Libraries are bridges to information and knowledge.

To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw
May 17-21, 2010
U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, May 17, 2010 Coggeshall v. Massachusetts Bd. of Registration of Psychologists, No. 09-1111 In plaintiffs’ 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Psychologists, claiming multiple challenges to the constitutionality of the Board’s actions and the regulations involving plaintiff-psychologist’s evaluation of a seven-year-old boy, district court’s dismissal of the action is affirmed where: 1) the members of the Board, individually, are shielded from the damages claims by reason of quasi-judicial immunity; 2) district court’s dismissal on abstention ground is affirmed as this case is a paradigm for Younger abstention; and 3) third party lacks standing to pursue his nonmonetary claims as he suffered no legally cognizable injury in fact as a result of the Board’s actions.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, May 20, 2010 Gorelik v. Costin , No. 09-1192 In plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against the president of the New Hampshire State Board of Medicine, arising from the Board’s mischaracterization of plaintiff’s temporary license as disciplinary action rather than as “Board action” and posted on the Board’s website and in newsletters, judgment of the district court is affirmed where: 1) the issuance of plaintiff’s temporary license and the posting of the newsletter labeling it a “disciplinary action” occurred eleven years before filing of the complaint, which is well outside the limitations period; and 2) plaintiff has failed to identify any retaliatory decision or action by the Board in response to her attempts to avail herself of administrative remedies.

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, May 18, 2010 Adams v. Zelotes, No. 07-1853 In an action challenging the constitutionality of a Bankruptcy Code provision, 11 U.S.C. section 526(a)(4), alleging that the provision’s prohibition on debt relief agencies advising clients to incur additional debt in contemplation of bankruptcy violated plaintiff’s First Amendment rights, an injunction in favor of plaintiff is reversed where the Supreme Court’s decision in Milavetz directly foreclosed plaintiff’s as-applied challenge by narrowly construing the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act to avoid his First Amendment complaint.
Continue reading

To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw
May 17-21, 2010
——————————————————————————–

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, May 17, 2010 Parsley v. US, No. 09-1690 District court’s denial of defendant’s motion under 28 U.S.C. section 2255 motion to vacate his sentence for his drug related conviction is affirmed as the district court’s conclusion that trial counsel did not render ineffective assistance are largely uncontested and not clearly erroneous. .

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, May 21, 2010 US v. Oluwanisola, No. 08-4442 Defendant’s convictions for conspiring to import heroin into the U.S., conspiring to possess with intent to distribute heroin, and possessing heroin with intent to distribute are vacated where the district court erred in applying United States v. Barrow, 400 F.3d 109 (2d Cir. 2005), to whether certain evidence elicited at trial would open the door to the admission of proffer statements.

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, May 21, 2010 Johnston v. Maha, No. 08-6048 In a civil rights action regarding the conditions of plaintiff-inmate’s confinement, plaintiff’s motion for appointment of counsel in his appeal of a grant of defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted where plaintiff’s claims met the threshold standard of likely merit and presented issues of substantial complexity such that appointment of counsel would be of significant benefit to the court.
Continue reading

April, 2010

This Report of the Executive Director to the ABA Board of Governors* highlights issues related to ABA Membership, and Personnel, Also highlighted is an extensive list of Programs and Projects including those related to Bioethics and the Law, Center for Professional Responsibity, Criminal Justice, Family Law, Government Affairs, Immigration, Intellectual Property, Law Library of Congress, Mental Health and Disability, Rule of Law Initiative, Science and Technology Law, Substance Abuse, Women in the Profession, and many more. See the entire Report by clicking on the link below:

April 2010 Report of the American Bar Association Executive Director to the ABA Board of Governors

An abstract prepared for the Criminal Law Library Blog by Michael Chernicoff.

