Oxford Legal Research Library Now Available

The Goodson Law Library has subscribed to the Oxford Legal Research Library, a collection of Oxford University Press titles in four collection areas: International Commercial Arbitration, International Commercial Law, Financial and Banking Law, and Private International Law. Each collection can be browsed and searched separately, or across the broader ORLR interface.

Titles in these collections include treatises, practice guides, and commentaries, such as Schlechtriem & Schwenzer's Commentary on the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (4th ed. 2016), Commentary on the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (PICC) 2nd ed., Brexit and Financial Regulation (2020), and Sovereign Defaults Before Domestic Courts (2018). See the full title list.

For help with accessing the Oxford Legal Research Library or other research resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Researching the Presidential Pardon Power

Yesterday, the White House announced the presidential pardons of 15 individuals and sentence commutations for 5 others. While several involved the more typical clemency for non-violent drug offenders, other recipients of a pardon have generated headlines and controversy: two were connected to the Robert Mueller investigation that resulted in the impeachment of President Trump, three more were former GOP congressmen convicted of financial wrongdoing, and four were former Blackwater contractors convicted of killing 14 civilians in Iraq.

These latest acts of clemency have not yet been posted to the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney website, which includes information about petitions granted and denied during this presidential administration. It seems likely that the list may continue to grow during President Trump's remaining four weeks in office, as news sources have reported the president is considering preemptive pardons for his adult children and for close associates like Rudolph Giuliani. There have also been questions about the likelihood or legality of President Trump attempting a preemptive self-pardon to avoid future federal charges, which has never been tested in U.S. history.

Controversial acts of clemency are more common in the final weeks of a presidential administration, as the Congressional Research Service noted last month in its report, Presidential Transitions: Executive Clemency. Table 1 of that CRS report indicates that "since 1945, every President who completed his term of office, except President Lyndon B. Johnson, increased the rate at which he granted clemency in the final four months of his Administration, when compared with his previous months in office."

CRS also explored common questions related to presidential pardon power in a January 2020 report, Presidential Pardons: Overview and Selected Legal Issues. In this longer report, the research office for Congress explained the process for clemency, describes the different types of clemency available, and reviews the unclear legal status of self-pardons. The CRS treatise Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN) provides more detail in the subchapter ArtII.S2.C1.3 Pardon Power.

Additional works on the presidential pardon power include Harold J. Krent's Presidential Powers (available to the Duke community as an ebook) and Jeffrey Crouch's The Presidential Pardon Power (available in print when Library Takeout Service resumes in January). For help locating additional materials about the presidential pardon power, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

The Finals Countdown

The compressed fall semester schedule means that finals are just around the corner! Law school exams are stressful even in the best of times, so law school exams in 2020 may require some additional support. Fortunately, the Goodson Law Library provides access to some resources that can help ensure your success.

Online study aids can be invaluable ways to clarify difficult concepts from class or fill in gaps in your outlining. Current Duke Law students have online access to both the West Academic Study Aids Library and the Wolters Kluwer Study Aid Library. While both services offer online reading/searching and offline download, different study aid and outline series are available in each database. West includes the series Concepts and Insights, Hornbooks, Nutshells, Black Letter Outlines, Legalines, Sum and Substance, Law Stories, and many more. Wolters Kluwer provides access to the series Examples & Explanations, Glannon Guides, Emanuel Law Outlines, and more.

If law school exams are a new format for you this semester, you might also like to review some study aids specifically aimed at writing law school examination answers. Some recommended titles include:

• Batoff, Law School Secrets: Outlining for Law Exam Success (2012)
• Darrow-Kleinhaus, Mastering the Law School Exam (2007)
• Whitebread, The Eight Secrets of Top Exam Performance in Law School (2d ed. 2008)

Duke Law students can also access the resources at CALI: The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction. CALI provides members with access to more than 1,000 interactive tutorials (known as Lessons) on legal topics, including a subsection of offerings on Law School Success that features several lessons on exam strategies. Students from CALI member schools can register an account using an authorization code (access Duke's code at the bottom of the Software list with your NetID, or Ask a Librarian).

