Bruce Thomas – Page 3

SCOTUS hears 6 this week

This week, the Supreme Court hears arguments in six cases. The week tilts toward criminal law, with discussions of probable cause, absolute immunity, and the confrontation clause. A FOIA case is thrown in for variety. As always, you can read full analyses of the issues by clicking on the casenames below.

Supreme Court hears 4 this week

It’s a short week at the Court (Monday was the President’s Day holiday). There will be oral arguments in 4 cases; topics include the 10th Amendment, speedy trial, sentencing guidelines, and a patent-infringement case involving a deep-fryer. Click on the links below for the LIIBULLETIN writeups.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

09-1227 BOND, CAROL A. v. UNITED STATES
09-1498 UNITED STATES v. TINKLENBERG, JASON L.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

09-10245 FREEMAN, WILLIAM v. UNITED STATES
10-6 GLOBAL-TECH APPLIANCES, ET AL. v. SEB S.A.

VoxPop: Steve Schultze on PACER and RECAP

Today in VoxPopuLII, Steve Schultze of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy talks about the history of the RECAP project. Billed as an attempt to “turn PACER around” (hence RECAP), RECAP is a crowdsourced effort to take legal information from behind the paywalls imposed by the Federal judiciary and make it available to the public for free. It’s not the only thriller we know of that mentions free legal information (or the LII), but it’s the only one we know of in which free legal information is the central theme. It’s a lively read and it clarifies a truly important issue. Highly recommended.

Bruce at Access To Knowledge Global Academy

This week, LII Director Tom Bruce is in Cape Town, talking about open access to law at the Access to Knowledge (A2K) Global Academy being held at the University of Cape Town. Bruce is joining colleagues from LexUM, CanLII, and the nascent AfricanLII umbrella organization in presenting an overview of free access to law to a diverse audience of intellectual property law experts, open textbook publishers, and academics studying new business models for the free and open distribution of scientific literature (among others).

It’s a new group of friends for us, and we’re learning a lot from them. The 40 people present have a stunning range of expertise, ranging from the drafting of international intellectual-property treaties in the realm of biotechnology, to the business structures in use in the African publishing industry, to the economics of copyright as they affect working musicians in Cairo. They give a view of the effects of open access to information that is wide and deep at global scale, and we’re excited to participate.

Tweets from the conference can be found with hashtag #A2KGA

( pictured from left to right: Darrel Pink (president, CanLII), Mariya Badeva-Bright (AfricanLII), Ivan Mokanov (LexUM), Daniel Poulin (LexUM), and Isabelle Moncion (LexUM))

Supreme Court hears 5 cases this week

The Supreme Court hears 5 cases this week; topics range from class-action suits to FOIA. As usual, our talented crew of LII Supreme Court Bulletin editors has analyzed the cases — just click on the casenames for a careful exploration of what they’re about:

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

09-1205 SMITH, KEITH, ET AL. v. BAYER CORP.
09-1298 GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP. v. UNITED STATES
09-1302 BOEING COMPANY v. UNITED STATES
10-179 STERN, HOWARD K. v. MARSHALL, ELAINE T.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

09-1273 ASTRA USA, INC., ET AL. v. SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA
09-1279 FCC, ET AL. v. AT&T INC., ET AL.

Supreme Court hears 6 cases this week

This week, the Court hears cases on topics ranging from search and seizure to a water-rights dispute between three states. Click on the case names for our analyses of the issues in each case.

Monday, January 10, 2011

09-1156 MATRIXX INITIATIVES, ET AL. v. SIRACUSANO, JAMES, ET AL.
137, ORIG. MONTANA v. WYOMING, ET AL.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

09-1343 J. McINTYRE MACHINERY, LTD. v. NICASTRO, ROBERT, ET UX.
10-76 GOODYEAR LUXEMBOURG TIRES v. BROWN, EDGAR D., ET AL.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

09-11311 SYKES, MARCUS v. UNITED STATES
09-1272 KENTUCKY v. KING, HOLLIS D.

Supreme Court hears oral arguments this week

This week, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a wide variety of cases: veteran’s affairs, Federal sentencing guidelines, employment discrimination, market timing, and consumer credit. LII Supreme Court Bulletin analyses of the cases can be found by clicking on the casename.

Monday, December 6, 2010

09-1036 HENDERSON, DAVID L. v. SHINSEKI, SEC. OF VA
09-6822 PEPPER, JASON v. UNITED STATES

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

09-291 THOMPSON, ERIC L. v. NORTH AMERICAN STAINLESS, LP
09-525 JANUS CAPITAL GROUP, ET AL. v. FIRST DERIVATIVE TRADERS

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

09-115 CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, ET AL. v. CRISS CANDELARIA, ET AL.
09-329 CHASE BANK USA, N.A. v. McCOY, JAMES A.

8-country sustainability workshop in Johannesburg

For the last three days, LII Director Tom Bruce has been meeting with representatives of seven African LIIs in Johannesburg (that’s right, “LII” is a global brand). The workshop, sponsored by AfricanLII and the Open Society Institute of South Africa, was held to discuss new strategies for sustainability in open-access to law in southern Africa. Participants came from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland.

Sustainability is a sort of code word: the idea that open-access providers need to find ways to pay their bills so that they can remain viable over the long term. Free access to law is never costless, and LIIs in the developed and developing worlds alike need to find innovative ways to meet their expenses. There are many ways to do that — some entrepreneurial, some philanthropic — and a number of novel, interesting and surprising ideas were put forward by energetic workshop participants.

The best thing to come out of the three-day workshop? The slogan for SwaziLII is “kwetfu”, a Swazi word that means “it is ours”. It’s the best thing anyone could say about their law — and something we work toward every day.

Supreme Court hears cases this week

This week, SCOTUS hears cases on first sale doctrine, medical residents, and railroads among others. You can read the LII Supreme Court Bulletin analyses of each by clicking on the links:

Monday, November 8, 2010

08-1423 COSTCO WHOLESALE CORPORATION v. OMEGA, S.A.
09-837 MAYO FOUNDATION, ET AL. v. UNITED STATES

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

09-1088 CULLEN, ACTING WARDEN v. PINHOLSTER, SCOTT L.
09-893 AT&T MOBILITY LLC v. CONCEPCION, VINCENT, ET UX.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

09-520 CSX TRANSPORTATION, INC. v. AL DEPT. OF REVENUE, ET AL.
09-5801 FLORES-VILLAR, RUBEN v. UNITED STATES

Supreme Court this week

This week, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a wide range of cases. As always, the LII’s Supreme Court Bulletin provides thoughtful analysis of the upcoming cases. Just click on the links below to read all about them:

Monday, November 1, 2010

09-737 ORTIZ, MICHELLE v. JORDAN, PAULA, ET AL.
09-846 UNITED STATES v. TOHONO O’ODHAM NATION

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

08-1438 SOSSAMON, HARVEY L. v. TEXAS, ET AL.
08-1448 SCHWARZENEGGER, GOV. OF CA v. ENTERTAINMENT MERCHANTS, ET AL.
09-400 STAUB, VINCENT E. v. PROCTOR HOSPITAL

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

08-1314 WILLIAMSON, DELBERT, ET AL. v. MAZDA MOTOR OF AMERICA, ET AL.
09-987 AZ CHRISTIAN SCH. TUITION ORG. v. WINN, KATHLEEN M., ET AL.