Just in time for some serious studying, the Law Library is pleased to offer seat cushions. Approximately 50 cushions were distributed throughout the Reading Room today. All are available to use as needed, but please do not remove them from the Reading Room.
We look forward to hearing your feedback. If they work well, we’ll purchase enough for all of the chairs.
Best of luck on exams!
With retired Justice John Paul Stevens 
in the news recently it seemed to appropriate to highlight his Green Bag Bobblehead, currently on display in the Gould Reading Room.
Stevens was the second justice to be bestowed with a bobblehead in 2004. As with all of the representations, the figurine features several unique traits commemorating his personality and jurisprudence. A detailed explanation of all of the features for Justice Stevens can be found here.
Two of the more notable features include Stevens holding a golf club to represent his majority opinion in PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin, 532 U.S. 661 (2001) and he also stands on a Betamax video player to represent his opinion in Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984), which included a detailed discussion of the famed children’s television program Mister Rogers Neighborhood.
Check back over the next few weeks as we’ll be taking a closer look at some of the other bobbleheads on display in the Reading Room.
If you’re wondering why we have a bunch of bobbleheads displayed in the Reading Room take a closer look.
These aren’t just random figurines collected from minor league baseball games, they’re unique (and rare) representations of Supreme Court Justices.
The creation of Professor Ross Davies of George Mason Law and Editor in Chief of The Green Bag: An Entertaining Journal of Law, the bobbleheads have become well known for their light-hearted representations of the personalities and passions of the members of the Supreme Court.
Featured by CBS News, CNN, The New York Times and Politico among others, Law Library owns one of the largest collections of the bobbleheads and is currently exhibiting them this semester.
Whether its Justice John Paul Stevens sporting a golf club to represent his majority opinion in PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin, 532 U.S. 661 (2001) or Justice Souter wearing a gold chain to symbolize his role in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, 510 U.S. 569 (1994) (a.k.a the 2 Live Crew fair use case) all the bobbleheads and the unique stories behind them are currently on display in the Gould Reading Room.
Check back over the next few weeks as we’ll be taking a closer look at some at some of the unique and entertaining features of some of the individual justices.
Just two days left for our annual book sale in the Reading Room! The items for sale are extra copies from our collection and you never know what gem you might stumble upon. Need a newish outline or hornbook for finals or bar prep? You just might find one!
Many people have their version of the White Whale, that thing they chase but can’t quite acquire or overcome.
For 3L Peter Cavallaro it came in form of Pope Benedict XVI. Well, not the man so much as his signature and the acquisition of it.
“It was very difficult” he said. “I wasn’t able to get it until about a month-and-a-half ago.”
It’s no surprise that Cavallaro would eventually track it down as he is an avid collector of autographs with over 300 hundred signatures from a variety of famous people. Replicas of a portion of his collection are currently on display in the Reading Room featuring figures from the last 50 years of American political and civil rights history. The autographed photos range from civil rights activist James Meredith to astronaut John Glenn and from Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush.
Cavallaro said he’s been collecting over the last decade, some in person and some by mail. Regardless of method, he said the process is not unlike law school in that it requires research, planning and persistence in order to achieve success.
“The challenge is doing the research and looking for the right contact,” he said.”Ninety percent of the battle is just getting it in front of them.”
The Law Library’s latest display highlights the laws and perspectives driving the debate over the balance of privacy and security in the era of Big Data.
The controversy surrounding the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs revealed this summer have sharpened the focus on issues regarding cybersecurity and its impact on civil liberties. The library’s display presents these topics in the context of scholarly articles and books with a variety of perspectives while also highlighting various laws and Congressional hearings.
New Display on Privacy and Surveillance
For those interested in the topic, be sure to also check out content from Harvard Law Review’s 2012 symposium Privacy and Technology featuring papers and video presentations.Additionally, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s site has a trove of witness testimony plus a webcast recording from a July 2013 hearing on oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance program. For the most recent information regarding privacy and surveillance Cornell faculty and students can also access Bloomberg BNA’s Privacy Law Watch and Privacy Law & Security Report for daily and weekly updates on all things privacy law.
If you are on campus don’t miss the opportunity to attend The University Computer Policy and Law Program’s (UCPL) presentation Privacy and Cybersecurity taking place Wednesday, September 18, 1:30-3pm in the Statler Hall Amphitheatre. The featured speaker will be Lisa J. Sotto, managing partner of Hunton & Williams’ New York office and head of the firm’s top-ranked Privacy and Data Security practice.
Since classes begin next week, the Law Library will have new hours starting tomorrow. Fall semester hours are as follows:
We have a new exhibit in the Reading Room about the Second Amendment, with books and articles about the interpretation and history of gun control in the United States. If you’re in the area, stop by and see it!
As classes end and we begin the exam period, access to the Law Library is restricted from Saturday, December 1, through Friday, December 14. During restricted access periods the law library is open to law school affiliates, university faculty, and non-law students conducting legal research. The law library continues to be sensitive to the needs of the university community during exams, and non-law students who need to retrieve books or obtain research assistance are welcome to visit the library for those purposes.
A local artist, Cheryl Chalmers, painted the beautiful watercolor of Cornell Law Library on the front cover of the September/October 2012 issue of Bookmarks. Cheryl’s gallery is near Taughannock Falls (see Cheryl’s painting of the falls).
Enjoy!
Watercolor of Cornell Law Library by Cheryl Chalmers