Finally, be sure to make time during the study crunch for self-care. While it's important to have a good handle on the substance of the test, it's even more important to get adequate sleep the night before, and to ensure that you are maintaining healthy habits with diet and exercise. In the April 2020 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal, attorney Dani Berry shares tips for "Mindfulness Meditation to Combat Stress and Promote Civility in the Law". The Lifehacker blog has a Relaxation section filled with various tips and recommendations for personal wellness. Numerous meditation and relaxation apps are available for download to your mobile device; Vault recommended five for lawyers and law students in June.

Good luck on your finals, and have a safe and happy break!

Legal Holiday Gift Guide, Pandemic Edition

Back in mid-March, it seemed unthinkable that the coronavirus pandemic could possibly stretch into the winter holidays, even as many experts cautioned about the long road ahead. Today, states are reopening slowly, albeit with limitations on public gatherings in order to prevent new spikes in infection rates. With more folks likely to be completing their holiday shopping -- and shipping -- online, it would be prudent to get a head start on planning in order to ensure that your carefully-selected gifts arrive in time. The first (and hopefully last) pandemic edition of the Goodson Blogson's long-running guide to holiday gift ideas for lawyers and law students is here to help.

Remote work (and school) is here to stay for at least a while longer, so maybe the lawyer or law student in your life could use an upgrade to their home office setup. Accessories like webcams, microphones, headsets, ring lights, and portable green screens have been in high demand since spring, and backorders are a common sight. Savvy shoppers will want to start early and also to search beyond the usual big-box stores, including sites like Newegg and B&H. Check out reviews and recommendations before you buy at sites like Engadget and Wirecutter.

Face mask mandates are also a likely sticking around for the future, meaning everyone should have several masks in their rotation. Build up your recipient's collection with some law-themed face masks from Etsy sellers. Stock changes quickly, but some current favorites include The Scales of Justice and The Supremes: Women of SCOTUS.

The internet-famous "This is Fine" dog (also known as Question Hound) is featured on all kinds of official swag suitable for 2020, including a thought bubble face mask, a plush toy in two sizes (full size out of stock until November), a coffee mug that can come bundled with the miniature plush pup, and a dry-erase board.

We're all eating at home a lot more these days. Whether your recipient loves to cook or is still just learning, the Food & Drink section at Uncommon Goods offers dozens of fun DIY kits, including several home brewing/distilling options as well as an introduction to molecular gastronomy techniques.

However, it’s important to support local businesses, including restaurants. How about a gift card to your recipient’s favorite eatery? Gift cards for future visits will help keep restaurants afloat as they make ends meet with limited capacities and takeout sales. (Gift cards to restaurant delivery services like DoorDash or UberEats are another option, but note that an individual restaurant will derive more benefit from direct gift card sales.) One local example is Durham's own Cocoa Cinnamon, which has kept its three area cafes afloat by pivoting to online sales of its coffee and merchandise. Some favorite dining destinations may also offer at-home meal kits or long-distance delivery via Goldbelly, including NYC delis, Los Angeles food trucks, and Michelin-starred chefs. Goldbelly allows you to select a specified future delivery date, meaning that you can shop now and set the deliveries to arrive during the holiday season.

Another good gift idea for foodies could be a cookbook by a favorite chef, or about a favorite style of cuisine. With many independent bookstores struggling during the pandemic, consider making holiday book purchases through your local bookstore, or through the network of independent bookstores at Bookshop.org. Bookshop.org allows you to designate a specific independent bookstore to receive profits from your order, or to contribute to an earnings pool that is distributed to independent bookstores around the country.

Games are another great pandemic gift idea, whether they are video game consoles or tabletop games. The U.S. Capitol Historical Society Gift Shop offers several law-themed jigsaw puzzles, including the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Capitol rotunda's Apotheosis. Brush up on the Constitution with Constitution Quest, a board game available at the National Archives store. Want to find other, not necessarily law-themed, board game ideas? Check out the rankings and ratings at Board Game Geek.

Gift subscriptions to cultural institutions are also a great idea. Even as many live performance venues remain unable to open their doors just yet, some organizations have pivoted to subscription-based streaming performances, including the North Carolina Symphony. An annual gift subscription to MasterClass is another option for a safe, socially-distanced cultural gift. Many museums have begun to open on a limited basis, making museum memberships another potential gift idea for 2021.

Should you find yourself short on time or ideas this year, remember that most law students (or recent law school graduates) would just as likely welcome a cash infusion (or gift card equivalent) at this time of year. Whether it's spent on spring semester textbooks, post-bar exam expenses, or even some of the recommended items above is entirely your recipient's call. Have a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season!

