A Guide to the SCOTUS Health Reform Case

The Kaiser Family Foundation has published a 10-page Guide to the Supreme Court's Review of the 2010 Health Care Reform Law.

It addresses the background and nine key questions:

1. Who are the parties in the cases accepted by the Supreme Court, and what do they want?
2. What have the lower federal appellate courts decided about the constitutionality of the ACA?
3. What issues will the Supreme Court consider in its review of the ACA?
4. What are the main arguments about the constitutionality of the individual mandate?
5. What are the implications of a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the individual mandate?
6. If the Court invalidates the individual mandate, how could the issue of severability affect the ACA?
7. What is the Anti-Injunction Act, and how could it affect the case?
8. What are the main arguments about the constitutionality of the Medicaid expansion?
9. What are the implications of a Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Medicaid expansion?

The Supreme Court and the Press: The Indispensable Conflict, by Joe Mathewson, traces tussles between those two institutions going back to the nation's beginning. You can read it at KF4772 .M38 2011 at Classified Stacks (catalog record). Or, for a sample, listen to Mathewson's 25-minute talk here. The publisher's page about the book is here.

One tidbit I hadn't known: frustrated by coverage of the Court, Felix Frankfurter asked someone at the New York Times: "Would you send someone to cover the Yankees who knew nothing about sports? So why do you send someone to cover the Supreme Court who knows nothing about law?" The Times then hired Anthony Lewis (who had already won a Pulitzer Prize), sent him to Harvard Law School for a year to learn about law, and assigned him to cover the Court.

Mathewson used to cover the Court for the Wall Street Journal. He now teaches journalism at Northwestern University and contributes to chicagohistoryjournal.com.

Student Loans: Public Service Loan Forgiveness

With the skyrocketing cost of tuition and the frustrations of an economy trying to turn-around, there should still be a glimmer of hope for many students going into public service jobs.

In 2007 the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) was created by Congress to encourage full-time employment in public service jobs. New income based payment plans were introduced and, under certain conditions, a borrower may qualify for forgiveness of their loans after 10 years of payments.

Today, the Department of Education further clarified the requirements by releasing the Employment Certification Package to help borrowers track their progress toward PSLF. Materials in the package include;

• Letter to Borrower
• Instructions for the form, and
• Employment Certification for Public Service Loan Forgiveness form

For more information about federal financial aid visit: www.studentaid.ed.gov

Downton Abbey Entail Explained

A bit of explanation from Seattle attorney James Nagle:

Downton Abbey Entailed? Understanding the Complicated Legal Issues in the new Masterpiece Classic Series

Tip of the hat to Seattle University Law Library's blog.

A Tour of Eight Famous Cases

Canadian law professor Allan C. Hutchinson tells the stories of eight cases in Is Eating People Wrong? Great Legal Cases and How they Shaped the World (K370.H88 2011 at Classified Stacks). His big theme is the development of the common law through particular cases. Along the way, he offers more complete stories about some famous cases than you will ever find in a casebook or appellate opinion.

He opens with a case from Britain that actually begins in a lifeboat on the Atlantic ocean: The Queen v. Dudley and Stephens, 14 Q.B.D 273 (1884) (link). (The book draws its title from this chapter, if you want a hint about what the case is about.)

Hutchinson's selection is eclectic, spanning criminal law, torts, contract law, property law, and constitutional law  – most of a typical first-year course line-up. He draws from four common-law jurisdictions: U.S., Canada, Australia, and U.K. The cases are:

• Roncarelli v. Duplessis,  [1959] S.C.R. 121, link  (S.C.C.) (abuse of power by the premier of Quebec)
• Pierson v. Post, 3 Cai. 175, link (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1805) (ownership of a hunted fox)
• Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, link (1954) (Brown I) and 349 U.S. 294, link (1955) (Brown II)(segregated schools)
• Donoghue v. Stevenson, [1932] A.C. 562 (H.L.) 562, link (bottler's liability for snail in ginger beer)
• Mabo v. Queensland, (1988) 166 C.L.R. 186, link (Mabo I) and  (1992) 175 C.L.R. 1, link (Mabo II) (aboriginal title in Australia)
• Hadley v. Baxendale,  9 Exch. 341, link (1854) (damages for contract breach)
• Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, link (1966) (accused's rights during interrogation)

