Academy Awards Research

I love watching movies.

I remember crying hysterically while E.T. tried to phone home (E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982. Nominated for nine Oscars, won four at the 55th Academy Awards), and laughing hysterically as Forrest ran across the country, inspiring bumper stickers and smiley face t-shirts (Forrest Gump, 1994. Nominated for 13 Oscars, won six at the 67th Academy Awards).

I also like movie research. One of my favorite web sites for movie research (other than IMDB) is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Under the “Research & Preservation” tab, is a link to “Resources & Databases.”

You can conduct research using databases such as:

• Academy Awards Database
• Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database
• Motion Picture Credits Database
• Motion Picture Scripts Database

To date, the Academy Awards Database includes 83 years of compiled history and fun film facts.

The Acceptance Speech Database is great for historical research. For example, this year marks the 50th Anniversary of the theatrical release of To Kill A Mockingbird (1962).

Searching for this title in the Academy Awards database, I learn that Gregory Peck received the (best) Actor Oscar for his performance as Atticus Finch. I enter his name in the Acceptance Speech database, and I’m able to watch a clip of Frank Sinatra, introducing Sophia Lauren, who announces the best Actor Oscar winner, Mr. Peck.

Other details, including the date of the telecast (April 8, 1963), location (Santa Monica Civic Auditorium), and a transcript of Peck’s speech also are readily available.

Of course, many stories for motion pictures originate from books (including Forrest Gump by Winston Groom, and this year's best picture nominee The Help by Kathryn Stockett). For more on “reel” law, search the library catalog by subject headings such as:

Lawyers in Motion Pictures

Trials in motion pictures

Justice, Administration of, in motion pictures

Enjoy the 84th Academy Awards on February 26!

PACER Docket Updates by RSS Feed

Many federal district courts now offer RSS feeds to keep users apprised of developments in cases they have selected The Individual Courts PACER Sites page displays the RSS icon next to the name of each court that offers this service.

Don't know much about PACER? See other Gallagher Blogs posts on this subject or the list of questions and answers on the PACER site.

A Novel Way to Pay Off Your Debt

Pondering my pesky law school debt the other day, I was reminded of the inspiring tale of Senator Claire McCaskill’s path to financial freedom.

Senator McCaskill graduated from law school at University of Missouri - Columbia in 1978 and, according to her appearance on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, she promptly went to southern California and auditioned for several game shows, ultimately making her way on to the game show High Rollers and earning $35,000—enough to pay off her student loans!

In a story closer to home, Professor Steve Calandrillo had similar success. Professor Calandrillo was a three-time champion on Wheel of Fortune and put his winnings toward his JD at Harvard Law School. I’d say this is the best use of an economics degree I’ve ever heard of!

If you think you have what it takes to be the next Senator McCaskill, Professor Calandrillo, or even Ken Jennings, check out this site or go to the Web site for the game show itself (like this page for Jeopardy!).

But beware! The financial rewards of game show success come with great responsibility.

The good news is that the IRS is happy to provide guidance on how to address your new-found success, whether your winnings come from the lottery, poker, or the game show circuit. So before you hop in the car and head to Hollywood, visit http://www.irs.gov/ and heed the cautionary tale of this infamous game show survivor.

Senator McCaskill's photo courtesy of mccaskill.senate.gov.

Professor Calandrillo's photo courtesy of University of Washington School of Law.

Pox: An American History

The smallpox outbreaks between 1895 and 1905 illustrate many important themes. You'd expect medical history, and of course it's there, but in Pox: An American History, historian Michael Willrich gives us much more.

• Race: Some outbreaks began in the African American community, spread by itinerant workers moving between jobs on the railroad or in turpentine camps. Some whites believed it was only a black disease, and therefore didn't worry about public health measures until the outbreaks  had progressed. And when action was taken, blacks were vaccinated by force or under threat of force, sometime housing was destroyed, and penthouses  for  quarantining the sick were in black neighborhoods. 
• Immigration: The book also explores the treatment of immigrants in tenements in Northeastern cities. 
• Imperialism: controlling smallpox was a big concern for  the military occupations of Cuba and the Philippines, and it was accomplished, sometimes at bayonet point. 
• Industry and regulation: ineffective  and  contaminated vaccines led to a federal statute to regulate vaccine production, a couple of years before the Food and Drug Act.  
• State Power vs. Individual Autonomy: Should the  state be able to compel an individual to be vaccinated? Should  there be any exceptions for religious beliefs or individual health conditions? In short, you get a lot of history and policy in the course of learning about smallpox. 

