Recent Articles

New Credit Card Rules

September 01, 2009 14:45

A follow up to a posting on this blog in July. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in their FDIC Consumer News has a comprehensive look at the new credit card rules. While some of the new laws have already gone in to effect. Others will go into effect early next year and the last parts in...

The Government Domain: Tracking Congress 2.0

September 01, 2009 14:34

From a recent posting on LLRX.com.Making it easier to track Congress, GovTrack.us, a free and independent legislative database, has just released a number of new features. Written by Peggy Garvin of Garvin Information Consulting, this article is an interesting read if you are a Congressional...

DNA Evidence Can Be Faked

August 26, 2009 19:18

In a recent article in the NY Times (registration may be required) scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence. The team that has developed this procedure hope to cash in on their find by selling a kit that will tell whether the DNA has been...

Internet Materials and U.S. Courts

August 20, 2009 13:42

From the Third Branch, the Newsletter of the Federal Courts.The Judicial Conference has issued a series of “suggested practices” to assist courts in the use of Internet materials in opinions. The recommendations follow a pilot project conducted by circuit librarians who captured and preserved...

MAPLight.org

August 14, 2009 20:41

To assist users in finding and accessing helpful resources, the law library adds website resources to Galileo, the online catalog. We have recently added MAPLight.org. The website's name is an acronym for Money And Politics: Illuminating the Connection. According the the site's "About Us" section,...

New Credit Card Rules Approved

July 20, 2009 14:55

Last week, the Federal Reserve Board gave final approval to an interim rule requiring creditors to increase the amount of notice consumers receive before the rate on a credit card account is increased or a significant change is made to the account's terms. The amendments also allow consumers to...

“Gang of Four” Congressional Intelligence Notifications

July 16, 2009 13:45

“Gang of Four” intelligence notifications generally are oral briefings of certain particularly sensitive non-covert action intelligence activities, including principally, but not exclusively, intelligence collection programs, that the Intelligence Community typically limits to the chairmen and...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Analysis of Selected Opinions,

July 08, 2009 13:57

A recent Congressionsal Research Service report on decisions rendered by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40649_20090619.pdf

The Decline and Fall of the Dominant Paradigm: Trustworthiness of Case Reports in the Digital Age,

June 12, 2009 14:46

Author William R. Mills discusses case citation and the reliability of case reporting in the digital age. His conclusion:"In the digital age, the foundation of trust in our case law reporting system, and in legal citation generally, must be rebuilt. Such a rebuilding effort cannot succeed by...

Champion of Civil Rights

February 25, 2009 19:43

As we approach the final days of Black History Month for 2009, the law library has added the biography of a judge active in the civil right movement -- Champion of Civil Rights: Judge John Minor Wisdom by Joel William Friedman.Judge Wisdom (1905-1999) is described as one of the least recognized...