Free Coffee During Finals is Back!

The Law Library and the Law School administration are pleased to again offer free coffee at the Circulation/Reference Desk for the remainder of the finals period.  The coffee will be available from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekdays through Friday, May 9.

Please stop by for a caffeine boost! 

Law Day 2014 - American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Every Vote Matters

May 1 is Law Day, designated as a special celebration among U.S. citizens in "appreciation of their liberties . . . the reaffirmation of their loyalty to the United States  . . . their rededication to the ideals of equality and justice under law in their relations with each other and with other countries, and for the cultivation of the respect for law that is so vital to the democratic way of life" (36 U.S.C. Section 113).  

Each year, the American Bar Association chooses a theme for Law Day.  This year's theme is "American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Every Vote Matters."  The ABA's Law Day website encourages every American to "reflect on the importance of a citizen’s right to vote and the challenges we still face in ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to participate in our democracy."  The theme was chosen as the country approaches the 50th anniversaries of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

For more information on voting rights, consider some of the following titles available in the McKusick Law Library:

Voting Rights and Democracy: The Law and Politics of Districting / By Richard K. Scher, Jon L. Mills, and John J. Hotaling

American Indians and the Fight for Equal Voting Rights / By Laughlin McDonald

Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote / By Daniel McCool, Susan M. Olson, and Jennifer L.Robinson

Along Racial Lines: Consequences of the 1965 Voting Rights Act / By David Michael Hudson

Election Law in a Nutshell / By Daniel P. Tokaji and Robert M. Duncan

Resources on the Bar Exam - Law Library Display

To all of our 3L law students at USD School of Law, we wish you all the best as you take your last law school exams!  As you start to set your sights on that next big exam on the horizon, the bar exam, the Law Library is ready to help you tackle the preparation process.  The Law Library is currently featuring a display which highlights some of the Law Library's resources on preparing for the bar exam.

Featured titles include:

The Bar Exam In a Nutshell / By Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus

Strategies & Tactics For the MBE2 / By Steven L. Emanuel

Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays / By Mary Campbell Gallagher

The display also includes a copy of the 2014 Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admissions Requirements, as well other information available from the Law Library's LibGuide on topics related to the Bar Exam, available here.  The LibGuide provides links to bar exam preparation resources, as well as information on the South Dakota bar exam and bar admissions, the bar exam and bar admissions in neighboring states, as well as the Uniform Bar Exam and reciprocity information.  As such, the LibGuide is also a valuable resource for 1Ls and 2Ls starting to contemplate the bar admissions process.

Access to Westlaw Classic To Be Discontinued

Westlaw recently advised its academic accounts that on July 1, 2014, Westlaw Classic will no longer be available.  Individuals attempting to connect to Westlaw Classic should now see the following message upon logging in:

"The move is on....
As of Tuesday, July 01, 2014, WestlawNext will be your research platform and Westlaw Classic will no longer be accessible for your account. We trust you will find WestlawNext a more powerful and efficient platform for your research."

When WestlawNext was introduced several years ago, Westlaw indicated that the Westlaw Classic platform would not remain available indefinitely.  Accordingly, WestlawNext has been emphasized in Legal Research instruction.  The Law Library staff is available to students, faculty, and staff who would like further training or instruction in utilizing WestlawNext for research or current awareness.  We are also glad to coordinate training from the Law School's Westlaw representative.  Please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Law Library staff if you would like further assistance.

The Law Library would also like to make our students, faculty, and staff aware of new content available through WestlawNext, called Practical Law (TM).  Practical Law is a multi-topic resource providing practice-related materials edited by teams of expert attorneys in their field.  Materials include practice notes and checklists, standard documents and clauses, current awareness updates, and tools to compare laws across jurisdictions.  Currently, thirteen major practice areas are included.  If you have any questions regarding Practical Law, please ask a member of the Law Library staff.

Looking For Resources on Studying For and Taking Law School Exams?

The Law Library is currently offering a display featuring several titles from our Study Aids and Academic Success Collection which focus on how to prepare for and excel at law school exams. All of the items on the display are available for 24-hour checkout, so feel free to bring them to the Circulation/Reference Desk!

