David Badertscher

July 16, 2022

Tributes to Retired U.S. Supreme Justice Stephen G. Breyer

Upon his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2022. Justice Breyer will be receiving a number of awards including the following for his distinguished service while on the Court:

The American Bar Association (ABA) has announced that it will be honoring the Honorable Stephen G. Breyer its 2022 Medal, the Association’s highest honor at the ABA’s Annual Meeting in August 2022. The ABA announcement highlights Justice Breyer’s extraordinary career, his efforts to defend the rule of law, his commitment to judicial independence, and his long involvement with the Association. It also mentions that “[Breyer] has written more than 525 Opinions as a Supreme Court Justice…”.

Justice Breyer will also be receiving the 2022 Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law. This Award is sponsored jointly by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. “Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals are awarded each year to recognize the achievements of those who embrace endeavors in which Jefferson — author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. president and founder of the University of Virginia-excelled and held in high regard”.

July 8, 2022

Tribal Reaction to Oklahoma v. Castro, 597 U.S. ______ (2022

by David Badertscher

No. 21–429. Argued April 27, 2022—Decided June 29, 2022

Castro-Huerta was convicted of child neglect in Oklahoma state court. The Supreme Court subsequently held that the Creek Nation’s eastern Oklahoma reservation was never properly disestablished and remained “Indian country.” Castro-Huerta then argued that the federal government had exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute him (a non-Indian) for a crime committed against his stepdaughter (Cherokee Indian) in Tulsa (Indian country). The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his conviction.

The Supreme Court reversed. The federal government and the state have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country. States have jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed in Indian country unless preempted either under ordinary preemption principles, or when the exercise of state jurisdiction would unlawfully infringe on tribal self-government. Neither preempts state jurisdiction in this case.

July 4, 2022

The United States of America and Independence Day

by David Badertscher

On this July 4, after a wonderful celebration of food, fun and fireworks, I thought perhaps it would be appropriate to write a post commemorating the beginnings of both the naming of the United States and the observance of July 4 as a celebration of the birth of American independence:

On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted “United States” as a new name for what had been called the “United Colonies.” The name United States of America has remained since then as a symbol of freedom and independence.

Benjamin Franklin popularized the concept of a political union in his famous “Join, Or Die” cartoon in 1754. A generation later, the concept of unity became a reality. Thomas Jefferson is credited as being the first person to come up with the name, which he used while drafting the Declaration of Independence. In June 1776, Jefferson’s draft version of the Declaration started with the following sentence: “A Declaration of the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled.” The final version of the Declaration starts with the date July 4, 1776 and the following statement: “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Since that date, July 4 continues to be celebrated as the birth of American independence . It has been observed as a federal holiday (Independence day) since 1941.

June 14, 2022

Gun Violence and Mass Shootings in America

by David Badertscher

In the past year there has been what appears to be a constant drumbeat, seemingly almost weekly and sometimes daily, of reports of mass shootings and deaths by firearms throughout the United States. There are also statistics. A recent study reported by the BBC indicates there has been a steady increase by year in the number of gun deaths in the U.S. between 2014 and 2021 with the exception of a small dip in 2020. Reliable published statistics for 2022 have been difficult to locate due to the fact that 2022 is the current year but according to the Gun Violence Archive there have been 225 mass shootings, 14 mass murders, and 19,350 total number of gun violence deaths (all causes) that have occurred as of June 11, 2022.

While there has long been an ebb and flow of general concerns regarding gun violence and mass shootings in America, the high level of recent reporting mentioned earlier raises the question: Has gun violence and particularly mass shootings in the United States increased to the point where it can now be reasonably asserted that this issue has now become a crisis in America?

The Congressional Research Service defines mass shootings as “multiple firearm homicide incidents involving four or more victims at one or more locations close to one another”. The FBI definition is essentially the same but in the United States there are several different, but common, other definitions of mass shootings. For a more extended discussion see Richard Berk’s analysis of this topic, What is Mass Shooting? What Can Be Done?, on the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Criminology website.

June 3, 2022

Moods and Attitudes of the American People 2022

by David Badertscher

There are many ways to define mood, or national mood, but for this posting I have selected the following: the perceived emotional tone and general attitudes of the American people in 2022.

During my research, I found many references which discussed this topic but have pared down the list to the six items listed below. Some of the materials are primarily news articles and essays, some consist primarily of data derived from surveys, and others are a combination of the two. Looking at the materials through another lens, some of the articles emphasize politics, some economics, and others American society more generally. Finally, some of the articles examine the mood of American society primarily from within, while at least one article examines American moods and attitudes from an international perspective as viewed by others from throughout the world.

I will close by quoting from a 2018 New York Times Magazine article by Steven Hyden (IS THE NATIONAL MOOD THE ONE IN POLLS OR THE ONE ONLINE?, The New York Times Magazine, July 2, 2018).