I recommend this book for lots of interests. For more detailed reviews, see Michael Specter's review in the New Yorker or this story from Fresh Air. 

Pox is available in the law library (RA644.S6 W55 2011 at Classified Stacks). The catalog record is here.

This Day in History Belva A. Lockwood

Through the efforts of Belva Ann Lockwood (1830 – 1917), on February 15, 1879, a law (20 Stat. 292 (1879)) was passed that allowed women for the first time to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States:




In her meticulously researched book, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would be President (2007), author Jill Norgren shares Lockwood's inspirational story.

Lockwood started her career as a teacher, but was always drawn to law and politics.

Around the age of 40, Lockwood was invited to attend classes at National University Law School in Washington, D.C. (which later merged with George Washington University; see GWU Encyclopedia entry for Belva Ann Lockwood) and shortly thereafter enrolled, earning her degree in 1873. She fought for the right to receive her diploma, and to join the D.C. Bar.

But she wanted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. After many years of persistent lobbying, on February 15, 1879 An Act to Relieve Certain Legal Disabilities of Women was passed by the 45th Congress and signed into law by President Hayes. In March 1879, Lockwood took the oath and became the first woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

You can find Norgren’s book, Belva Lockwood: The Woman Who Would Be President (2007) in the Classified Stacks at KF368 .L58 .N67.

To learn more about Lockwood, see Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Remarks on the Life and Times of Belva Lockwood Supreme Court Fellows Dinner January 24, 2008, 37 Sw. U. L. Rev. 371 (2008).

Evolution in Court

A student reminded me that yesterday was Charles Darwin's birthday – an apt time to mention some resources about the Scopes trial.

Edward J. Larson won the Pulitzer Prize in history of Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, KF224.S3 L37 1997 at Good Reads. He gives a thorough account of the trial, followed by chapters looking at its place in literature and film and recent disputes about teaching evolution. (The publisher's page about the book is here.)

For a variety of materials about the trial, see this page in Douglas Linder's Famous Trials site. You'll find excerpts from the trial transcript, H. L. Mencken's newspaper coverage, and even excerpts from the biology textbook that Scopes used.

For more books about the trial and related topics, see this WorldCat list.

Library Hours for Presidents Day

Next Monday, Feb. 20, is the Presidents Day holiday.

The Law Library will be open on an abbreviated schedule, 8am - 5pm. The Reference Office will be open from 1 - 4pm.

Marriage Equality

The recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Proposition 8 released on Tuesday has caused quite a stir. Both sides have hotly debated the issue with emotion and vigor--however an actual constitutional law discussion has been noticeably absent.

Erwin Chemerinksy, the dean of UC Irvine School of Law and Constitutional Law guru, shared his thoughts on the constitutional law issue of Proposition 8 and forecasted the Supreme Court’s decision in an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times.

Wherever you might fall on the issue, Gallagher Law Library offers many constitutional law resources if you wanted to construct your own opinion on the matter. If you’d like to read some more opinions on the issue, be sure to check out an article in the Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy available via HeinOnline.

Cartoon Credit: The Sacramento Bee

Washington Constitutional Research Online!

Delegates to the Washington Constitutional Convention

When you base an argument on the Washington State constitution, one of the factors you need to address is its history. State v. Gunwall, 106 Wn.2d 54, 61, 720 P.2d 708 (1986). But, lacking a time machine to take to you 1889, how do you find out what went on in the constitutional convention?

