From the New York Times: Employees fired after cooperating in sexual harassment investigations may sue for retaliation, the Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case concerning the scope of a federal law barring sex discrimination in the workplace. If it … Continued
law
The Exclusionary Rule at Risk
A longstanding part of U.S. law, known as the exclusionary rule, is getting bruised. The rule requires courts to exclude – or throw out – some evidence seized by law enforcement through illegal searches. But a ruling last month by … Continued
The Long Road to Open Access
An intriguing, far-ranging perspective on scholarly publishing that ties early 3rd century revolutions in scholarly publishing with modern trends towards open access and digital archiving: Instead of using the noble scroll, Origen decided to take advantage of the page structure … Continued
Why Does the U.S. Have an Exclusionary Rule?
In my view, the fact that criminal procedure rules are judge-made led fairly directly to the exclusionary rule. Put simply, the exclusionary remedy is the one remedy that judges can completely control. There are a variety of ways to enforce … Continued
Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case
Evidence Faulted in Detainee Case – NYTimes.com: With some derision for the Bush administration’s arguments, a three-judge panel said the government contended that its accusations against the detainee should be accepted as true because they had been repeated in at … Continued
Social Science Research Network (SSRN)
Sam Kamin at PrawfsBlawg points out that the New York Times has discovered SSRN. He writes: It’s actually a pretty decent synopsis of the SSRN phenomenon, noting that it takes away the power of gatekeepers, makes scholarship available to the … Continued
New vs. Old Media
Revision3 CEO: Blackout caused by MediaDefender attack – ars technica: Revision3, the Internet television network behind popular shows like Diggnation, experienced a serious network failure over Memorial Day weekend. CEO Jim Louderback revealed today that the outage was caused by … Continued
Viacom Ups Ante In YouTube Copyright Spat: Google More Than A Mere Enabler
Viacom Ups Ante In YouTube Copyright Spat: Google More Than A Mere Enabler – washingtonpost.com Cynthia Brumfeld noticed that Viacom actually raised the stakes in a recently (.pdf) amended complaint from April. In addition to pointing out that YouTube hosts … Continued
Analysis of Same-Sex Marriage Opinion in California
Balkinization – Grading the California same-sex marriage opinion: The California Supreme Court’s opinion is distressingly conclusory. It combines a tortured and probably unsalvageable substantive due process analysis with a strange, ultimately barely successful equal protection argument. If it is … Continued
Defense Department Jettisons Charges Against '20th Hijacker'
Law Blog – WSJ.com : Defense Department Jettisons Charges Against ’20th Hijacker’: On the Gitmo front, the last several weeks have brought the Bush administration a series of legal defeats. First, Gitmo’s former chief prosecutor turned against the Pentagon, testifying … Continued
Copyright's Paradox: a book by Neil Netanel
Neail Netanel writes on The Volokh Conspiracy: The paradox referenced in my book‘s title is that copyright serves both as an “engine of free expression” and silencer of free expression. Copyright law provides a vital economic incentive for the creation … Continued
National Security Letters and the Internet Archive
Deven Desai writes in Concurring Opinions: Wired reports that the FBI subpoenaed the Internet Archive and demanded that Brewster Kahle (the Archive’s founder) provide records about one of the library’s registered users, asking for the user’s name, address and activity on the … Continued
Judge Posner Skewers Textualism-Originalism (Thomas, Scalia), And Reveals the Increasing Politicization of Judging by Conservatives
Judge Posner Skewers Textualism-Originalism (Thomas, Scalia), And Reveals the Increasing Politicization of Judging by Conservatives from Brian Tamanaha at Balkinization, quoting from Judge Posner’s new book, How Judges Think: This politically conservative response (“originalism” or “textualism-originalism”) — which under different … Continued
When Law Prevents Righting a Wrong
From an an article in the New York Times: A lawyer’s broad duty to keep clients’ confidences is the bedrock on which the justice system is built, [many legal experts] argue. If clients did not feel free to speak candidly, … Continued
Web-based Classroom Tools
From MakeUseOf.com by David Johannes: Online collaboration between schools, teachers, and students has become increasingly apparent as our everyday routines become more and more connected via the internet. Of course, there are paid solutions that satisfy this need through Learning … Continued
Open Source, Open Access, and Open Transfer: Market Approaches to Research Bottlenecks
The Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property has accepted a paper I co-authored with Professor Robin Feldman of UC Hastings School of Law. The name of the piece is Open Source, Open Access, and Open Transfer: Market Approaches … Continued