June 3, 2022

David Badertscher Presented With Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award

by David Badertscher

March 27, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ — Marquis Who’s Who, the world’s premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present David Badertscher with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Mr. Badertscher celebrates many years’ experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who’s Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

As a historian, former educator and retired principal law librarian for the New York Supreme Court Library, Mr. Badertscher understands the importance of keeping accurate and detailed records. Whether cataloguing materials or conducting research, he maintained a commitment to professional excellence that lasted the duration of his career. After earning a Bachelor of Science from Indiana State University in 1957, he went on to teach at Rockville High School in Indiana, Medinah Elementary School in Illinois and Beachwood High School in Ohio. He then began working in the Chicago Public Library system before becoming an assistant reference and circulation librarian at the University of Chicago Law School, where he laid the groundwork for the next portion of his professional life. He also obtained a MS from Indiana State University in Social Science and later an MALS in library and information science from Rosary College, now Dominican University.

In 1973, Mr. Badertscher left the Midwest for Washington, DC, where he served as Executive Law Librarian of Georgetown University Law Center until 1978. He briefly served as library director for the firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP before becoming a Principal Law Librarian of the State of New York Unified Court System a position he held from 1980 until 2012. While there, he also taught at Baruch College and for ten years was a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York Metropolitan Reference and Research Library Agency, now the Metropolitan New York Library Council where he served as chairman of the Board Personnel Committee. It was during his time working with the court system that he helped to introduce computer-assisted legal research in the trial courts, implemented a new method for handling transcripts, and developed blogging research services for the courts. These contributions, in addition to the experience he gained alongside a number of high-caliber professionals at the University of Chicago, have been the highlights of Mr. Badertscher’s impressive career.

August 12, 2012

State Advocacy Strategies: The New York Story

by David Badertscher

Included below are my introductory remarks delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries on July 23, 2012 as part Program E-1 State Advocacy Strategies: Learning to Connect, Grow and Survive. The material below includes only my introductory remarks and a series of slides (see link below) not included as AALL handouts. See added explanation below.

David Badertscher

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

March 8, 2011

Gangs in a New Jersey County

by David Badertscher

The following is a link to a a listing of towns in Union County New Jersey and the number of gangs reported to be established in each town, even many of the smaller ones. One reason for publishing this post is that we suspect this particular article may point to a very small representation of a much larger problem throughout the nation that should concern us all.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/nj_gangs_have_presence_in_all.html?appSession=82694619262727

David Badertsher

February 1, 2011

AALL: Network Neutrality Update – January 2011

by David Badertscher

David Badertscher

Network Neutrality (Net neutrality) is a principle that expresses the concept that all Internet traffic must be treated equally regardless of possible economic and other incentives to do otherwise. The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) strongly supports Net neutrality and is a member of Save the Internet Coalition and the Open Internet, both working to bring together individuals, non-profit organizations, businesses, and bloggers who strongly support this priciple.

As part of its leadership role in raising and clarifying issues related to Network Neutrality, AALL prepared a Newwork Neutrality Issue Brief, published in December 2008. Since that time there has been sufficient debate, discussion, rule changes (both actual and proposed), and litigation surrounding this issue to make it necessary for AALL to update its 2008 Network Neutrality Issue Brief, resulting the 2011 AALL Network Neturalty Issue Brief linked to below.

December 14, 2010

Library Announcement: Online Access to Temporary Comission on Revision of New York Penal Law and Criminal Code (1961-1970) Papers Held by Library

by David Badertscher

David Badertscher

The New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library (New York County) is pleased to announce a major enhancement regarding access to those Temporary Commission on Revision of New York Penal Law and Criminal Code (1961-1970) papers held by the New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library (New York County). During the past year we in the library have been working with professional interns, archivists, and especially Philip Yow and his web design team at the State of New York Unified Court System to find ways to preserving these materials, many of which were beginning to deteriorate significantly. After confronting various obstacles, technical and otherwise, we settled on digitizing the material as a number of separate and searchable pdf files and then placing all of them on the library website with an overlay of google searchability. Although this may not be perfect it does make the documents accessible on the web in a cost effective manner.

A word of further explanation. these papers primarily consisting of documents submitted to and documents produced by the Temporary Commission on Revision of Penal Laws and Criminal Code (1961-1970) were collected by our former Administrative Judge Peter Mcquillan who served on the staff of the Commission. Justice Mcquillan left the Papers in my custody when he retired and we first put up an index to the papers on the web and now the full text of these materials. In addition we have included The Proposed New York Criminal Procedure Law of 1969 because in addition to the text of the proposed law, it includes valuable additional materials related to the work of the Commission and derivation tables for use in comparing the current Code with the earlier Code. Special permission was obtained from Thomson Reuters before publishing the latter segment.