You can read the book for Hutchinson's observations about the common law as "a messy, episodic, and experimental effort to respond and adapt to the contingent demands that the society brings forward." (p. 11) Or you can dabble in it to read the colorful stories about the unfortunate cabin boy, the contested fox, the mill's broken shaft, and more.

The publisher's page about the book is here. The WorldCat record (with links to other libraries) is here.

Academic Westlaw and Lexis Subscriptions Really Are Just for School

Here's a great reminder, reprinted (with permission) from a post by our colleagues at Seattle U's law library :

It is well known that most law students in the U.S. have free [seemingly unlimited] use of major online subscription research databases. But use of these databases is an educational privilege and restricted to educational and nonprofit purposes (research and studies).

The Utah State Bar Ethics Advisory Committee found that an attorney’s misuse of a student’s educational Lexis or Westlaw access is not only an ethical violation but also amounts to theft of services, a criminal act (a potential felony).  According to the Committee’s November 15, 2011, ethics opinion, “numerous” students have reported that their “initial or continued employment” has been conditioned upon a willingness to violate their agreements with respect to research services.

You can read the whole opinion here.

Do You Have a Short Story in You?

The Journal of Legal Education (a publication of the Association of American Law Schools) and Southwestern Law School have announced the first JLE Legal Fiction Contest. Submissions must be original short works of fiction related to law school or the practice of law, and winning entries will be published in a future issue of the Journal of Legal Education. The submission deadline is March 15, 2012.

The panel of distinguished judges will include Michael Connelly, author of bestselling legal-themed novels such as The Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict, The Reversal and the newly released The Drop. His recent book, The Fifth Witness, featured a character called "Bullocks" who is a recent Southwestern graduate. In agreeing to participate as a judge, Connelly said, "I'm excited to be involved because it's been fun for me to include Southwestern in my novels. But I am also a reader and always looking for good storytellers. I think this should be interesting. I'm looking forward to what comes in."
Connelly will be joined on the panel by author Denise Hamilton (Damage Control, The Last Embrace), writer Marshall Goldberg ("L.A. Law," "Paper Chase," "Newhart," "It's Gary Shandling's Show") and Charles Rosenberg (legal consultant to "Paper Chase," "L.A. Law," "The Practice" and "Boston Legal," and author of the recently released legal thriller Death on a High Floor).

The contest is open to lawyers and non-lawyers, academics and non-academics - anyone setting a fictitious story in a legal setting (law school, law firm, courtroom, legislature, judge's chambers, etc.) or focusing on a law-related character (lawyer, law professor, judicial clerk, etc.). According to Marshall Goldberg, "The long hours, the ethical conflicts and the differing notions of justice all force hard choices upon law students, practitioners, judges and academics - and these struggles can make powerful fiction."

Submissions must be in prose form (no screenplays or scripts), previously unpublished, under 5,000 words (approximately 20 typewritten pages) and submitted by March 15, 2012 (click here for full requirements). Entries will be reviewed anonymously and judged on originality, quality of writing and depth of character. The ten winners will be announced in June 2012, and their stories will be published in the Journal of Legal Education: The Fiction Issue in early 2013. Additionally, the ten winners and ten runner-up entries will be posted online. Authors will retain copyright ownership.
In applauding the creativity of the Journal of Legal Education editors at Southwestern in designing the competition and recruiting such an impressive panel of judges, Susan Prager, Executive Director of the Association of American Law Schools, said that she is "eager to see the first published pieces in the competition" and predicts that "these will prove of enduring interest and value." She added: "I only wonder if we will need to deliver more copies of the Journal to our member law schools!"

