This year’s “60 Sites in 60 Minutes” program was standing room only! We had over 300 people attend. If you missed the session, or were there but want to see the presenters’ notes, you can go to the Power Point presentation with all the details. http://drop.io/60sites
Thanks again to Gayle Lynn-Nelson and John DiGilio for putting this program together.
E-Mail from Martha L. Foote, M.L.I.S. Chair, SLA Legal Division.
In its 2009 session, the Wyoming Legislature passed the Transparency in Government Act making information as to how state funds are spent readily accessible to the public. The Act requires the creation of a public finance website by January 1, 2010. The website will provide free access to financial reports, financial audits, budgets or other financial documents that are used to allocate, appropriate, spend and account for government funds. The Act also directs that an archive of all information posted will be maintained.
From e-mail by Kathy Carlson, Wyoming State Law Librarian.
Below are Highlights of the ABA Criminal Justice Section 2009 Annual Meeting program schedule for Chicago, July 30 – August 2. Presentations include a wide range of programs of interest to children’s attorneys to white collar practitioners.
Highlights include:
Presidential Showcase Programs
To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw.
June 15-19, 2009.
U.S. Supreme Court, June 15, 2009 Polar Tankers, Inc. v. Valdez, No. 08–310 In a Tonnage Clause challenge to an Alaska ordinance imposing a personal property tax on large oil tankers, judgment for Defendant is reversed, where the ordinance was unconstitutional because it was designed to impose “a charge for the privilege of entering, trading in, or lying in a port.””
To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw.
June 15-19, 2009.
U.S. Supreme Court, June 15, 2009 Nijhawan v. Holder, No. 08–495 Petitioner’s removal from the U.S. based on his commission of an “aggravated felony” is affirmed, where the $10,000 threshold in 8 U.S.C. section 1101(a)(43)(M)(i) refers to the particular circumstances in which an offender committed a fraud or deceit crime on a particular occasion, rather than to an element of the fraud or deceit crime.
U.S. Supreme Court, June 18, 2009 District Atty.’s Offc. v. Osborne, No. 08–6 In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action seeking the evidence used to convict Defendant of sexual assault for the purposes of DNA testing, summary judgment for Plaintiff is reversed where, assuming Plaintiff’s claims could be pursued using Section 1983, he had no constitutional right to obtain post-conviction access to the State’s evidence for DNA testing.
U.S. Supreme Court, June 18, 2009 Yeager v. US, No. 08–67 In an appeal from the District Court’s order denying Defendant’s motion to dismiss his wire fraud indictment on Double Jeopardy grounds, the order is reversed where an apparent inconsistency between a jury’s verdict of acquittal on some counts and its failure to return a verdict on other counts does not affect the acquittals’ preclusive force under the Double Jeopardy Clause.
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10 Top Stories June 19, 2009.
Layoffs BigLaw Voice Mail to Young Attorneys: ‘It’s Not Good News, But Give Us a Call’
Jun 15, 2009, 01:58 pm CDT
Michael Asimow, Editor
A new publication from the American Bar Association
“Playing a hard-driven, unscrupulous defense attorney-turned-prosecutor in Shark was a real eye-opener for me as an actor and, more importantly, as a citizen.”
Identity theft “In a case involving identity theft, the court found that a search warrant for computer data was valid even though its actual wording was overbroad, since the officers executing the search acted in good faith that the warrant was valid. The defendant was a United States postal worker who intercepted certain credit card information from individuals on her route. After an investigation, postal inspectors applied for a warrant to search both the defendant’s home and computers. The warrant was drafted in such a way that it was overbroad in its reference to the computerized data. However, the court found that because the officers believed the warrant to be valid and limited their search in a reasonable manner, the search was not unconstitutional.”
Citation: U.S. v. Otero, 2009 WL 1119657 (10th Cir. 2009)
Hard drive mirror image “In a case in which a prosecutor has complied with its duty to provide discovery by delivering a transcript of evidence from the hard drive of a police computer, the defendant argued that he had the right to obtain a mirror image of the computer hard drive without making a prima facie showing that the information in the transcript was false, incomplete, adulterated, or spoliated. The court concluded that without making such a showing, the defendant had no right to obtain a copy of the hard drive. The defendant was accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with a minor. The state presented evidence that included transcriptions of chat logs obtained from the defendant’s computer. When the defendant requested a mirror image of the hard drive, the state refused. The court concluded that the transcripts were sufficient evidence and that the defendant’s mere speculation that the original hard drive would vindicate him was insufficient to compel the state to produce a mirror image.”
A recent listing from ABA Publisging of books which focus on Criminal Law and Criminal Justice.
Do No Wrong: Ethics for Prosecutors and Defenders
By Peter A. Joy and Kevin C. McMunigal
Courtney Selby, the Collection Development/Instructional Services Librarian at the Mabee Legal information Center, University of Tulsa has summarized the results of her recent survey:
Last week I sent out a 4 question survey about recent changes in bindery policies and procedures in academic libraries. I received 16 replies (thanks so much!) and wanted to summarize them here. There were a few key similarities that I did want to point out. It looks like budgetary considerations are the primary motivators in most respondents’ review of bindery policies. Some folks did note that space considerations factored into their decisions, and those librarians often indicated that they also chose to discard unbound volumes after 2 to 3 years. Most respondents indicated that they had ceased binding journal titles available in HeinOnline, though most also continued to bind journals and bar materials from their home states. All respondents that mentioned CLE’s noted that they will continue to bind them.
· (budget reasons) stopped all binding except for exceptional cases, such as important books or books that are falling apart