Take heart: you won't be the first person to explore this segment of the past. An essential tool for researchers is The Journal of the Washington State Constitutional Convention, 1889, edited by Beverly Paulik Rosenow in 1962 (reprinted in 1999) (KFW 401 1889 .A223 at Reference Area). This volume includes an analytical index, prepared by Quentin Shipley Smith, that examines the constitution, section by section, printing each section, then referring to the Journal (which is chronological) and citing contemporary newspaper articles and later secondary sources about the constitution.

Robert F. Utter & Hugh D. Spitzer, The Washington State Constitution: A Reference Guide (2002) (Catalog record) takes you through, section by section, discussing each provision's history and important cases interpreting it. There are also a number of law review articles about the use of state constitutions generally and our constitution in particular. 

Now you can do a lot of state constitutional research online, starting from our web page, Washington State Constitution: History. You'll find the Journal, links to contemporary newspaper articles, links to other states' constitutions that influenced the Washington drafters, law review articles, and more. A separate page lists the constitutional amendments (we've had 106 so far). Because it was so influential in Washington, we even have a page for the Oregon constitution.


If you have suggestions for developing this site, please let us know.


Graphic: Composite photo of the delegates for the Constitutional Convention in Washington State, July 4, 1889. Item Number AR-28001001-ph00278, General Subjects Photograph Collection, 1845-2005, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives (accessed Sept. 12, 2011). Original images held at the Washington State Archives, Olympia, WA. Same image,credited to photographer Merle Junk, available as Item Number AR-25501080-ph004713, Susan Parish Photograph Collection, 1889-1990.

Online Colloquium About Mothering

The editors of the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender are using an article in their current issue to spark discussion, via an online colloquium and a live conference.

In Unsex Mothering: Toward a New Culture of Parenting, Darren Rosenblum critiques the way society strongly ties aspects of child care to biological sex and he argues for breaking apart those ties. The live conference is next Monday evening, in Cambridge, MA.

Whether or not you can drop by Harvard, you can read the online colloquium, which includes essays by 16 authors responding to Rosenblum's piece. The authors are from around the country, including three from Seattle: Dean Kellye Testy (UW), Prof. Julie Shapiro (Seattle U), and Mary Whisner (UW reference librarian).

If you'd like to read thoughtful blog posts on the themes of family, biology, and culture, be sure to check out Related Matters (by Prof. Shapiro) and Speaking of Women's Rights (by the staff of Legal Voice).

TRACfed – Online Service for Fed Enforcement Data

The University Libraries recently subscribed to TRACfed, an online service that enables you to mine lots of fascinating data about federal enforcement activity (criminal, civil, and administrative). It's UW restricted, so if you aren't on a UW computer you'll need to log in to off-campus access (upper right corner of library web pages) to get going. To generate some reports, you'll be prompted to register, choosing a user name and password.

Suppose that, like Prof. Scott Schumacher, you are interested in civil and criminal tax controversy and litigation. Wouldn't it be great to be able to find out how many people and corporations get audited and whether it varies by region of the country? Wouldn't you like to know how many cases the IRS refers to U.S. attorneys and the prosecution success rate? TRACfed lets you do all that and more!

From the main page, choose Admin (for Administrative Enforcement), then choose IRS. A menu on the left gives you some options (criminal enforcement, corporate audits, etc.):

For example, choose Criminal Enforcement. Right away, you see a graph showing you the rate of referrals from the IRS to federal prosecutors since 1992. You see it was a little over 20 per million in 1992, sloped down to a low of 7 or 8 per million in 2001 and has nudged up to 10 per million in 2010.

Click another link and you see a map illustrating which districts are the hottest for tax prosecutions.

Why is Western Washington yellow and Eastern Washington red?

Below the graphics, you'll see a spreadsheet that you can sort in different ways. Sorting by district shows that the IRS made 24 referrals to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, and 19 in the Eastern District. That would seem pretty close – but the Eastern District has a lot fewer people. So the odds of referral in 2010 were 5 per million in W.D. Wash. and 13 per million in E.D. Wash. The Western District ranked 79th among the 90 districts, while the Eastern District ranked 18th. (That's just for Fiscal Year 2010. In FY 2004, they were very close: 84th and 89th.)

This is just a taste of TRACfed. There are also datasets for Social Security and immigration, as well as criminal and civil actions. I'll have more examples in future posts.