Assistant Dean Molly Selvin, the managing editor of the JLE and coordinator of the contest said, "In some quarters the legal world is considered stiff and colorless. The Journal of Legal Education and Southwestern Law School believe this contest will help dispel that misimpression, and happily welcome all submissions."

Graphic: mw, using Notes Plus app.

#aals12

If you'd like to see short comments about what's going on at the AALS meeting, you can skim the tweets at www.twitter.com/aals12. You will see a variety of notes, from petty gripes to interesting insights.

Balance in Law School

Balance in law school: isn't that an oxymoron? Not according to the members of AALS's Section on Balance in Legal Education who think it's rare but definitely worth striving for. This morning a panel of speakers shared information about classes, workshops, and student projects at their law schools: the City University of New York (CUNY), Vanderbilt, Miami, Phoenix, and UW. The speakers included faculty and staff, current students, and a recent grad. Prof. Kim Ambrose and Dean Michele Storms spoke about some of the programs at the UW. To get an idea of student-run programs, see the websites of the Insightful Mind Initiative (Miami) and the Vanderbilt Student Health and Wellness Association.

Law School Conference

This week thousands of law professors and law school staff converge on Washington, DC, for the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). There will be committee meetings, meetings of representatives from all the law schools, and lots of presentations. Here are what some UW speakers will be talking about:

• Elizabeth Coplan, Director of Media Relations & Marketing, is on a panel about partnering with law firms for the Section on Institutional Advancement.
• Associate Dean Penny Hazelton is moderating a panel about law libraries responding to changing curricular and scholarly needs of faculty and students in times of limited resources.
• Prof. Anita Krug is speaking on implementing Dodd-Frank.
• Prof. Joel Ngugi – now Judge Ngugi of Kenya's High Court – is on a panel about the International Criminal Court's focus on Africa.
• Prof. Kate O'Neill is moderating a panel about teaching professional values across the curriculum.
• Prof. Arzoo Osanloo, from the UW's Law, Societies & Justice Program, will speak on marriage and divorce in Islam.

Most of the schedule is worked out well in advance of the meeting, but the organizers save some slots for "hot topics." Prof. Mary Fan is speaking on one of those hot topics, Alternatives to Mass Incarceration: Taking Advantage of the Budget Crisis. See Prof. Fan's article, Beyond Budget-Cut Criminal Justice: The Future of Penal Law, 90 N. Car. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2012), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1804539

Several of our speakers were chosen for their panels based on calls for papers:

• Prof. Kim Ambrose and Assistant Dean Michele Storms are on a panel about faculty-student collaborations and student initiatives.
• Prof. Zahr Said will speak on integrating law and the humanities into the core curriculum.
• Prof. Sallie Sanford will be on a panel about health law professors' projects outside the traditional classroom; her paper is on teaching health law in rural Ethiopia.

Our faculty are also active as chairs of sections and members of committees:

• Prof. Alan Kirtley is chair of the Section of Clinical Legal Education
• Prof. Rafael Pardo is chair of the Section of Creditors' and Debtors' Rights and he is on the Committee on Research
• Dean Kellye Testy is co-chair of the section for law school deans. She is nominated for (and will probably be elected to) the AALS Executive Board, for a three-year term./li>
• Prof. Clark Lombardi is chair-elect of the Section of Islamic Law
• Associate Dean Penny Hazelton is on the Committee on Libraries and Technology

One last UW connection: the Section on Disability Law is presenting a day-long program, Disaster, Disability and Law, whose papers will be published in the Washington Law Review. (This post was updated Jan. 5.)

