Library Hours for Good Friday and Easter Weekend

Starting on Friday, March 29 (Good Friday), the McKusick Law Library staff will follow this schedule: Friday, March 29 -- The Law Library will be open from 8:00 a.m. to Noon. Law Library staff will not be available after Noon; however, law students and faculty may access the library on a continuing basis using the swipe ID card system. Saturday, March 30 -- The Law Library staff will not be available; however, law students and faculty may access the library on a continuing basis using the swipe ID card system. Sunday, March 31 (Easter) -- The Law Library staff will not be available; however, law students and faculty may access the library on a continuing basis using the swipe ID card system. Monday, April 1 -- The library resumes normal hours, 7:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Darla Jackson)

Anthony Lewis (1927-2013)

Last week, the Prairie Law Blog posted an entry regarding the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright. In that post, we suggested the title Gideon’s Trumpet by Anthony Lewis for further reading.

Lewis, a two-time Pulitzer prize winner and acclaimed legal journalist, passed away on March 25, 2013. An obituary highlighting the life and work of Anthony Lewis is available from the New York Times.

In addition to Gideon’s Trumpet, Lewis authored a history of another landmark Supreme Court case, New York Times v. Sullivan. That work is also available in the McKusick Law Library:
Make No Law: the Sullivan case and the First Amendment / Anthony Lewis

Several other titles by Anthony Lewis are available in the I.D. Weeks Library, including:
Portrait of a decade: the second American revolution / [by] Anthony Lewis and the New York Times
Freedom for the thought that we hate: a biography of the First Amendment / Anthony Lewis

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

You Just Got Served... via Facebook?

Are you more likely to check your Facebook account than your mailbox? As the use of social media expands, many are advocating that social media should be an acceptable means for service of process.

Recently, in the case of FTC v. PCCare247 Inc., Case No. 1:12-cv-07189 (March 7, 2013), the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the Federal Trade Commission could effectuate service of legal documents upon five defendants in India via email and Facebook message.

Also, a bill has been recently introduced in the Texas legislature, HB 1989, which would allow for substituted service through a social media website.

For an in-depth discussion of the legal issues surrounding service of process and social networking sites, see a recent article in the Case Western Reserve Journal of Law, Technology, & the Internet. For other recent blog posts discussing the issue, see here and here.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

A Hollywood Case of Copy and Paste

Lindsay Lohan has certainly had her share of encounters with the legal system. Now, one of Lohan's lawyers is also feeling the heat. Recently, Lohan sued rapper Pitbull in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for violating her right of publicity by using her name in his song lyrics. Lohan lost the suit, with the court finding that the lyrics were protected speech. The court also granted a motion to sanction Lohan's lawyer for plagiarism in a memorandum submitted to the court, which contained uncited portions of web content as well as portions of text from another brief in a different, unrelated case. The lawyer was fined $1500 for the plagiarism. The case has placed a Hollywood spotlight on the serious consequences of plagiarism and improper citation.

A copy of the Court's opinion can be found here. Discussion of the plagiarism issue begins in Part II(D).

For other coverage of the case, see a recent article in the ABA Journal and recent blog posts here and here.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

March Madness in the Law Library

With the NCAA basketball tournament now under way, March Madness is sweeping through the nation in full force. The law library is currently featuring a March Madness display, which highlights several law journal articles that discuss college basketball and the NCAA. The display also features the law reviews of each of the #1 seeds in this year's tournament, along with information on accessing additional journal titles and articles through the library's subscription to HeinOnline. While the library staff are not expert bracketologists, don't forget that the librarians are always available to help with your legal research questions!

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

50 Years Since Gideon v. Wainwright

Monday, March 18, marked the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case which established the right to state-funded counsel in criminal cases for defendants who cannot afford an attorney on their own.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the case, the South Dakota Trial Lawyers Association and the South Dakota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will be presenting a reenactment of the trial on Tuesday, April 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the Law School Courtroom.

