yes (pretty good recall) and no (no useful links).

Now what? See if the EEOC website has anything. Yes! There was a big headline: Commission Holds Hearing on Employer Use of Credit History as a Screening Tool -- with a box to click on to "Learn More." That led me to a page that linked to:

• a press release from yesterday announcing today's hearing.
• a press release from today summarizing some of the testimony
• a list of nine speakers with links to their prepared remarks and bios. (One of them, Chi Chi Wu, was the person from the National Consumer Law Center I'd heard on the radio.)

So what about the National Consumer Law Center? I visited that website, clicked on the Issues tab, and saw Credit Reports. There was a link to testimony -- but not today's, something from May: Testimony regarding Use of Credit Information beyond Lending: Issues and Reform Proposals, May 12, 2010. That was Chi Chi Wu testifying before the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit -- a good lead to the Congressional action alluded to in the radio story ("Congress is considering a ban on credit checks for employees.")

Next stop: House Financial Services Committee. With just a few clicks, I got to a page about the May 12 hearing, with links to a webcast and the witnesses' prepared statements.

Finally, I looked for some good coverage of the issue in a legal newsletter: the Daily Labor Report (available to UW Law School users through our BNA web subscription). At the top of the screen, next to a big red box labeled "Latest Developments," I saw "EEOC Examines Potential Bias From Employers' Use of Credit Checks Posted: Oct 20, 2010, 4:03 PM EDT." The article summarized some of the testimony -- from both consumer advocates and industry advocates. It concluded:

[EEOC Chair Jacqueline] Berrien said EEOC plans no immediate actions based on the meeting, which she characterized as part of a series examining employment practices that potentially "unfairly screen out" applicants based on race, age, or other protected characteristics that are not job-related.

That leaves a different impression from the radio story, which said "Today, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission looked at establishing a national policy." Maybe some sort of rule making will grow out of this, but the Chair's remark makes it clear that it'll be a while.

The Daily Labor Report story included a note: "A full report will appear in the next issue of Daily Labor Report. Click here for the latest issue." I clicked and found EEOC Examines Potential Bias Resulting From Employers' Use of Credit Checks -- also dated Oct. 20, but much longer. That article in turn linked to an article from three years ago, reporting on an EEOC hearing on potential bias in the use of selection tests and credit histories.

Searching the newsletter for "credit report*" turned up a lot of stories on this issue, including these recent ones:

• 09/27/2010: Privacy Rights: Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bill to Ban Employer Use of Worker Credit Reports
• 09/23/2010: Privacy Rights: House Panel Explores Discriminatory Use Of Credit Checks in Employment Decisions
• 09/01/2010: Privacy Rights: Bill to Limit Employer Use of Credit Data Clears California Assembly; Veto Possible
• 07/09/2010: Incipient Legislative Trend Toward ‘Credit Privacy' Compels Restraint in the Use of Credit Checks for Employment Purposes

There's a lot going on here!

Starting with an interesting but short news item, I was able to find testimony before the EEOC, testimony before a congressional subcommittee, and newsletter articles on the issue. You can use techniques like this to deepen your understanding of many news stories.

New Faculty Publication: Scott Schumacher on Criminal Tax & Immigration

Scott A. Schumacher, Criminal Tax and Immigration: A Search for Clarity, 129 TAX NOTES 234-39 (2010).

The Oct. 11, 2010 issue of Tax Notes contains Scott's article.

This article discusses the recent case law developments concerning the impact of a criminal conviction on immigration status, focusing on the circuit split regarding whether a conviction for filing a false tax return is an aggravated felony under the immigration laws.

Prof. Schumacher has published several articles in Tax Notes, including:

• Tomko and Sentencing Guidelines in Tax Cases after Booker, 125 Tax Notes 149-53 (2009), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1483338.


• The Ninth Circuit Says Aloha to Boulware -- Again, 122 Tax Notes 1631-34 (2009), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1479741.


• Unnecessary Harm: IRS Levies on Social Security Benefits, 113 Tax Notes 265-67 (2006).

Online Research History

You've signed on to LexisNexis or Westlaw and started doing research on that big paper. Then, just as you are making some progress, you are interrupted and must sign out. Several days later, you would like to pick up where you left off, but where, exactly, were you? What databases had you tried? What searches had turned out to be the best?

Well, this is a problem that also afflicts general Internet searching. Before you know it, you have clicked on link after link, opened several new tabs, and are not quite sure how to get back to that wonderful site you found earlier. There is a recent paper, written by two folks from Google and two folks from universities that address this issue. Here is their goal, from the article's abstract:

We propose the concept of research trails to help web users create and reestablish context across fragmented research processes without requiring them to explicitly structure and organize the material. A research trail is an ordered sequence of web pages that were accessed as part of a larger investigation; they are automatically constructed by filtering and organizing users’ activity history, using a combination of semantic and activity based criteria for grouping similar visited web pages.

The article goes on to say that, although web browsers keep a "history" of visited websites, recreating (especially) new, investigative research is too difficult with just a list of URLs, or even URLs with page thumbnails. Certainly, if the authors have their way, this problem will be alleviated in the future.