A Halloween Time Warp

"As extra precaution against too much confidence as a result of improvement in the situation, the board in its daily statement issued last night urges the people of the city not to celebrate Hallowe'en night in the usual manner (by congregating) owing to danger from crowding in rooms and on the sidewalks." While this statement could just as easily be written today, it comes from a 1918 influenza briefing by the Durham City and County Board of Health, published in the October 31 issue of the Durham Morning Herald (available to the Duke community via Newspapers.com).

Durham was no outlier -- officials around the country restricted public gatherings and Halloween festivities during the influenza epidemic of 1918, as CNN and History.com have both explored recently. The discouragement wasn't entirely successful -- only days later, the Nov. 3 society page of the Herald highlighted the "very bright and attractive Hallowe’en party […] given by the nurses of the Watts hospital Training School," where one can only hope that the appropriate health precautions were taken.

You can find these articles and other fascinating artifacts in newspaper databases, which preserve local history for the enterprising researcher. The Duke University Libraries has compiled an A-Z database list for Newspapers, which range from backfiles of a single paper title to compilations of thousands of different newspaper titles. Coverage dates will vary widely by title, but here are some recommended sources for historical newspaper research:

• America's Historical Newspapers: more than 6,000 titles of American newspapers published between 1690-1922
• Newspapers.com: more than 3,000 titles from around the world, with varying dates of coverage between 1700-2000.
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers: full-text PDF coverage of nearly two dozen newspapers, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Chicago Tribune.

For help with researching current or historical newspapers, be sure to Ask a Librarian. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

50-State Voting Resources Guide

Most people associate voting with early November, specifically the first-Tuesday holiday known since 1845 as Election Day. However, the current pandemic as well as expectations of record voter turnout has brought renewed focus onto other methods of voting, including mail-in voting and early in-person voting. In North Carolina, for example, one-stop early in-person voting begins today, October 15th, and will last until October 31st.

Issues surrounding voting this year, especially related to COVID-19, have made finding accurate information about the voting process all the more urgent. In response, the Goodson Law Library's Faculty and Scholarly Services Librarian Wickliffe Shreve has worked with the Government Relations Committee of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) to create a Voting Resources page as part of AALL's Advocacy Toolkit.

The Voting Resources page has information and links to nonpartisan resources on information about state primaries, locating state and local election websites, locating polling places, voter ID requirements, election dates, registering to vote and confirming your registration, sample ballots, absentee and mail-in ballot requests (including those for military and overseas voters), early voting, potential voting hurdles, and information specific to COVID-19 and the 2020 election. Although targeted at the library community, the Advocacy Toolkit contains resources on legislative advocacy that is useful to the entire legal community.

The Voting Resources page's contents will be updated regularly, and will exist as a permanent resource beyond the 2020 election. For more information about resources listed on this guide, or other materials on election law, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

NCLC Digital Library Now Available

The Goodson Law Library has recently subscribed to the National Consumer Law Center's NCLC Digital Library. This campus-wide database includes full-text access to 22 e-book titles on consumer law topics, including: debtor rights, mortgages & foreclosures, credit & banking, deception & warranties, and consumer litigation. A how-to guide for consumers on Surviving Debt is also included in this subscription.

The Quick Start Guide contains tips and tricks for searching and browsing the digital library. Recent updates to online editions as well as significant law changes in the last six months are marked with blue or red flags, respectively. As the guide cautions, the database's search features differ from research services like Lexis and Westlaw, but it is possible to develop proximity searches and exclude unwanted words using the NCLC search syntax. A separate "Advanced Pleadings Search" link is available to limit results only to sample documents included with publications.

For more information about the history of the NCLC, check out the Our Story section of their website. For assistance with using the new NCLC Digital Library database or with locating other consumer law resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

The Bar Exam v. Diploma Privilege

The coronavirus pandemic has forced a reckoning nationwide about the administration of bar examinations, usually offered two times a year in each jurisdiction. While about two dozen states did hold a late-July, socially-distanced bar exam in person, other states postponed to a planned September administration, which some jurisdictions postponed again in favor of a remotely-administered online exam to be held on October 5 and 6 (see chart at the National Conference of Bar Examiners). Concerns have grown over the possibility of technical issues with the upcoming online bar exam, with a number of test-takers reporting problems with practice exams and difficulty in obtaining remote support. Michigan's online bar exam, held in late July, experienced widespread technical issues which the State Board of Law Examiners later blamed on a hacking attempt.