Click here for a copy of the Court's opinion, available via Google Scholar.

For further information, consider the following titles available in the McKusick Law Library:

Gideon’s Trumpet / by Anthony Lewis

Gideon’s Trumpet (video) / directed by Robert Collins

Gideon’s Broken Promise: America’s Continuing Quest for Equal Justice: A Report on the American Bar Association’s Hearings on the Right to Counsel in Criminal Proceedings / American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants

Justice Denied: America’s Continuing Neglect of Our Constitutional Right to Counsel: Report / National Right to Counsel Committee

Public Defenders: Pragmatic and Political Motivations to Represent the Indigent / by Michael Scott Weiss

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer) 

Open States: A Free Legal Research Tool for State Legislative Information

The Sunlight Foundation has recently launched the full version of openstates.org, a non-profit and non-partisan website containing legislative data for all 50 states. As the site's main page indicates, Open States allows users to find a legislator, review a legislator's votes, search upcoming legislation, and track bill progress. The site's search function also allows researchers to identify issues and topics across states.

For a tutorial on Open States, click here.

To go directly to the Open States page for South Dakota, click here.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

South Dakota Supreme Court Display

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, March 18-20, the South Dakota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in eight cases in the Courtroom at the USD School of Law. The Law Library's current display on the Court features portraits and biographies of the five Supreme Court Justices, a Photographic History of the South Dakota Supreme Court as commissioned by the Supreme Court Centennial Committee, a list of proper Courtoom Protocol, and a schedule of the cases in which arguments will be heard. For more information on the South Dakota Supreme Court, visit the Court's website.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Marsha Stacey)

Women's History Month Display

The law library is currently featuring a display commemorating Women's History Month. The display provides information about the origins of Women's History Month, available from the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/law/help/commemorative-observations/women_history.php. The display also features many of the library's print resources focusing on Women in Law, as well as a copy of a recent issue of the South Dakota Law Review dedicated to Judge Mildred Ramynke, who was one of the first female graduates of the USD Law School.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Sarah Kammer)

Antitrust and Competition In America's Heartland Symposium & LibGuide

The University of South Dakota Law Review Symposium will present a discussion on antitrust and competition issues in agriculture markets on Friday, March 15, 2013 in the Law School Courtroom on the campus of USD. There will be two sessions on that day. The first session will focus on the antitrust and competition issues in America's heartland; and the second will focus on new approaches to antitrust and their potential implications.

For more information on this symposium, see the newly published LibGuide on the library web site. The guide includes a listing of the speakers for each session and links to speaker publications. A separate tab on the libguide highlights select library holdings in the area of antitrust law.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Candice Spurlin)

Briefs filed in South Dakota Supreme Court cases available in Law Library Reserve Room

On March 18, 19 and 20, the South Dakota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in nine cases. The dates, times and case summaries for each of the arguments are found on the Law School website. In addition, the briefs filed by the attorneys in these cases are available in the Law Library's Reserve Room by circulation/reference desk at the east entrance to the Law School. You are welcome to read the briefs in the Reserve Room or check out a brief for up to three hours. When checking out a brief, please sign your name and state the name of the case on the sign-out sheet.

Did you know? The Law Library also has print copies of the briefs filed in most of the cases before the South Dakota Supreme Court from 1949 to the present. For more information, ask one of our librarians.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Marsha Stacey)

Trial Access to HeinOnline's U.S. Congressional Documents Collection

Need to access the Congressional Record or Congressional Hearings online? These resources are available in the HeinOnline U.S. Congressional Documents Collection. The Law Library currently provides trial access to this collection on HeinOnline. If you are located off campus, you may access the database remotely by following the "HeinOnline (authenticated for remote access)" link on the Research Databases page provided by the Law Library. If you find the database useful, please let us know, so that we may properly consider whether to continue the subscription.

(This entry was originally written and posted by Darla Jackson)