But, let's go back to that research you started on Westlaw or LexisNexis. Fortunately for you, both services have a "research trail" (Westlaw) or "history" (LexisNexis), that provides you with a lot of information about that first session. For both services, look up at the top of the screen on the right side to find the link.

On LexisNexis, that history is kept on two tabs: recent results (the past 24 hours), and archived activity (the past 30 days). All of your research is kept, a "get a document," "shepard's," or a search in a database. Each search, with the number of documents retrieved, is listed along with the database you used. Rerunning a search is as easy as clicking on it.

On Westlaw, the current research trail is the one you are working on at the time. Older trails are reached by clicking on the "List of all Research Trails" link. Trails are listed by date (like on LexisNexis), but you can rename them to reflect your project, and even add your own notes. They are kept automatically for 14 days, but you can extend them with a click of your mouse. Similar to LexisNexis, your search activity and databases are listed along with every document you viewed. Rerun a search by clicking on its link.

So, don't let that first research session on Westlaw or LexisNexis go to waste! No need to start all over again. Use the LexisNexis history or the Westlaw research trail link to start just where you left off.

Documents in the News: Deep Water Drilling Ban

Did you hear this on NPR? White House Lifts Ban on Offshore Drilling
Or read this in the New York Times? White House Lifts Ban on Deepwater Drilling

Interested in the actual text? See:

Department of Interior press release.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision memorandum.

The new safety rules, promulgated by DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow and Friday. You can see copies at the Public Inspection Desk:

Oil and Gas and Sulphur Operations in Outer Continental Shelf: Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on Outer Continental Shelf
Publication Date: 10/14/2010

Safety and Environmental Management Systems:
Oil and Gas and Sulphur Operations in Outer Continental Shelf
Publication Date: 10/15/2010

For even more government information, see the DOI’s Deepwater Horizon Response page.

Lady Chatterly's Lover on Trial

We're coming up on the 50th anniversary of the trial of Penguin Books for publishing Lady Chatterly's Lover. The trial, in late October and early November 1960, included testimony by writers, professors, ministers, and others. On November 4, the jury took just three hours to return a verdict of not guilty and the book sold briskly. This victory for the publisher "did not mark an immediate end of literary censorship in Britain" - but the climate changed soon after. Ben Yagoda recounts this historic trial in Trial and Eros, Am. Scholar, Autumn 2010.

SAGE Research Methods Online – Free access to beta until Jan. 2011

Sign up for a free trial of SAGE Research Methods Online (SRMO), an advanced search and discovery tools for researching across the social and behavioral sciences, including quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods.

The beta version of this research tool has been released and is available for trial until the product's official launch in January 2011. For information, click here.

Hat tip Sue Polanka from No Shelf Required.

Washington Women's Suffrage Centennial

2010 marks the centennial of women's right to vote in Washington state. For in depth information on this historic event, check out this book, located at Good Reads:
Women's Votes Women's Voices: the campaign for equal rights in Washington by Shanna Stevenson.




For information on Suffrage Centennial events and exhibits, see
the Washington Women's History Consortium's website.

Gallagher Law Library Toolbar

Looking for quick and convenient access to the Gallagher Law Library catalog (MARIAN) and “quick links” to popular library research pages?

Try adding the Gallagher Law Library toolbar extension to your browser!

When surfing the web, you will also be able to select text on the page and right-click for a menu of search options. The toolbar will also automatically link results from your web searches to the Law Library's print and licensed e-resources.

To install the Firefox extension, click here.
To install the IE plug-in, click here.

Give this a try and let us know what you think. We’d appreciate any comments that you might have. If you need help with installation or if you would like a demo of how to use it, just stop by the Reference Office.

Many thanks to Richard Jost, Information Systems Coordinator at University of Washington Gallagher Law Library, and David Aznar, University of Navarro in Spain, for creating the Gallagher Law Library edition of this LibX toolbar!

New Articles by Prof. Howard and Naomi Sanchez

The October issue of DeNovo, the newsletter of the Washington State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, contains articles by two members of the UW School of Law community:

• Maureen A. Howard, Mastering Foolproof Witness Control on Cross Examination, DeNovo, Oct. 2010, at 9-10.
• Naomi Sanchez, Taking Charge of Your Job Search, DeNovo, Oct. 2010, at 11-12.

Prof. Howard describes several techniques for managing uncooperative witnesses, including "the hand stop," repeating your question, and "the reverse/repeat."

This article is one in a regular series called "Off the Record." Other recent articles in the series address the closing argument (Aug. 2010), impeaching a witness on cross-examination (June 2010), and direct examination (April 2010).

Naomi's article discusses leadership skills, "unearthing" job opportunities, and developing a personal "brand."

BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Commission Draft Working Papers

The National Oil Spill Commission today is releasing four new draft working papers prepared by its staff. Commission staff prepares draft working papers to inform the Commissioners’ on-going examination of the root causes of the Gulf spill and options to guard against and mitigate the impacts of future spills. The Commissioners’ decisions regarding these matters will be contained in the Commission’s final report, expected to be issued on Jan. 11, 2011.

The working papers are:

Decision-Making within the Unified Command

The Amount and Fate of the Oil

The Use of Surface and Subsea Dispersants during the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

The Challenges of Oil Spill Response in the Arctic