Could shows like CSI actually affect the functioning of the criminal justice system?

The Economist’s recent article The “CSI effect” says yes.  This article cites the paper Crime scene investigation (as seen on TV) by Evan W. Durnal, which discusses just how shows like CSI, NCIS, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, Crossing Jordan and other scientifically-based crime shows can affect the behavior of jurors, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, criminals, and law enforcement.  The exposure to so many fictitious easily solved crimes may give jurors unrealistic expectations of forensic science’s ability to solve crimes and may give criminals the insight to avoid leaving some types of evidence behind.

The Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives is now providing streaming video feeds of the House Floor Proceedings at http://houselive.gov/. Floor proceedings are also available as a MP3. If you do do not feel like watching or listening to the entire debate or want to skip ahead to a relevant portion of the video, a text summary of the proceedings provides an outline summary of the proceedings.  The feeds date back to the beginning of the 111th Congress. Users can locate specific proceedings with a keyword and/or date search. RSS feeds are available of the Floor Proceedings Video and Audio. Streaming video is also available for Special Events including videos of joint sessions, meetings and inaugurations.

Many commentators, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are weighing in with their opinions about the pool of potential nominees to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. Among the numerous columns and articles are these:

• Sen. Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Expand the Field of Potential Supreme Court Nominees
• Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Pick a Nominee Who Unites Americans
• New York Times blogger Tobin Harshaw summarizes preferences of many commentators and suggests that Solicitor General Elena Kagan is the front runner
• New York magazine writer John Heilemann urges Obama to pick Judge Merrick Garland as a moderate who could nudge the court to the left
• The Manhattan Institute’s James Copland opines that whoever President Obama nominates, there is little or no chance he will be disappointed by that Justice drifting to the right (as Republicans have been disappointed by their party’s nominees, such as John Paul Stevens, moving to the left)

Casting a wide net, Slate.com profiles its Top 21 possible nominees, and invites you to pick your favorite.

Today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. It was founded in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach in.  The Earthday movement spearheaded  important federal legislation on the environment in the 1970’s including the establishment of the EPA and OSHA, Clean Air Act of 1970, Clean Water Act of 1972, Endangered Species Act of 1973, Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Check out Bill Lucey’s post on The Huffington Post for a good summary of the history of and legislation inspired by Earth Day.
If you are researching an environmental topic, check out our Environmental Subject Guide that lists environmental law resources.
When researching environmental acts and regulations, one of the best starting points is the website of the agency charged with enforcement.

I’ve always been fascinated by urban legends–those stories people swear really happened to a cousin of a friend that get repeated and spread around the country, world, and Internet. Snopes.com has been debunking or confirming all types of modern folklore since 1995 and has collected several interesting stories about exams.  Know How describes a quick-thinking move to escape responsibility for violating exam rules; Why Ask Why? gives some unlikely advice about how to handle a strange exam question; and The Carry-Grant shows how to follow a professor’s instructions literally.  As the talk around the law school turns to exams, enjoy these funny exam situations and don’t be fooled when you hear that one of these stories really, seriously, actually happened to a friend of a friend at another law school.

There are two free tools available that can make finding the text of legal documents on the web as easy as the click of a mouse:

Jureeka “is a browser extension that hyperlinks legal citations in webpages.”  Once you have downloaded the free extension, which is compatible with the Firefox or Google Chrome browsers, it automatically creates hyperlinks from legal citations on the web to bring you to a free version of the text.  For example, if I am viewing the Wikipedia entry for 2000 term opinions of the Supreme Court and get down to the entry for Bush v. Gore, Jureeka will have created a hyperlink of 531 U.S. 98 which takes me to the text of the opinion on Justia.  Jureeka works for citations to cases published in U.S. Reports, and federal and regional reporters, the U.S.C., public laws, patents, the C.F.R., and many more sources.  Learn more and try it for yourself at the Jureeka blog.

The LII Citer is another tool that can locate the free text for a legal citation that you have found on the web.  Unlike Jureeka, LII Citer can work with any browser, but you will need to identify the citation, highlight the citation by selecting the text with your mouse, and then click the LII Citer link that you have bookmarked in your browser for it to work.  Currently, LII Citer will locate the text for citations to U.S.C., C.F.R., U.S. Reports, Federal Reporters, Federal Register, Statutes at Large, and U.S. Public Laws.  Complete instructions are available here.

The benefits of each tool are somewhat limited because so few news sources and web pages use complete and accurate legal citations when they write about laws and cases.  Nevertheless, when you do encounter citations on the web, both Jureeka and LII Citer can save you some time and are worth a look.

Yesterday, the White House issued a Presidential Memorandum that addresses the rights of hospital patients to be receive visitors and  to designate surrogate decision makers in the case of medical emergencies. The Memorandum directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to promulgate regulations that require hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid to respect the patient’s right to designate visitors who shall be permitted access to the patient on the same basis as immediate family members, and to ensure compliance with regulations that require respect for advance directives by the patient or his/her surrogate decision maker.

The Memorandum also provides that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges “on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.” The New York Times reports that the Memorandum will “make it easier for gay men and lesbians to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners” at most hospitals in the United States.

In a speech on April 7, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke provided his analysis of the financial crisis that began in 2007, and the current regulatory environment.

Other top current and former officials have also offered their perspective on the origins of the financial crisis and possible policy responses. These include:

• Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s paper, The Crisis, published in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (revised March 2010)
  
• Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s written testimony on the financial crisis and governmental and regulatory responses, before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (January 2010) Continue Reading »

The review session for the Library Research Challenge is tomorrow at 1pm in room 620.  Please come by to see how a reference librarian would approach the Challenge questions.

This week the American Library Association release their annual State of America’s Libraries report.  It found that many people turned to their community library for job information and support during difficult times.  We at the library hope that students and alumni see the library as a resource for them.  Boston area alumni are welcome to come and use the library, and students going off for the summer should feel free to call or e-mail the library if they need research help.  Libraries are a resource and we want to be there for you.