Keeping Track of Stuff

Did you get a new device over the break? Perhaps you are long past looking for a bicycle under the Christmas tree – maybe you have to buy your own toys and tools. But no matter how you got your bike, iPad, Android phone, or laptop, it's a good idea to keep track of it.
Did you know that you can register bicycles and electronics with the UW Police? They keep track of the serial number and other identifying information and if, heaven forbid, something is lost or stolen, that registration can help get it back to you when it's found. You can get a sticker from the UW Police to show that you've registered your bike or device, and that might deter some thieves.
The best deterrence is keeping an eye on your things. If you need to take a bathroom break or a coffee break, take your things with you or have a friend watch them. It doesn't take long for a thief to pick up a laptop!
You can buy a security cable to lock your laptop. All of the Law Library's tables and carrels have brackets underneath to anchor the cables. The University Book Store Tech Center carries at least one kind. Or to see a lot, visit Amazon.com and search for laptop security cable.
And of course, thieves who take you whole device are not the only threat. You also don't want your computing life messed up by viruses, crashes, or identity thieves. See UW IT Connect's page on Safe and Secure Computing. See also Six Tips to Safeguard Your Mobile Devices, Law Technology News, Jan. 2, 2011.

Graphic: cartoon of iPad under the tree, drawn on my iPad, which I just registered with UWPD.

Inside the Interrogation of a Scared Teen

After a trial court judge suppressed a teenager's confession in her trial for smothering her infant, David Boeri, a reporter for WBUR, a public radio station in Boston, petitioned to get the DVDs or the interrogation. It took several months, but the judge issued an order in September, and in December, WBUR aired a two-part report, "Anatomy of a Bad Confession." Today, NPR aired a lengthy story (though not as lengthy as what WBUR aired). Why did it take so long for the judge to grant the motion? She was sensitive to the risks to the defendant: since the judge determined that the statements were involuntary, the confession wouldn't be admitted at trial and the defendant would not have the opportunity to challenge the statements publicly, and yet WBUR could post the on the web and anyone searching for the young woman's name for the rest of her life would be able to see and hear the confession. It was only after the prosecutor dropped the case that the judge decided that the balance tipped in favor of releasing the recordings. And now people can find online not only the confession but an interview with Nga Truong, reflecting on the interrogation three years later. She does have the opportunity to tell her story. Here are links:

• David Boeri, How a Teen's Coerced Confession Set Her Free, All Things Considered, Jan 2, 2012
• David Boeri, Anatomy of a Bad Confession, Part 1, WBUR, Dec. 7, 2011
• Anatomy Of A Bad Confession, Part 2, WBUR, Dec. 8, 2011
• video – excerpts from the interrogation, plus recent interview with the defendant, Nga Truong, and reflections by the reporter, David Boeri.
• Commonwealth v. Truong, Feb. 25, 2011, the opinion suppressing the confession
• Boeri's motion seeking the recordings
• decision and order granting the motion

Hearing (or viewing) the questioning is much more vivid the reading a discussion of a coercive interrogation in an appellate opinion. This is very valuable reporting.

PACER iPhone App

The federal courts have released an iPhone app for accessing district court records from PACER.

Users need to have already registered for a PACER account and the app can be used to view documents but not to file documents.

The link provides a list of features as well as Frequently Asked Questions.

See previous posts on PACER on this blog.

Hot Coffee Documentary

A new documentary explores the rhetoric and politics of "tort reform." Hot Coffee: Is Justice Being Served? begins with the the case that has been fodder for comedians and politicians, Liebeck v. McDonald's.

Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts? Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.

The next segment of the film looks at how a tort-reform damage cap has affected one family with a seriously disabled son.

And the third segment features Oliver Diaz, a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court who successfully campaigned against a candidate backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, only to be indicted for accepting a bribe and then for tax fraud. Despite his acquittals, the charges kept him off the bench for years and probably cost him his next election.

The filmmaker, Susan Saladoff, is a lawyer who took on this project – her first film – during a sabbatical from her practice. She definitely has a point of view, and in the film and on the website encourages people to take action opposing tort reform. Whether or not you ultimately share her position, the film offers important information, with clips from advocates on both sides of the debate. Check it out: KF1250.H68 2011 at Classified Stacks.