Dickens Turns 200!

Of course literary types care, but why would a law library note that today is Charles Dickens's 200th birthday? Because the prolific 19th-Century novelist had a lot to say about law and lawyers, that's why. (Also we like literature.) Contested inheritances, debtors' prison, property settlements – these are often as important to the story as any human character.

The Guardian has a rich website, Dickens at 200, that has a variety of articles, a video and audio tour of Dickens's London and other sites.

Consider yourself a Dickens buff? Then take the Guardian's "fiendishly difficult" birthday quiz.

If you're daunted by the hugeness of Bleak House, read Rules of Reading, which remind us that this book, like the other novels, came out in pieces, month by month – and it was hot:

The problem for Charles Dickens's original audience wasn't that they had more book than they could manage – but that they couldn't get enough of it.

Think of this:

When we sit down to watch "Season 1" on DVD or Netflix, we wouldn't demand the same rhythm or technique for The Sopranos or Battlestar Galactica that we would for a 92-minute theatrical release.

For an assortment of books and articles about Dickens and the law, see this list.

The Guardian even has something for those who are not Dickens nuts: Enough with the Charles Dickens Hero Worship.

Graphic: mw, using Dickens portrait from The Guardian.

Stat. vs. U.S.C.

We all use the United States Code (U.S.C.) (or the annotated versions, U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S.) when we're looking for laws on a given topic. It's convenient to have laws grouped together by subject, and it's great to have amendments incorporated into one text. But it's important to remember that the United States Statutes at Large (Stat.) matters, especially if there's a conflict.

When might this make a difference? One example is found in a case the Seventh Circuit decided last week, Gonzalez v. Village of West Milwaukee, No. 10-2356 (7th Cir. Feb. 2, 2012). This came to my attention because it cited an article I wrote about codification, Mary Whisner, The United States Code, Prima Facie Evidence, and Positive Law, 101 Law Libr. J. 545 (2009). (Nice to know that someone read it and found it useful!)

Gonzalez asserted a Privacy Act claim against a municipality. One defense was that that the Privacy Act only applies to federal agencies. Bear with me here: I have to quote several provisions of both Stat. and U.S.C. to show how the two versions clashed.

Section 3 of the Privacy Act of 1974, Pub. L. 93-579, 88 Stat. 1896, added a new section to the United States Code: 5 U.S.C. §552a. Since title 5 is one of the titles that has been enacted into positive law, Congress explicitly provided where the new section should be codified.

But that wasn't the only section of the Privacy Act. Section 7 provided:

(a)(1) It shall be unlawful for any Federal, State or local government agency to deny to any individual any right, benefit, or privilege provided by law because of such individual’s refusal to disclose his social security account number.

The act didn't say where to codify § 7, so the Office of Law Revision Counsel (the people who codify laws) put it into a note to 5 U.S.C. § 552a. (The Law Revision Counsel couldn't just make up a new section number: everything that has a section number of its own in a title that's been enacted as positive law was put there by Congress.)

5 U.S.C. § 552a says:

(a) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section—
(1) the term "agency" means agency as defined in section 552(e) [now 552(f)] of this title;

And 5 U.S.C. § 552(f) says:

(f) For purposes of this section, the term—
(1) ‘"agency" as defined in section 551(1) of this title includes any executive department, military department, Government corporation, Government controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of the Government (including the Executive Office of the President), or any independent regulatory agency;

In 2005, the Sixth Circuit found that  § 7 didn't apply to a local government because § 7 was codified with § 552 and it didn't fit within § 552's definition of "agency."

The defendant in Gonzalez made that argument, too, but the Seventh Circuit went back to Statutes at Large, where § 7 very clearly does apply to local governments. It doesn't matter that § 7 was codified in a note to § 552. The language "for purposes of this section" meant the section of the original Privacy Act (§ 3), not 5 U.S.C. § 552 and whatever was tucked into a note.

Gonzalez lost his Privacy Act claim on other grounds, but § 7 does apply to local governments. The moral of the story: the text in Statutes at Large is the law.

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.