Whether or not next week's online examination faces similar technical issues, it seems certain that conversations about alternative paths to law practice will continue for the duration of the pandemic. Last week, the District of Columbia became the fifth jurisdiction to provide for emergency licensure of recent law graduates during the pandemic. Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Louisiana have also provided that recent law school graduates may bypass a bar examination and begin supervised law practice under certain conditions. Some readers might be surprised by the idea of a lawyer skipping the bar exam, but "diploma privilege" is hardly a new concept. (Ask law students in Wisconsin, the only state that still regularly permits graduates of its two ABA-accredited law schools to practice law in the state without taking a bar exam, if they meet certain requirements.) As a bit of library research shows, emergency bar exam waivers have revived a practice that was once incredibly common in American law practice. 

The "Bar Examinations" section of Kermit Hall's Oxford Companion to American Law (available online to the Duke community) outlines the history and development of the bar examination in the United States. Up until the 1870s, a bar examinee would be questioned orally by a judge or lawyer, following the end of an apprenticeship period. In the 1870s, a movement grew to develop more consistent standards for examinations; around the same time, "diploma privilege" became more commonplace, as states and law schools sought to entice would-be lawyers to attend their programs. Lawrence Friedman's A History of American Law (4th ed. 2019 available online) notes the growth in diploma privilege practices: "Between 1855 and 1870, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, New York, Tennessee, Michigan, and Wisconsin gave the privilege to graduates of home-state law schools. In 1870, Oregon, which had no law school of its own, went so far as to give the privilege to graduates of any school that had the diploma privilege in its home state" (p. 604). By 1890, as the Oxford Companion noted, 16 states provided diploma privilege for graduates from 26 law schools. The decline of the diploma privilege coincided with the establishment of the National Conference of Bar Examiners in 1931 - by the end of the decade, standardized written bar examinations had overtaken the diploma privilege. By 1974, when a history of diploma privilege was published in the Tulsa Law Journal, only four states still honored the privilege; once West Virginia abolished the option in 1988, Wisconsin stood alone in regularly offering its state's graduates diploma privilege.

As the pandemic continues into the indefinite future, thousands of recent law school graduates have struggled to prepare for ever-changing bar exam dates and formats. Commentators have raised questions about the safe and accessible administration of bar exams under emergency conditions, and even the necessity of the bar examination at all. Critics have highlighted the bar examination's history as a gatekeeping mechanism that was designed in part to restrict access to the bar for racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, and questioned the relevance of the test's content to the skills needed for successful law practice. Whatever happens with next week's online bar examination (and best of luck to our Duke Law alumni and other examinees), these debates are likely to continue for the duration of the pandemic, and beyond.

First Monday in October

The Friday night announcement of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death prompted national mourning. Over the weekend, hundreds gathered on the steps of the United States Supreme Court, and at courthouses around the country, to celebrate the life of this trailblazing jurist. This week, the Justice will lie in repose at first the Court steps, and then at the U.S. Capitol.

To learn more about Justice Ginsburg's remarkable life and career, the Duke University community can access the 2018 documentary film RBG online. Additional biographical resources can be found in the Duke Libraries catalog with a subject search for "Ginsburg, Ruth Bader". The "Available Online" filter will limit your results to e-books and video links; the Duke community may also request circulating print materials via Takeout service.

Justice Ginsburg's death has prompted not only an important national conversation about filling a vacant Court seat during a presidential election, but legal analysis about the potential impact of her absence on the Court's upcoming term, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 5. Although the date has fluctuated in the Court's history, the "first Monday in October" has marked the opening arguments for a new term since 1917. (For historical background on the Court's opening session dates, check out section 1.2(f) of the treatise Supreme Court Practice: For Practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, 11th ed. 2019, online to the Law School community in Bloomberg Law).

In a press release, the Court announced that all October oral arguments will take place via teleconference, a practice that began in May due to the coronavirus pandemic. The remote teleconference will include a live audio broadcast for media and the public, once again allowing real-time access to Court proceedings. The Court has not yet decided how November and December oral arguments will be conducted.