Federal Social Media Index

Ever wondered what federal agencies tweet about? No? Well, now the curious can find out. The Federal Social Media Index (FSMI) compiles Twitter activity from over 450 U.S. departments and agencies, ranking the federal Twitter accounts based on how well they engage with users.

The government's atwitter

The index is powered by ThinkUp, an application that tracks social media activity on platforms such as Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. The ThinkUp interface allows users to visualize activity on these social networks, from searching for past tweets to compiling graphs showing how many users follow accounts. 


The FSMI allows users to visualize sortable variables such as the number of followers the department has and the number of inquiries and answers the department receives and provides. For instance, although NASA (@NASA) has the most followers by far at 1,658,784--nearly tripling the next-highest, The Smithsonian Institute (@smithsonian)--the State Department (@StateDept) was named Agency of the Week for December 5-11 for having the most replies from followers (427 replies from 199,413 followers.)


The indexing is done automatically on a weekly basis, using the ThinkUp application without any tinkering from humans. The results are intended to provide an unbiased account of how the government interacts with the citizenry--or at least the portion that regularly uses Twitter--and to highlight overlooked but interesting comments from government departments. For more information, Internet entrepreneur/blogger Andy Baio has a write-up at ExpertLabs.


As an interesting sidenote, the FSMI excludes the White House, whose account has become one of the most popular on Twitter, with over 2.5 million followers, enough to earn it a spot as one of the 125 most followed accounts. Sadly, the Supreme Court (@SupremeCourtGov) is one of the least engaging accounts, having a scant 243 followers and no tweets since June 4, 2010. Perhaps the Justices have more important matters to attend to!

Reducing Holiday Liability with 'The Company Party Checklist'

Ah, the office holiday party. At best, an awkwardly enjoyable fishbowl of free booze and treats on the company dime; at worst, a festival of liability that presents an open invitation to inappropriate canoodling, drunken slurs, and unwanted advances amongst employees, any one of whom might one day quit and sue you for fostering a hostile work environment, citing events that occurred one fine December evening when everyone was "supposed to be" having a good time.

Catherine Dunn, Reducing Holiday Liability with 'The Company Party Checklist', Corporate Counsel (law.com), Dec. 14, 2011.

To reduce the risk of a "festival of liability," Proskauer employment lawyer Enzo Der Boghossian offers a checklist for employers hosting parties:

• Remind employees that the party is a work event.
• Remind everyone of the company's anti-harassment policy.
• Hold the party at an establishment with a liquor license and professional bartenders who will cut off the people who have had too much.
• Perhaps forgo alcohol altogether.
• Review your insurance policy.

See also Tip of the Month: Holiday Parties – Simple Precautions to Prevent Post-Holiday Problems, Proskauer Client Alert, Dec. 9, 2009.

Even apart from potential liability, some of these tips could be applied to non-work parties.

Would you like some help tracking your own consumption? Check out Avvo's Last Call iPhone app.  (See last year's post.)

Graphic credit: mw, using SketchBook Pro iPad app.

Brain Science and the Law

Royal Society report

A panel of experts from the Royal Society has issued a report on Neuroscience and the Law (Dec. 13, 2011):

Neuroscientists seek to determine how brain function affects behaviour, and the law is concerned with regulating behaviour. It is therefore likely that developments in neuroscience will increasingly be brought to bear on the law. This report sets out some of the areas where neuroscience might be of relevance, along with some of the limits to its application. Specific issues discussed include risk assessment in probation and parole decisions; detecting deception; assessing memory; understanding pain; and Non-Accidental Head Injury NAHI).

The experts conclude that the science is potentially relevant to the law, but that it's too early to apply neuroscience directly in legal proceedings. They encourage further dialogue between neuroscientists and people in law.  See Maria Cheng, UK experts: Too soon to use brain science in court, Olympian (via AP), Dec. 12, 2011.

The 46-page report is available for free download in PDF, Kindle, or E-Reader format.

