Two years ago today, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 809 (2010). Justice John Paul Stevens read his blistering dissent from the bench.
Be sure to watch Stephen Colbert’s hilarious interview with Justice Stevens where they discuss this decision and other topics.
The Daily Edition of the Congressional Record is now available, at no charge, on itunes. The app has been made available by the Library of Congress.
According to the itunes Preview page, the Congressional Record App will allow you to:
- Browse editions of the Congressional Record by date: January 4, 1995 (the 104th Congress, 1st Session) to the present
- Perform keyword searches within individual documents or sections within documents
- Share documents via email
- Save documents to your preferred iPad PDF reader
- Identify the latest bills and resolutions considered daily on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives
- Identify the latest bills, resolutions, treaties, and nominations considered daily on the floor of the U.S. Senate
Check out today’s Google home page. Google has joined the internet blackout (sort of ) to oppose SOPA and PIPA (see yesterday’s post).
Catching this post after today . . . here’s an image of the Jan. 18 Google logo.
The English edition of Wikipedia will be blacked out tomorrow. According to a press release, the blackout is to protest two bills pending in Congress focused on piracy and copyright violations by websites based offshore: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (H.R. 3261) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) (S. 968). The Wikipedia community asserts that this ”legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States.”
Several other websites— including BoingBoing and Reddit—are also participating in the blackout. Google, Facebook, and Twitter are not blacking out their sites but have expressed opposition to SOPA and PIPA in a letter to Congress printed in the New York Times.
On Monday, January 16, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Law Library will have limited hours: noon-10:00 PM. The Reference Office will be closed.
In 1983, fifteen years after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law. The holiday was first observed in January, 1986. It took another 17 years for every state to recognize the holiday. In 1994, the holiday was designated a day of service under the direction of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
For resources about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visit the King Center Website.
GMULS students should have received an email on January 5 with Lexis Advance Temporary IDs and Passwords. If you did not see this email (be sure to check junk/spam folders), please contact our account representative Cassie Pangas. Her contact information is on the LexisNexis Law School home page.
Note that after logging in with the temporary ID and password, these may then be changed to be same as your Lexis.com ID and password.
You will receive information about training when this has been scheduled. In the meantime, you can find further information and videos about Lexis Advance here.
Here are the details from CALI:
- The resume feature is automatic. If you leave a lesson by any means such as closing the browser or turning off the computer, you’ll be able to resume later…that is, unless you complete and finalize (more on that below).
- There’s an Exit & Resume Later link in the upper right that has the same effect as above.
- To resume a lesson in the same spot with the same score, login to cali.org and click “My Lesson Runs“ in the right hand menu.
- When you get to the end of a lesson, you’ll be given the option to complete and finalize your lesson. If you take this option, you cannot resume that lesson. You can, of course, run the same lesson again from the beginning. There’s also a “Complete the Lesson” link in the table of contents if you’d like to finalize your score prior to hitting the final screen.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin sometimes feels inspired to dispense justice with the aid of a rhyming dictionary. His latest opinion includes lines such as:
Convicted of the forgery, insurance fraud, and theft,
he admits the first and last, but denies the charge that’s left.
He claims the sentence for insurance fraud is most certainly amiss –
he says “I may be guilty, but I’m just not guilty of this.
My sentence is inappropriate — undo the wrongful conviction”
And in the end, seeks this relief from our appellate jurisdiction.
The full decision is available here.
The Law Library will be open January 3-January 6, 9:00 AM-6:00 PM. Reference services will be available 9:00 AM-5:00 PM.
On January 7, the library will be open 10:00 AM-6:00 PM.
Regular library hours, including weekend/evening reference services, will resume on January 8.
The Law Library will be closed December 23-Jan 2.
Happy Holidays!