SCOTUSblog provides summaries and filing links for cases on the October Term 2020 docket, sorted by argument date. The Court's own website also includes links to argument calendars and docket filings at Calendars and Lists. Up first this Term is Carney v. Adams, a First Amendment case involving Delaware's state constitutional provision limiting the number of state high court judges affiliated with particular political parties. For additional case analysis throughout the Term, the American Bar Association's Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases (via HeinOnline) publishes seven issues that analyze upcoming cases and an eighth summary issue following the end of the Term.

SCOTUSblog will undoubtedly provide ongoing analysis of not only the Court's OT20 term, but the developing nomination and confirmation process ahead. For additional resources on the operations of the U.S. Supreme Court or biographies of justices, check out the library research guide or Ask a Librarian.

Constitution Day 2020

This Thursday marks the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Constitution Day and Citizenship Day are recognized together, as described in 36 U.S.C. § 106(b) to "commemorate the formation and signing on September 17, 1787, of the Constitution and recognize all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens."

While the restricted library building access and quarantine protocols mean we can't provide our usual pocket Constitutions to visitors for the time being, the Government Publishing Office's Constitution of the United States with Index and the Declaration of Independence, Pocket Edition is available as House Doc. 112-129 (be sure to select "Booklet" if printing!). The text of the Constitution is also available in the Organic Laws of every print or electronic version of the U.S. Code, in the Library of Congress's Constitution Annotated site, and as a high-quality scan at the National Archives.

To learn more about the history behind the drafting and signing of the U.S. Constitution, try a search of the Duke Libraries Catalog for the subject heading "United States. Constitution -- Signers -- Biography." Although print materials are available for contactless Takeout requests, you can also use the "Available Online" filter to limit to electronically available texts. E-books containing biographical sketches of the Framers include John R. Vile's The Men Who Made the Constitution: Lives of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention and the 1986 NARA publication Framers of the Constitution. An electronic version of Janice McKenney's Women of the Constitution: The Wives of the Signers is also available. This title expands upon a classic 1912 text "The Wives of the Signers," which can be found in Volume 3 of Pioneer Mothers of America (in HeinOnline).

For help with locating other U.S. constitutional law resources or with navigating print or online collections, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

The State of State Bar Association Benefits

Members of the state bars or bar associations in all fifty states enjoy free access to at least one online legal research service as a benefit of membership. Generally, these membership benefits provide access to either Fastcase or Casemaker; a few states offer access to both. These services each include state and federal case law, statutes, and regulations; each also offer some unique content courtesy of partnerships (law reviews through Fastcase's partnership with HeinOnline; foreign and international content on Casemaker via vLex).

Both services have been in the bar benefit market for many years, and occasionally jurisdictions will switch platforms. Today marks the first day of Fastcase's partnership with the Alabama State Bar, announced back in May. Members had previously received access to Casemaker.

The Goodson Law Library has tracked these changes to the landscape on our page Legal Research Via State Bar Associations. Current partnership lists for each research service are also posted at Fastcase and Casemaker, respectively. The services listed on these sites may also include county and local bar association benefits, which are not tracked on the Law Library's table.

Curious to check out the bar research benefit in your planned jurisdiction of law practice? The Duke University community has access to an educational version of Fastcase with a NetID and password (and can already test the new Fastcase interface, which will become the default later in September). You may also wish to investigate student membership options for bar associations in the locations where you plan to practice; they may provide student members with free or deeply discounted registration and access to member benefits, including legal research tools.

For help with navigating Fastcase or with other legal research tools that are available to the University and Law School communities, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Study Aids for Semester Success

Yesterday, attorney Andrew S. Fleischman observed on Twitter: "Law schools teach you how to write briefs by having you read opinions. Which is a bit like learning to cook by reading restaurant reviews." Many law students would likely agree with this sentiment for just about any legal subject, as they work to piece together disparate holdings from their casebooks in order to form a bigger picture of the law.

Enter study aids, which can provide an overview and introduction that presents the law more clearly than a casebook. These titles range from basic introductions or casebook-keyed outlines to more in-depth discussions of a particular subject. The Goodson Law Library provides electronic access to several law-related study aid collections, accessible to current members of the Duke University community.

• West Academic Study Aids Library includes more than 500 study aid titles. Available series include Nutshells, Hornbooks (and Concise Hornbooks), Sum & Substance, and Black Letter Outlines. Users may search or read online, or create an account that allows for offline reading and annotation.
• Wolters Kluwer Study Aids includes full-text access to nearly 200 study aids. Available series include Examples & Explanations, Glannon Guides, Emanuel Law Outlines, and more. Users may search or read online, or create an individual account that allows for offline reading and annotation.
• Elgar Advanced Introductions to Law currently includes 17 titles, although more will be added during the coming year. These accessible, concise overviews tend to focus on comparative and international law topics.