This is part of a series of reports the Royal Society is putting out on neuroscience and society.  The others are: Neuroscience, Society and Policy (Jan. 2011), Neuroscience: Implications for Education and Lifelong Learning (Feb. 2011), and Neuroscience, Conflict and Security (forthcoming).

Last March, the Royal Society and the National Academies co-hosted a two-day forum on neuroscience and the law in Irvine, CA. You can watch videos of most of the panels here.

Intrigued by this area of cross-disciplinary study? You can see posts on a variety of issues in The Law and Neuroscience Blog and the Neuroethics & Law Blog. 

New Book Offers Supreme Court Insights

Courtwatchers book jacket

Professor Ronald Collins gives a very warm review on SCOTUSblog to a new book, Clare Cushman, Courtwatchers: Eyewitness Accounts in Supreme Court History, KF8742 .C875 2011 at Classified Stacks.
Collins writes:

Remarkably researched and engagingly written, this book (replete with twenty-seven pictures/photographs) is nothing short of a treasure trove of all sorts of wonderful, informative, rancorous, touching, and sometimes amusing stories about the Court, its history, and its personnel – the Justices, their families, the Court reporters, the clerks, the lawyers, the staff, the journalists who wrote about it, and all others who had business with the Esteemed Institution. It has been a long while since I read a book on the Court and learned so much . . . without nodding off.

The review offers enough quotations to whet your appetite for more.
The publisher's page is here. A catalog record is here.

Interim & Holiday Hours

When most School of Law exams end this Friday, Dec. 16, the Law Library will operate on an abbreviated interim and holiday schedule.

The Law Library will be closed:

• Dec. 17 - 19, Saturday - Monday
• Dec. 23 - 26, Friday - Monday
• Dec. 30 & 31, Friday & Saturday
• Jan. 1 & 2, Sunday & Monday

The Law Library will open the remaining days of the 2011 from 8am - 5pm and the Reference Office will be open from 9am - 12noon  and 1 - 5pm.

Regular hours resume when School of Law classes begin again on Jan. 3, 2012.

New Faculty Publication: Watts on Constraining Certiorari

Kathryn A. Watts, Constraining Certiorari Using Administrative Law Principles, 160 U. Pa. L.  Rev. 1 (2011), available on SSRN.

Professor Watts latest article considers similarities between the U.S. Supreme Court's "discretion to set its own agenda" with administrative law.

Although certiorari and administrative law certainly differ, both involve congressional delegations of discretion to a less accountable body and therefore both raise concerns about accountability, transparency and reasoned decision-making.

The article provides a history of certiorari, the relevance of the administrative law analogy to certiorari reform, a comparison of checks on both systems, and some possible solutions to the Court's discretion based on administrative law principles. Some of these suggestions include:

• Congressional legislation providing more specific standards to be used by the Court in making certiorari decisions
• requiring the Court to give reasons or disclose votes on denials of certiorari petitions
• increasing public participation through the filing of amicus briefs

5th Annual ABA Journal Blawg 100

The ABA Journal has released its annual list of law blogs, Blawg 100.

Browse the A-Z list to look for your favorites and discover new law blogs of interest among 12 categories:

• News
• Trial Practice
• LPM
• Niche
• For Fun
• Opinion
• IP Law
• Labor & Employment
• Criminal Justice
• Business Law
• Torts
• Legal Technology

The ABA Journal explains how it selects the annual Blawg 100 in its F.A.Q.:

The Blawg 100 is compiled by ABA Journal staff and is largely a favorites’ list. We also ask for nominations from our readers through the Blawg Amici process. Most are blawgs that are regularly updated, contain original content, opinion and/or analysis. Many are also on our radar because the Journal staff finds the posts useful in terms of tipping us off to news or generating posts we consider worthy of coverage.

It's interesting to read how the list has changed over time. See the ABA's Journal post, We Honor the Fallen: Past Blawg 100 Entries Which Have Departed.

So what’s your favorite law blog? Cast your vote at ABA Journal online through Dec. 30 at ABAJournal.com/blawg100.

New Faculty Publication: Nicolas's Evidence Casebook, 3d ed.