Included in the display are the following titles:

The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School / By Charles H. Whitebread

Law School Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win / By Charles R. Calleros

1000 Days to the Bar, But the Practice of Law Begins Now /  By Dennis J. Tonsing
(Part Three:  Scoring High on Law School Exams)

Law School Survival Manual: From LSAT to Bar Exam / By Nancy B. Rapoport and Jeffrey D. Van Niel
(Chapter 7: Preparing for Exams)

Law School Success in a Nutshell:  A Guide to Studying Law and Taking Law School Exams / By Ann M. Burkhart and Robert A. Stein

How to Study Law and Take Law Exams in a Nutshell / By Ann M. Burkhart and Robert A. Stein 

Demystifying the First Year of Law School: A Guide to the 1L Experience / By Albert J. Moore and David A. Binder
(Chapter 3: Issue Spotting)

What Every Law Student Really Needs to Know: An Introduction to the Study of Law / By Tracey E. George and Suzanna Sherry
(Chapter 6: Exams)

Acing Your First Year of Law School: The Ten Steps to Success You Won’t Learn in Class / By Shana Connell Noyes and Henry S. Noyes
(Chapter 8: Outlining, Chapter 9: Preparing For Exams, Chapter 10: Writing Exam Answers)

Expert Learning For Law Students / By Michael Hunter Schwartz
(Chapter 16: Strategies For Preparing For and Taking Law School Examinations)

Introduction to the Study and Practice of Law in a Nutshell / By Kenney F. Hegland
(Part Three: Exams)

Also, don't forget about CALI Lessons!  CALI offers lessons not only in substantive legal areas but also offers several lessons on exam preparation and exam-taking skills.  These lessons are available under Legal Concepts and Skills.

World Book Night is April 23

This Wednesday, April 23, is World Book Night.  World Book Night (WBN) began in 2011 in the UK and has been celebrated in the U.S. since 2012, with the purpose of encouraging more adults to read regularly (see WBN's "Our History" page). 

Each year, 30-35 books are chosen by an independent panel of librarians and booksellers.  The authors waive their royalties and the publishers agree to assume printing costs, to allow for special printing of World Book Night editions of the books.  Members of the public and individual libraries and bookstores then apply to be "givers" of one of the book titles, handing out 20 copies of the book on April 23 to persons in their community who may not have the ability to read regularly or have access to printed books due to their means or geography (see WBN's "How it Works" page.)

USD Law School staff member, Teresa Carlisle, who is a Senior Secretary at USD Law, participated in World Book Night in 2013 and will be participating again this year as a volunteer book giver.  Teresa will be giving out copies of "100 Best-Loved Poems" (edited by Philip Smith) at the Vermillion Public Library on April 23 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., or until the books have all been given.

The Law Library is currently featuring a display with additional information about World Book Night, including information on all of the books chosen for this year (the list is also available here).  In 2014, a legal-themed fiction title was chosen for the WBN list, "Presumed Innocent" by Scott Turow. 

The M&M Results Are In!

Congratulations to Liz Chrisp, the winner of the M&M Contest sponsored by the Law Library for National Library Week!  Liz's guess of 1555 was closest to the actual number of candies in the jar, which was 1576.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest and the celebration of National Library Week!

6th Annual "Peeps in Law" Contest is Underway

The ABA Journal is once again sponsoring the annual "Peeps in Law" contest, which challenges contestants to create legal-themed dioramas out of the seasonally ubiquitous marshmallow-bunny Peeps candies. 

You can view the gallery of the eight finalists' dioramas here and submit your vote for the winner here.  Votes are due by 11:59 p.m. on April 21.  The dioramas focus on a variety of different legal issues, from health care reform to constitutional law.

After all, what goes together better this time of year than the study of law and candy?

Library Hours April 18 - April 20

The McKusick Law Library will be closing to the public at noon on Friday, April 18, due to the holiday break.  We will resume normal hours to the public on Monday, April 21 from 7:45 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  During the break, law students will continue to have 24/7 access to the Law Library using their ID cards.

National Library Week - Contests, Prizes, Display!

This week, April 13 to 19, is National Library Week, a time to celebrate and recognize the important roles that libraries play in our communities and institutions.  This year's theme is "Lives change @ your library."

The McKusick Law Library is sponsoring two contests for law students for National Library Week.  The first contest is a Legal Research Trivia Contest.  A 5-question legal research trivia quiz will be available at the Circulation/Reference Desk.  Entries to the trivia contest are due by Thursday, April 17 at 5:00 p.m.  All law students who correctly answer all questions will be entered in a drawing for a study night (for the winner and three friends) in the State Bar Room during the week before finals.  The Law Library will provide a basket of treats and snacks for the Study Night.  The winner will be notified by email and announced in the Prairie Law Blog on Monday, April 21.

