Torts or Tetris? One New App For Law Students Focuses on Learning Through Gaming

A recent article in U.S. News highlights 11 mobile apps of interest to law students.  Many of the important apps highlighted in the article include legal research platforms (such as WestlawNext, Lexis Advance, and HeinOnline) and legal news apps (ABA Journal and SCOTUSblog).  Another interesting app that is listed is Law Dojo, which is a "series of games that test a player’s knowledge on subjects like civil procedure, torts, contracts, criminal law and more."  Three quizzes are available in the free version, and players earn points by answering questions correctly.

Interested in more information about gaming in legal education?  The Gallagher Law Library Blog from the University of Washington recently posted on this topic, including a bibliography of scholarship in this area.

For a comprehensive guide to legal mobile apps, consider the UCLA Law Library's LibGuide on Mobile Applications for Law Students and Lawyers.  This comprehensive guide breaks down the wide world of apps into categories such as Legal Research and News, Apps for Law School and Bar Study, and Productivity Apps.

Highlights from the 82nd Annual Meeting of the State Bar of South Dakota

Last week, Law Library Director Darla Jackson attended the Annual Meeting of the South Dakota State Bar.  Director Jackson attended sessions on Electronic Filing in South Dakota State Court, Law Practice Management, eDiscovery, and legal research using the Fastcase platform.  She also participated in the meeting of the South Dakota Indian Country Bar.  For more information about the Annual Meeting and CLE programs, see information available on the State Bar's website here. The Law Library will have additional materials from the CLE sessions available in the near future.


Left: Phil Rosenthal of Fastcase demonstrates using the platform for legal research.  Fastcase is available to members of the South Dakota State Bar.

Right: The South Dakota Unified Judicial System provided an update and training regarding the Odyssey File and Serve system.










Left: Brendan Johnson, United States Attorney for the District of South Dakota and J.R. LaPlante, Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations were among the honored guest at the South Dakota Indian Country Bar Association Meeting.





Right: The session on eDiscovery featured technical and practical tips from Colleen Zea of Computer Forensic Resources, Inc., (Sioux Falls) and Bob Trzynka of Cutler & Donahoe (Sioux Falls).  Panel discussions featured the Honorable Karen E. Schreier, United States District Judge, District of South Dakota, Southern Division (Sioux Falls) and the Honorable Craig A. Pfeifle, Seventh Circuit Judge (Rapid City).

Contractors to Begin Work in the Law Library

Beginning on Monday, June 23, contractors will begin working on improvements to the main floor of the Law Library.  Several clusters of study carrels will be removed and construction will begin on a Technology Learning Center.  The technology learning center will provide access to new laptops and other technology to facilitate training regarding the use of technology in the practice of law. 

Additional work will also begin on the upper level of the Law Library near future.  The work on the upper level will support the relocation of new study tables with lighting and data capabilities.

Please be aware that this construction will be ongoing for the immediate future, with an anticipated completion date by the end of July.  However, all Law Library resources will remain accessible and circulation/reference services will continue as normal from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Anyone desiring a carrel reassignment due to the construction should contact Connie.Dorzok at usd.edu in the Dean's Suite.

5th Circuit Upholds Federal Ban on Animal Crush Videos

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the constitutionality of the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010 in the case of United States v. Richards.  A copy of the opinion is available here. 

The 2010 Act bans videos that depict "obscene" acts of animal cruelty.  The obscenity requirement was added to the 2010 Act after the U.S. Supreme Court held a prior version of the law to be overbroad and in violation of the First Amendment. 

The ABA recently reported on the opinion here.  Additional information is available here from the blog of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which filed an amicus brief in the case. 

Interested in other issues related to animal law?  Consider Animal Law in a Nutshell, available in the Law Library's Study Aids collection on the main floor. 

Track Changes for SCOTUS: Monitoring Post-Decision Revisions to Supreme Court Opinions

A recent study by Richard Lazarus, a Harvard Law Professor, has revealed that changes -- both minor and substantive -- are frequently made to U.S. Supreme Court opinions after they are initially published.  The study is highlighted in a recent New York Times article.  For example, the article discusses that Justice Scalia recently revised the heading of a section of a dissent he wrote in a case involving the EPA, and a sentence from Justice O'Connor's concurrence in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) was deleted in 2006. 

This week, the ABA Journal has reported that a new app has been developed which crawls slip opinions from the Supreme Court website and automatically tweets any differences that are located.  A recent tweet highlights a change from "an" to "a" in Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital, Ltd. (2014).

To access slip opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court's website from the current term of court, click here. 

Update on Law School Air Conditioning Outage

As of the afternoon of Wednesday, June 18, the air conditioning has been restored to the Law School building.  The Law Library is now experiencing normal indoor temperatures. 

Law School Air Conditioning Outage

The McKusick Law Library would like to make our patrons aware that the Law School building is currently experiencing an outage of the air conditioning system.  As of this point, there is not an estimated time for the system to be returned online.  Visitors to the Law Library may experience warmer temperatures than normal.  Please ask at the Circulation/Reference Desk if you would desire the temporary use of a fan.

The Prairie Law Blog will provide updates on the cooling situation as they become available.