Peter Nicolas, Evidence: A Problem-Based and Comparative Approach (3d ed., Carolina Academic Press, 2011).

The third edition of Prof. Peter Nicolas's evidence casebook has just been published.

It incorporates the restyled version of the Federal Rules of Evidence that became effective on December 1st. The Confrontation Clause section has been changed to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, Michigan v. Bryant, and Bullcoming v. New Mexico.

The section on state evidence rules and cases interpreting them has been expanded as well.

The book's table of contents is available at the publisher's website.

New Faculty Publication: Gomulkiewicz on Educating Leaders in IP Law

Robert W. Gomulkiewicz, Intellectual Property, Innovation, and the Future: Toward a Better Model for Educating Leaders in Intellectual Property Law, 64 SMU L. Rev. 1161 (2011).

"Intellectual property (IP) sits at the center of the global economy."

Prof. Gomukiewicz addresses the "big bang" in intellectual property law programs that occurred in 2000. He describes the students attracted to such programs: international students, "practice switchers," "resume enhancers," skill builders, and budding academics.

His blueprint for IP law programs includes a core curriculum on legal systems and skills and advanced courses, such as:

• IP in depth
• IP in relationship
• IP in context
• IP in practice
• advanced writing in IP

Tutorials, course sequencing, mixing J.D. and LL.M students, and the next phases in the development of these specialized programs are also considered.

New CRS Reports: Privacy and Secrecy

Two new Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports of interest:

Governmental Tracking of Cell Phones and Vehicles: The Confluence of Privacy, Technology, and Law, December 1, 2011 (25 PDF pages):

Technology has advanced considerably since the framers established the constitutional parameters for searches and seizures in the Fourth Amendment. What were ink quills and parchment are now cell phones and the Internet. It is undeniable that these advances in technology threaten to diminish privacy. Law enforcement’s use of cell phones and GPS devices to track an individual’s movements brings into sharp relief the challenge of reconciling technology, privacy, and law.

Congressional Lawmaking: A Perspective On Secrecy and Transparency
November 30, 2011 (19 PDF pages):

Openness is fundamental to representative government. Yet the congressional process is replete with activities and actions that are private and not observable by the public. How to distinguish reasonable legislative secrecy from impractical transparency is a topic that produces disagreement on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Why? Because lawmaking is critical to the governance of the nation.

News Tribune Investigates Drug Task Force in Kitsap County

Today's News Tribune has an investigative report on WestNET, the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team, a federally funded drug task force based in Kitsap County, with tendrils reaching into Pierce County. A Dirty Little War, News Tribune, Dec. 4, 2011.

While the task force's mission is to go after drug-trafficking organizations, much of its effort was spent on low-level cases. Critics say that the officers often had a "cowboy" mentality, breaking down doors and bursting into homes wearing paramilitary gear.

The newspaper's review of court records indicates that the task force often inflated its success rate.

At least two people allege that one officer (Roy Alloway, who has since pleaded guilty to federal firearms and tax offenses) pressured them to give evidence that was false, or said that they made statements they did not.

In A story like WestNET's takes considerable work, News Tribune, Dec. 4, 2011, the journalists describe the public records they used, from courts (federal and state) and law enforcement agencies. The Tahoma Narcotics Enforcement Team (TNET), based in Pierce County, presents a different picture. All of its cases went to federal court, while most of WestNET's cases went to federal court. TNET has a much higher success rate (although the journalists did not have a record of cases the prosecutors declined. How WestNET compares with Pierce County task force, News Tribune, Dec. 4, 2011.

If you'd like to read about a drug task force gone horribly wrong, I recommend Nate Blakeslee, Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town, HV8079.N3 B55 2005 at Good Reads. While focusing on one notoriously bad case – with a renegade officer at the center of the action – Blakeslee also discusses the structural factors that make drug task forces susceptible to abuse of power, sloppy police work, and worse. See chapter 11, The Jump Out Boys.