The second contest is an M&M Contest.  A jar of M&Ms will be at the Circulation/Reference desk this week.  The law student who has the closest estimate of the number of individual M&Ms in the jar (either over or under) will win the jar of candies.  Guesses are due in the blue bag at the Circulation/Reference Desk by Thursday, April 17 at 5:00 p.m.  Students may submit one guess per day.  The winner will be notified by email and announced in the Prairie Law Blog on Monday, April 21.

Note:  To avoid the same student winning both contests, the trivia contest winner will be drawn first.  If the person who guesses closest to the number of M&Ms is also the winner of the trivia contest, then the second closest entry will win the M&M contest.

The Law Library is also featuring a display for National Library Week and National Library Workers Day, which is April 15.  The display features information about members of the Law Library staff and Law Library student workers, titles in the library's collection about the library profession, information from the American Association of Law Libraries about law librarianship as a career, as well as ways to connect with others celebrating National Library Week through Twitter and other sites sponsored by the American Library Association.

New Law Library Displays for April

The month of April is the first full month of spring, and keeping with the spirit of the season, we have several new displays "springing up" around the Law Library!

Our featured displays include a National Poetry Month display, featuring works of poetry available in the Law Library's collection, including several works by USD Law Professor Frank Pommersheim. National Poetry Month is a celebration established by the Academy of American Poets.  The purpose of National Poetry Month is to widen attention to the art of poetry and its place in American culture.  For more information, see the Academy's FAQ page here.

Also featured is a display focusing on April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.  Sadly, these crimes occur with alarming frequency in the United States.  Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are available here and here, with regard to sexual assault and child abuse, respectively.  The display highlights titles in the Law Library's collection that discuss these crimes in our society, in light of the purpose of these monthly observances to further awareness and prevention.  To learn more, visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center's webpage and the webpage of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Children's Bureau. 

Two other displays call attention to two important days in the month of April -- Tax Day (April 15) and Earth Day (April 22).  These displays offer some of the Law Library's resources on tax law and environmental law.  With tax day approaching, VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) will hold its final session this Saturday, April 12 at the Vermillion Public Library.  For more information, see USD's main events calendar here.  Also scheduled on the main events calendar are several activities for Earth Day and Earth Week, sponsored by the USD Sustainability Program and the City of 
Vermillion.  More information is available at http://www.sustainablevermillion.org/.

Honorable Judge Romonda D. Belcher to Speak at Thurgood Marshall Lecture on April 11 - LibGuide and Display

The Honorable Judge Romonda D. Belcher will speak at the annual Thurgood Marshall lecture at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, April 11 in the Law School Courtroom.  Judge Belcher was appointed as an Iowa District Associate Judge on August 20, 2010, becoming the first African American female judge in the State of Iowa. As a District Associate Judge, she presides over various substantive civil and criminal matters, as well as small claims matters.  She also currently presides over Juvenile Court dependency and delinquency cases.  (Jurisdiction of District Associate Judges is governed by Iowa Code Section 602.6306.) 

The title of Judge Belcher's lecture is "The Making of Thurgood Marshall: A Road Paved Perservering Discrimination."

The Law Library has prepared a LibGuide and a display to accompany the lecture.  Both offer additional information about this year's speaker, Judge Romonda D. Belcher, as well as additional background reading on Thurgood Marshall.  Click here to link directly to the LibGuide.

PIN Auction This Thursday, April 10 - Law Library Resources on Public Interest Law

The Public Interest Network (PIN) Auction will be held on Thursday, April 10 at the Eagles Club in downtown Vermillion, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The purpose of the Auction is to raise money for grants for law students interested in pursuing summer pro bono internships in public interest organizations.

For those seeking more information about public interest law, consider the following resources available in the McKusick Law Library:

Bringing Justice to the People: The Story of the Freedom-based Public Interest Law Movement / edited by Lee Edwards

Fifty Unique Legal Paths: How to Find the Right Job / Ursula Furi-Perry
(With a chapter on nonprofit and public interest careers)

Cause Lawyers and Social Movements / edited by Austin Sarat and Stuart A. Scheingold

Building Your Practice With Pro Bono For Lawyers / Nelson P. Miller

Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid / American Bar Association, Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants

Lavender Lecture To Be Held at Law School on Monday, April 7 - Law Library Display

This year's Lavender Lecture, presented by OUTlaws, will feature Professor Dale Carpenter, who is the Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law at the University of Minnesota. Professor Carpenter writes in the areas of constitutional law, First Amendment law, and sexual orientation and the law. Professor Carpenter's lecture will focus on marriage equality, DOMA, and LGBT advocacy.