 Are language barriers playing a role in law enforcement?  The Justice Department has begun a “routine audit” in New York to determine whether federal civil rights laws were being complied with in police dealing with non‐English speakers. Such reviews have been regular since 2002 when the Justice Department required recipients of grants to provide services to no‐English speakers
CLICK HERE TO SEE COMPLETE ABSTRACT

An Abstract prepared for the Criminal Law Library Blog by Michael Chernicoff.

The Adam Walsh Act [is] currently in place to protect children against abuse and child pornography and promote Internet safety is being used to classify criminals whose crimes were not sexual in nature as sex offenders. The Adam Walsh Act also requires information to be posted in an online sex offender registry.

CLICK HERE TO SEE COMPLETE ABSTRACT

Selections from the Brennan Center Fair Courts E-lert May 21, 2010.

Summarized news articles and editorials related to the independence of judges and the courts….:

1. A recent George Mason University study suggests that certain factors such as “support for diversity in the state’s leadership,” the “location of a judgeship,” and the “history of diversity” have a significant impact on the success of efforts aimed at enhancing diversity on the state bench – this, irrespective of the judicial selection mechanisms used in a given state. In a broad survey of state trial court judges of color, the report’s authors observed “that the varying selection mechanisms tend to operate to produce a surprising similarity in the processes, strategies, and experiences of judicial candidates . . . [R]ather than a specific selection mechanism, the judges [interviewed] overwhelmingly point to other factors – such as politics, networking, mentorship, and other resources as determinative of the ability of diverse candidates to become judges.” The American Judicature Society has released another important study on judicial diversity, by Malia Reddick, Michael J. Nelson, and Rachel Paine Caufield. The AJS study explores the relationship between judicial diversity and the institutional, political, and legal environment in which judges are selected. Among other conclusions, the study reported that “Merit selection and pure gubernatorial appointment placed more minorities on high courts than did contested elections, while merit selection placed fewer women on intermediate appellate courts.”

An Internet Society NYC update with video:

ISOC-NY on May 8 2010, hosted a seminar “dot nyc – How are we doing?” at NYU. NYC Council Member Gale Brewer delivered keynote remarks, then vendor Eric Brunner-Williams of CORE Internet Council of Registrars revealed details of their proposal to the City, and Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines and Public Advocate Beill DeBlasio’s earlier comments to the City Council were shown in video. There was a discussion “What’s it for?” about possible applications – civic, community, commercial, and “outside the box” – for a local top level domain. Speakers included Tom Lowenhaupt of Connecting .nyc and Richard Knipel of Wikimedia NYC. Audio/video is available .

http://www.isoc-ny.org/?p=1515

A program presented by the state trial judges during the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Bar Association in San Francisco at the Marriott Marquis On August 5, from 1:30-4:30 p.m..

Attendees registered for the 2010 ABA Annual Meeting are invited to join the National Conference of State Trial Judges for an in-depth look at search and seizure of digital evidence and the Fourth Amendment implications. This program is designed to provide an understanding of the sources and types of digital evidence encountered in modern litigation, including the introduction of meta data; examine the approaches courts take to address the search and seizure of digital evidence; explore cutting-edge issues such as search and seizure considerations with cell phones, e-mails, virtual worlds, and the like; and discuss judicial management of cyber-crime cases.

The program will end with a final segment titled “Technology Tools for Judges,” that focuses on digital tools available for judges to use while dealing with electronic documents and data, and metadata, now so prevalent in the courts. Participants will learn the components of Knowledge Management systems, how security issues have been treated, and the relative merits of generic search systems vs. legalspecific systems.

Many of us just learned the sad news that Nylink, which has served New York State Libraries for 37 years, is phasing out its operations and will be closing in one year. We understand that Nylink will be closing its operations primarily due to a steep decline in its revenue stream which has seriously degrated Nylink’s ability to remain fully self supporting and continue delivering an acceptable level of service to its members beyond this period. Throughout the years many of us have come to rely on Nylink for its sustained high level of dedicated, personalized service. Nylink will be missed. We wish the employees a good 12 months and every success in the future

David Badertscher

For additional details see:

Contact Information