With the Reserve Collection unavailable for the indefinite future due to coronavirus quarantine protocols, electronic study aids should help fill any gaps in your class outlines. For help with locating a study aid for a particular topic, or with using these databases, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

100 Years of the 19th Amendment

Today marks the centennial of the ratification of the Amendment XIX to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing: "The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, which had passed in both chambers of Congress during the summer of 1919. The National Archives include a high-resolution image of the House Joint Resolution at its America's Founding Documents site for the U.S. Constitution.

To commemorate the occasion, the New York Times has published Suffrage at 100, a series of articles exploring the fight for women's right to vote and the stories of those left behind by it. As the articles note, Native American women and Asian immigrants were excluded due to citizenship laws of the era, while Black Americans faced discriminatory measures such as poll taxes in much of the country.

For more information about the history of the 19th Amendment, check out the Duke Libraries Catalog for the subject heading "Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History". You’ll find dozens of electronically available titles like 2020's Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women's Suffrage Movement or the recent anthology 100 Years of Women's Suffrage. Print titles are also available and may be requested through the Library Takeout Service by the Duke University community.

For help with navigating library resources on the Nineteenth Amendment or voting rights history, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Regulations.gov Begins the Move to Beta

Law students who are finishing up the Legal Research Bootcamp sessions have likely already completed the module on Congress.gov and Regulations.gov. The session on Regulations.gov mentioned that the content of the "classic" site was being migrated to a new "beta" site, which would launch officially at some time in the future.

Well, as is true for many of us during these times, it appears to be officially "Blursday" for Regulations.gov. Starting recently, Thursday is "Beta Day," meaning that the only version of Regulations.gov that you will be able to access every Thursday is the beta. If you try to access the classic site on Thursdays, you will automatically be redirected to the beta one. This will be true even if you click on "For the official site, visit www.regulations.gov" link at the top of the beta site.

Although you can easily access the classic site on any other day of the week, if you did attempt to use it on a Thursday, you will have to either (1) clear your cache, or (2) use a different browser for your research in order to see the classic version again. (Confusing, we know! There should now be a banner at the top of either site with this warning...which appears on every day but Thursday).

Regulations.gov was launched with the stated purpose of encouraging greater public participation in the rulemaking process by creating, in essence, a "one-stop shop" for access to rules open for comment. Many agencies, in addition, use the portal as a place to receive comments directly from the public, making it as easy to submit one as pressing a button on the screen. Not all agencies, though, receive e-comments through Regulations.gov, and a list of participating and non-participating agencies can be found here.

By redirecting patrons to the beta site every Thursday, the administrators are hoping to get more robust feedback on the usability, functionality, and tools it has to offer. Currently, there are several significant differences between the two versions, including:

• Beta is built with a responsive design for better compatibility with mobile devices.
• Beta automatically separates search results into Docket, Document, and Comment tabs, allowing for easier navigation between the results.
• Beta currently lacks access to agency reports required by statute.
• Beta no longer allows you to browse regulatory material by agency, as the administrators found it had "limited usage."
• Beta does not currently allow you to export comments into a CSV file.

A more complete list of differences between the two versions can be found on the beta site’s FAQ page, along with justifications for the transition to the beta version and a history of its creation. For additional questions about using either the classic or beta site, or anything else related to regulatory research, please feel free to Ask a Librarian.

--Wickliffe Shreve, Faculty & Scholarly Services Librarian

Resources for Docket Research

This week's Legal Research Bootcamp session on dockets came at just the right time! Whether you’re a law student enrolled in the online bootcamp or not, you may be interested in several important changes to major resources for researching court filings.

Last week, the federal court site PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) unveiled a redesign to its home page and informational sections, the first such cosmetic change in more than ten years. (The PACER database in which users search for and retrieve case filings was not part of this redesign.) Legal blogger Bob Ambrogi outlines the changes, which include improved navigation, new accessibility tools, and a mobile-friendly design. The site also provides easy access to PACER's fees and billing information. PACER requires account-holders to have a payment method on file, although users are not charged unless they accrue $30.00 of charges (at a cost of $0.10 per page) during a billing quarter.

