For week ending November 13, 2009. PREPARED BY: Michael Chernicoff Looser Rules on Sentencing Stir Concerns About Equity http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125738940063830037.html The Supreme Court cases of The United State v. Booker in 2005 (http://origin.www.supremecourtus.gov/qp/04‐00104qp.pdf ) and Cunningham v. California (http://origin.www.supremecourtus.gov/qp/05‐06551qp.pdf), which gave federal judges more flexibility to depart from sentencing guideline, have…
This posting is prompted out of concern for the need to provide open, online access to public documents including CRS reports, two e-mails received during the past two weeks, and two recent requests for recent CRS report referenced in a previous post to this blog. First the e-mails. About a…
Histories of libraries are important because they help to both validate the existence of libraries and authenticate their records of service over time. This is why we are so grateful to our colleague Julie Gick for writing and granting us permission to post her meticulously researched article, HISTORY OF THE…
Research Manager-Congress and Judiciary SALARY RANGE: 120,830.00 – 153,200.00 USD /year OPEN PERIOD: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 to Tuesday, September 22, 2009 SERIES & GRADE: GS-0101-15/15 POSITION INFORMATION: Full Time Permanent – No time limit PROMOTION POTENTIAL: 15 DUTY LOCATIONS: vacancy(s) in one of the following locations: 1 vacancy –…
We are forwarding the following message from Emily Feldman of the Government Relatiojns Office of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) because it contains important information that we believe should be distributed widely: OpenTheGovernment.org today released the latest edition of their annual Secrecy Report Card (http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/SecrecyRC_2009.pdf). This year’s report…
Title: Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln Author: John Stauffer Publisher: Twelve (Hatchett Book Group) Price: $30.00 ISBN: 13-0978-0-446-58009-0 Pages: 432 Abraham Lincoln has been written about extensively and ranks as one of the most prolifically written about subjects in print. Frederick Douglass is a much…
After posting two articles on this Web site here and here related to the Obama administration seriously considering allowing much greater flexibility regarding the use of cookies and tracking devices on government Web sites, I thought I was finished with the topic. That is until this morning August 25 when…
In her interesting and provocative article, “Transparency Chic”, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Senior Editor at Reason Magazine, writes: “…Privacy is dead. But one kind of information is still cozily tucked away, the law…[W]ith the possible exception of the ever-leaky CIA, no aspect of government remains more locked down than the secretive, hierarchical…
The following article published in the July 2009 issue of The Third Branch: Newsletter of the Federal Courts discusses a project conducted by U.S. Circuit librarians in the federal courts, and organized by the Fudicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management (CACM). The project involved observation and recording…
People from the Online College sometimes send me various lists related to libraries and websites which they have compiled for publication on the web. Their latest is a compilation by Donna Scott of “100 Terrific Tips & Tools for Blogging Librarians“. Donna’s list contains a number of interesting observations. I…