Category «Courts»

Internet Archive to Publishers: Drop ‘Needless’ Copyright Lawsuit and Work with Us

Publishers Weekly: “During a 30-minute Zoom press conference on July 22, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle urged the four major publishers suing over the organization’s book scanning efforts to consider settling the dispute in the boardroom rather than the courtroom. “I call on the executives of Hachette, HarperCollins, Wiley, and Penguin Random House to come …

Subjects: Copyright, Courts, Education, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

Majority of Public Favors Giving Civilians the Power to Sue Police Officers for Misconduct

“With legislation to address racism and the use of excessive force by law enforcement stalled in Congress, there is broad public support in the United States for permitting citizens to sue police officers in order to hold them accountable for misconduct or using excessive force. The legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” generally protects officers from …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Legal experts say Supreme Court ruling on Trump financial records will have far-reaching effect

SCOTUS Blog – Opinion analysis – Disputes over Trump financial records to continue: “This morning [July 9, 2020] the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited rulings in the battle over efforts to obtain financial records belonging to President Donald Trump. By a vote of 7-2, the justices sent a pair of cases challenging congressional subpoenas for …

Subjects: Congress, Courts, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

Supreme Court says generic domains like booking.com can be trademarked

ars technica: “The US Patent and Trademark Office erred by finding the term booking.com was too generic for trademark protection, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. Trademark law prohibits anyone from registering generic terms that describe a class of products or services. Anyone can start a store company called “The Wine Company,” but they can’t …

Subjects: Courts, E-Government, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Patent and Trademark, Search Engines

Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws or oaths remained on the bench

“…In the first comprehensive accounting of judicial misconduct nationally, Reuters reviewed 1,509 cases from the last dozen years – 2008 through 2019 – in which judges resigned, retired or were publicly disciplined following accusations of misconduct. In addition, reporters identified another 3,613 cases from 2008 through 2018 in which states disciplined wayward judges but kept hidden from …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Judiciary Launches Redesigned PACER Website

“The Administrative Office of the U.S Courts on June 28 will launch a redesigned informational website for the Judiciary’s electronic court records system, known as PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). The new PACER website includes features that will make it easier for users to learn how to navigate the system, find what they are looking …

Subjects: Courts, E-Government, E-Records, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

John Bolton’s Book That Trump Wanted to Stop Is Spreading Widely on Piracy Sites

Motherboard: ‘The Room Where it Happened’ is tearing up the charts on sites where people download the book for free. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s memoir The Room Where It Happened is set to release tomorrow, but it’s already a huge hit on pirate sites. According to Torrent Freak, The Pirate Bay, Google Drive, …

Subjects: Censorship, Congress, Copyright, Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research

ACUS Publishes New Report on Recusal Rules for Agency Adjudicators

ACUS – “ACUS is pleased to release a new report, Administrative Recusal Rules: A Taxonomy and Study of Existing Recusal Standards for Agency Adjudicators. The report, prepared by Stetson University College of Law Professor Louis J. Virelli, III, collects and analyzes a wide-ranging set of recusal standards and practices employed by more than 60 agencies …

Subjects: Courts, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Supreme Court’s landmark LGBTQ rights decision summarized

Vox: “Bostock v. Clayton County, a landmark Supreme Court decision holding that federal law prohibits employment discrimination against LGBTQ workers, was a test of Justice Neil Gorsuch’s principles. He passed. Gorsuch is a vocal proponent of “textualism,” the belief that the meaning of a law turns on its words alone, not on the intentions of …

Subjects: Courts, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

Policing the Police: Qualified Immunity and Considerations for Congress

CRS report via LC – Policing the Police: Qualified Immunity and Considerations for Congress, June 10, 2020: “In the wake of unrest arising from George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020,after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck, broader questions have arisen with regard to how existing law regulates the conduct of …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Why filming police violence has done nothing to stop it

MIT Technology Review – “After years of police body cams and bystander cellphone video, it’s clear that evidentiary images on their own don’t bring about change. What’s missing is power …The hope for sousveillance comes from the same logic. If police officers know they’re being watched both by their body cameras and by civilians with …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Social distanced justice? Courts restart trials, struggle to adapt to COVID-19 precautions

ABC News: “As courts across the country begin to cautiously resume in-person hearings through the COVID-19 pandemic, judges are confronting a vexing challenge: how to safely convene jury trials at a time when health officials continue to caution against public gatherings. With no real federal guidance or uniform system governing the nation’s vast judiciary, current …

Subjects: Courts, Government Documents, Health Care