The lecture will be held Monday, April 7 at 2:00 p.m. in the Law School Courtroom.  The official USD press release is available here. 

The McKusick Law Library is currently featuring a display with offers several articles authored by Professor Carpenter, as well as print resources related to the topic of Professor Carpenter's lecture.

Update on Cherokee Nation v. Nash - Approaching Oral Arguments

Oral arguments have been scheduled in the case of Cherokee Nation v. Nash (D.D.C., Case No. 1:13-cv-01313) for April 28, 2014, upon motion for summary judgment.  The parties' briefs are available here, courtesy of Turtle Talk, the Indigenous Law and Policy Center Blog at Michigan State University College of Law.

UPDATE:  The oral arguments have been rescheduled to Monday, May 5, 2014.  See here.  

The case is part of a larger ongoing dispute between the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Cherokee Freedmen, regarding tribal citizenship.  The Cherokee Freedmen, who are descendants of former slaves of the Cherokee, desire to obtain citizenship in the Cherokee Nation.  At issue in the case are provisions of an 1866 Treaty between the Cherokee Nation and the United States as well as the Cherokee Nation's Constitution, and amendments thereto.  Tribal sovereignty is also central to the case in terms of the Cherokee Nation's rights to determine their own membership.

For other news on the case, see the following links to articles from News on 6 (Tulsa, OK) and the Tahlequah Daily Press (Tahlequah, OK):

Cherokee Freedmen Continue Fight for Citizenship (Dan Bewley, News on 6, March 8, 2014)

Interior Files For Motion for Summary Judgment in Freedman Case (Teddye Snell, Tahlequah Daily Press, February 1, 2014)

New Article Regarding Sentencing Disparities for Tribal Citizens in the Dakotas

B.J. Jones and Christopher Ironroad have recently published an article in the North Dakota Law Review titled "Addressing Sentencing Disparities for Tribal Citizens in the Dakotas: A Tribal Sovereignty Approach."

A link to the abstract and a PDF of the article are available here, from Turtle Talk, the Indigenous Law and Policy Center Blog at Michigan State University College of Law.  The citation is 89 N.D. L. Rev. 53.

Sentencing of Native Americans through tribal courts is one of the topics being discussed at the Biennial Indian Law Symposium currently being held at the University of South Dakota School of Law.  The theme of this year's symposium is "Public Safety in Indian Country: Tribal, Federal, and State Responses."  Panel discussions focus on the Tribal Law and Order Act, the Protection of Women, and Tribal, Federal and State Relations.  The Law Library has prepared a LibGuide to accompany the symposium, which is available here. 

Additions to Women's History Month Display - With Thanks to Professor Hutton

The McKusick Law Library has been featuring a display commemorating March as Women's History Month, including several biographies in the library's collection about pioneering women in the legal field.  See our previous post here.

The Law Library is pleased to announce that we have added additional photos and information to the display, featuring some of the first female attorneys in South Dakota, and first women graduates of the University of South Dakota School of Law.  The photos and historical information were provided to the Law Library by Professor Hutton, and the Law Library would like to express our thanks and appreciation to her in making these materials available.

Although Women's History Month officially concluded at the end of March, the new items will continue to be on display through the end of the week.

(The Law Library also thanks Stephanie Trask, Law Library Student Assistant, for her assistance in preparing the materials for the display.)

Biennial Indian Law Symposium To Be Held at USD Law School April 2 to April 4 - LibGuide and Display

The long-standing Biennial Indian Law Symposium will be held at the University of South Dakota Law School from Wednesday, April 2 to Friday, April 4.  The title of the symposium is "Public Safety in Indian Country: Tribal, Federal & State Responses."  The official press release for the symposium is available here. 

The keynote address will feature Brendan Johnson, United States Attorney for the State of South Dakota.  Panels, featuring several experts, will focus on the implementation of the Tribal Law and Order Act, issues involving the protection of women in Indian Country, including amendments to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and Tribal and State relations involving public safety.

The Law Library has prepared a LibGuide and display to accompany the symposium, which offer additional resources available on the symposium topics.  To link directly to the LibGuide, click here.