“This report was written by the staff of the Partnership on AI (PAI) and many of our Partner organizations, with particularly extensive input from the members of PAI’s Fairness, Transparency, and Accountability Working Group. Our work on this topic was initially prompted by California’s Senate Bill 10 (S.B. 10), which would mandate the purchase and… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
New Site Is Comprehensive Resource for Federal and State Jury Instructions
LawSites – “A new website, Trialdex, is a comprehensive resource for finding and comparing federal and state jury instructions. Formally launched yesterday, the site provides a searchable collection all official or quasi-official federal civil and criminal instructions and annotations, as well as an index of 20,000 legal terms, statutes, CFRs and Supreme Court cases referenced… Continue Reading
Lawyers, law students’ signatures needed for SCOTUS amicus brief in favor of publishing the law
BoingBoing: “Attentive reader will note that rogue archivist Carl Malamud (previously) published the laws of Georgia — including the paywalled annotations to the state laws — in 2015, prompting the state to sue him and literally call him a terrorist; Malamud countersued in 2015 and won a huge victory in 2018, when the US Court… Continue Reading
Court Says Using Chalk On Tires For Parking Enforcement Violates Constitution
Wow – via NPR – “The next time parking enforcement officers use chalk to mark your tires, they might be acting unconstitutionally. A federal appeals court ruled Monday that “chalking” is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The case was brought by Alison Taylor, a Michigan woman whom the court describes as a “frequent recipient… Continue Reading
US Supreme Court Tells Lawyers: Write Tighter
The National Law Journal – “While the rule change is not ideal for practitioners, I think it’s a solution that they can live with,” one veteran appellate advocate says.” “The U.S. Supreme Court’s newly announced rule changes will force advocates to make their briefs briefer, an unwelcome development for high court practitioners…” Continue Reading
A Supreme Court Case That Will Affect Every Aspect of National Life
The Atlantic – Can the federal census form ask whether each member of a household is a U.S. citizen? “The outcome in New York v. Department of Commerce, which the Supreme Court will hear on April 23, will affect virtually every aspect of our national life, from the right to vote to the balance of… Continue Reading
Can the President Close the Border? Relevant Laws and Considerations
CRS Legal Sidebar via LC – Can the President Close the Border? Relevant Laws and Considerations, April 12, 2019: “Does the executive branch have authority to “close” the southern border? Recently, President Trump declared that he would order the closure of the U.S.-Mexico border or at least “large sections” of it, unless Mexico acts to… Continue Reading
F-words and T-shirts – SCOTUS weighs foul language trademarks
Reuters – (Editor’s note: contains language that some readers may find offensive, paragraphs 2, 13, 14, 16, 19, 22 and 23) “In the staid world of the U.S. Supreme Court, where decorum and etiquette are prized and silence is enforced by court police, the F-word could create quite a stir. Yet that expletive and others… Continue Reading
The Power of Judicial Review
In Custodia Legis: The following is a guest post by Janeen Williams, a Legal Reference Specialist with the Public Services Division of the Law Library of Congress. “The federal judiciary has the authority to review actions of the legislative and executive branches to verify that they comport with the Constitution see Marbury v. Madison). However,… Continue Reading
How the Law Can Boost Recession Recovery
[email protected] – “In the Great Recession, the two key tools for rescuing the economy — fiscal and monetary policy — had big limitations, according to Yair Listokin, author of a new book: Law and Macroeconomics: Legal Remedies to Recessions. The big increases in government spending needed to get the economy cooking again were mostly a… Continue Reading
Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing Transcripts, As Data
R Street: “We have created a new resource for those who want to learn more about Supreme Court confirmation hearings. This spreadsheet—and a web version (displayed below)—contain the text of every Supreme Court confirmation hearing for which Senate Judiciary Committee transcripts are available (beginning in 1971 with hearings for Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist and… Continue Reading
Harvard Caselaw Access Project Search
“Today we’re launching CAP search, a new interface to search data made available as part of the Caselaw Access Project API. Since releasing the CAP API in Fall 2018, this is our first try at creating a more human-friendly way to start working with this data. CAP search supports access to 6.7 million cases from… Continue Reading
