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Why can the TSA subpoena bloggers to get at their sources?
The TSA issued a directive aimed at instituting new security measures. After two bloggers published it, the TSA issued subpoenas that sought to compel them to reveal their sources. Why did the TSA think they could do this, and did they have the power to enforce their request?
January 2010 / 3 min.
Obama’s newest FOIA-related order a boon for historians
President Obama came into office pledging greater openness, and his latest executive order seems to directly speak to that pledge – though it will likely benefit historical investigations especially.
December 2009 / 2 min.
A guide for non-lawyers researching legal problems
Cocky Law Blawg brings us this note: The Legal Information Services to the Public (LISP) Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) just completed its latest version of How to Research a Legal Problem: A Guide for Non-Lawyers. It’s available in PDF and Word formats from the LISP website.
December 2009 / 1 min.
Making a personal site more dynamic
As part of a recent attempt to update my personal information online, I decided to update my personal site to better reflect my current activities and background. As part of my content update, I ideally wanted my site to be more dynamic, so that I did not need to touch it very often, yet to still have it be more up-to-date and fresh. My idea was to rely on updates I would make to other sites anyway, and to leverage those updates to drive my personal site too.
December 2009 / 4 min.
Scientists choose citations for “discriminatory” reasons
Researchers in Spain recently published an examination of scientific citation practices, and discovered the obvious: scientists don’t use citations purely for altruistic reasons.
December 2009 / 2 min.
Law school is harder than grad school
I’ve been debating this since I started a PhD program this fall. (I’m talking about the humanities and social sciences – I don’t know if this applies in other fields!) Granted, grad school is a huge amount of difficult and complex reading. Since it’s essentially professional training for academics, it also means learning a new working environment, a new kind of jargon, and a new bureaucracy. What it isn’t – and what law school is – is a whole new way of thinking about and approaching the world.
December 2009 / 2 min.
Finding the diamonds in the rough in the “blogosphere”
I’ve been giving a lot of thought over the weekend to the problem of finding good content buried amidst all the noise on the Internet, especially when it comes to blog articles from lesser-known sources. (This is true for readers looking for quality content, but it’s also true for authors seeking readers.)
December 2009 / 4 min.
Why should we keep others from selling our work?
Techdirt discusses why you shouldn’t be concerned if someone “steals” your work and sells it, noting that “it’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
December 2009 / 2 min.
Applying Robert Merton’s “The Normative Structure of Science” to the law
Robert Merton, in “The Normative Structure of Science” (from The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations), posits four sets of “institutional imperatives” that together “comprise the ethos of modern science”: universalism, communism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism. How well do these four sets of imperatives describe the “ethos of modern law”?
December 2009 / 4 min.
My top free tools for law firms and other small businesses
Carolyn Elefant recently provided her list of free tools for starting a law firm. In this same spirit, I would like to present my list of top tools, all of which I’ve used at various times myself.
December 2009 / 4 min.