Access to HeinOnline Law Journal Library Now Available for USD Law School Alumni

The McKusick Law Library is pleased to announce that free access to the HeinOnline Law Journal Library is now available to USD Law School Alumni.  The Law Journal Library is a comprehensive, PDF image-based collection of legal periodicals, containing over 1,800 law and law-related periodicals.  Coverage of each journal in the database begins from its inception.  More information on the Law Journal Library is available here.   

Alumni interested in registering for remote access to the HeinOnline Law Journal Library should send an email to llibrary@usd.edu with the following information:  Name, Firm or Practice Name, Email, Telephone Number, and Law School Class Information (Year of Graduation).  A user name and password will be generated by the Law Library staff and sent by reply email.  Authenticated users will then be able to access the database from the Law Library's website (http://www.usd.edu/law/lawlibrary.cfm).  From the left menu, click on "Online Research" and then Research Databases & Resources. 

The link to HeinOnline for USD Law School Alumni will be available at the top of the page under "Featured Resources and Databases."  Authenticated users will then be prompted for their user name and password.

Please contact the Law Library staff with any questions about the HeinOnline Law Journal Library or the alumni access program.  

Annual Meeting of the State Bar of South Dakota - June 18 to 20

The 82nd Annual Meeting of the State Bar of South Dakota will be held in Sioux Falls this week.  On Wednesday and Thursday, June 18-19, continuing legal education (CLE) programs will be offered.  On Friday, June 20, the State Bar Business Meeting will be conducted.  For additional information on the programming and events, visit the State Bar Annual Meeting webpage.

Director Jackson will be attending the Bar Meeting along with other USD Law School Administration.  Materials from the CLE programs will be added to the USD McKusick Law Library Collection following the conclusion of the annual meeting.  

Right to Be Forgotten Not Applicable to Attorney Disciplinary Proceeding in Texas

In May, Prairie Law Blog reported on an EU case addressing the Right to Be Forgotten. Texas Lawyer has now reported that an attorney in Texas has been unsuccessful in getting a court to order Google to remove information about a State Bar of Texas disciplinary action against the lawyer, which the state bar ultimately had "nonsuited."

June is LGBT Pride Month - Display, News and Resources

June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month.  According to the Library of Congress website, the "purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally."

As indicated by the President's proclamation of LGBT Pride Month, an important and historic impact of the LGBT community in recent years has centered on the issue of same-sex marriage.  At the local level, a lawsuit was recently filed by six same-sex couples in federal court to block South Dakota's same-sex marriage ban.  A news story regarding the lawsuit is available here from KSFY News.  A map posted here on the Washington Post's "The Fix" site shows the status of same-sex marriage laws and litigation at the national level.  A similar map with information on international same-sex marriage laws is available here from the website of Freedom to Marry, Inc.

To commemorate LGBT Pride Month, the Law Library is featuring a display which highlights several titles in the Law Library's collection that discuss same-sex marriage.

Selected titles from the display include:

Same-Sex Marriage: The Cultural Politics of Love and Law / by Kathleen E. Hull

Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution / Evan Gerstmann

Gay Rights and American Law / Daniel R. Pinello

Legalizing Gay Marriage / by Michael Mello, foreword by David L. Chambers

What’s the Harm? Does Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage Really Harm Individuals, Families, or Society?/ edited by Lynn D. Wardle

A Legal Guide for Lesbian and Gay Couples / by Denis Clifford, Frederick Hertz, and Emily Doskow

Same-Sex Marriage: The Moral and Legal Debate / edited by Robert M. Baird & Stuart E. Rosenbaum

Same-Sex Marriage, Legal Mobilization, and the Politics of Rights / by Martin Dupuis

This Week in History - Voting Rights for Women and Native Americans

June 2 and June 4 are important dates in the history of United States voting rights. June 2, 2014 marks the 90th anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (also known as the Snyder Act). This Act admitted Native Americans born in the U.S. to full U.S. citizenship. However, over forty years elapsed after the passage of the Act before all fifty states to allowed Native Americans to vote. More information is available here from the Library of Congress.

Ninety-five years ago, on June 4, 1919, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, and sent it to the states for ratification. A historical account of the Senate vote on June 4, 1919 is available here on the U.S. Senate's history page.

In light of these important historical dates, the Law Library is currently featuring a display that offers resources regarding Native American voting rights and women's suffrage. The display offers the text of the Snyder Act and the 19th Amendment as well as other resources that discuss these topics.

Selected titles from the display include:

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

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

The Trial of Susan B. Anthony / with an introduction by Lynn Sherr

The Women’s Movements in the United States and Britain from the1790s to the 1920s / by Christine Bolt

Updates to LibGuide - BPI v. ABC News, Inc. Resources

On March 27, 2014, Judge Cheryl Gering of the South Dakota First Judicial Circuit Court denied a Motion by ABC News to dismiss the agricultural disparagement lawsuit filed against it and other defendants by BPI.  On April 23, 2014, ABC News filed a Petition with the South Dakota Supreme Court to reverse or clarify portions of Judge Gering's Order.

Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson, upon motion by ABC, had suspended the litigation while the Supreme Court considered the Petition.  On May 22, 2014, the Supreme Court denied the Petition of ABC News and lifted the stay.  The Supreme Court's order allows the litigation to proceed into the discovery phase.  News coverage is available here from the Sioux City Journal.

The McKusick Law Library also maintains a LibGuide with up-to-date information regarding the lawsuit and related resources.  The LibGuide is available here, as well as through the Law Library's homepage under Research Guides and LibGuides.