Members of the Law School community likely use Bloomberg Law as an alternative to PACER, as their Litigation Intelligence Center has long provided law schools with subsidized access to PACER materials, as well as to selected state court docket filings. Recently, Bloomberg announced a change to law school docket access that limits educational account usage and provides warnings for excessive docket access (with the possibility of suspension, in the event of prohibited uses like automated data-scraping). Under the new system, there will be caps on incurring docket charges for both individual users and the institutional subscriber. Heavy docket users may receive separate communications from administrators to discuss the most efficient and cost-effective ways to receive docket information. (Viewing dockets or documents already available to "View" in Bloomberg does not incur costs; these new limits are related to tasks like setting up alerts, updating dockets, and downloading documents that are not yet available in "View" mode within Bloomberg Law.)

With both PACER and Bloomberg Law now leaving users a bit more cost-conscious, what should the average researcher in search of a court filing do? It's certainly a good idea to look for free access to the needed documents.

• One approach that often works is to check the court's own website. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court provides free access to case filings and dockets. State access will vary, but some states do provide free public access to court dockets and case filings, such as the New York State Unified Courts System's eCourts site.
• Another effective search technique is to use free docket access tools. Justia Dockets provides access to freely available PACER materials (including documents tagged as opinions and orders) for U.S. District Courts and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal. The Free Law Project's RECAP search provides additional PACER documents courtesy of the RECAP browser extension.

For help with locating court filings from a state or federal case, check out the above resources or Ask a Librarian.

Everyday People (Research)

People-finding research can take many forms: locating needed contact information; tracing your family history; finding background on a client, judge, opposing counsel, expert witness, or even the forgotten inventor of the rape kit. The increased online availability of public records has made this research easier than ever before - which can present ethical dilemmas related to "doxxing" unsuspecting persons, such as those mistakenly identified as criminal suspects whose information is posted on the internet. The following people-finding resources should only be used for legitimate and responsible research purposes.

One powerful research resource that is available to the Duke Law community is the Locate a Person (Nationwide) database within Lexis Advance. To reach it, log in to the Lexis research system and choose "Public Records" from the menu in the top left corner. You can conduct searches for people, including options to search addresses and limit by dates of birth. Results often provide address history, phone numbers (sometimes unlisted and/or cell phones), real property ownership records, voting registration information, and (all the way at the bottom of a search result) email addresses associated with that person's record. The information can contain inaccuracies, particularly with regard to address history, but it is an excellent starting place to locate basic biographical and contact information about people.

Another people-finding resource available to the Duke University community is Ancestry Library Edition. This popular genealogy website provides access to birth and death records, city directories, immigration documents, military records, historical Census logs, and many other databases from various time periods and jurisdictions. Often, databases within Ancestry do not contain more recent data, but this can be a good starting point to locate historical information about a person or their family members. (Not affiliated with Duke? Check your local public library for potential access to Ancestry, like Durham County Library's.)

Even without access to these premium, subscription-based resources, there are still many people-finding research tools and techniques that you can use for free. One approach is to search government agency websites directly to locate needed information. For vital records and property records, this information is generally held at the county government level. While not all governments have created public-facing databases, real property tax bill information is frequently available online, and other public records (such as Clark County, Nevada's Marriage Records database) may be available for searching.

For law students who are enrolled in the Summer Legal Research Bootcamp, this week's module focuses on Finding People, and includes tips and tricks for researching everyday people as well as specialized resources for researching legal professionals. For those not eligible for the bootcamp session, more information about the specialized legal resources can be found in the research guides to Directories of Lawyers and Directories of Courts & Judges. For help with using these resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Race, Oppression and Social Change Resource Guide

The Goodson Law Library is pleased to announce the new Race, Oppression and Social Change Resource Guide, which provides links to e-books and streaming video that are available through the Duke Libraries. Developed by Casandra Laskowski, Technology and Research Services Librarian and Lecturing Fellow, the guide includes tabs on various topics such as the history of racism and inequality in America, institutional structures that contribute to oppression, specialized topics such as the criminal justice system and healthcare, exploration of marginalized identities, guides to allyship and advocacy, and resources for educators.

This guide is accessible from the library Research Guides page. Its contents will be updated regularly, and title suggestions are welcomed at ref@law.duke.edu. A tab of Duke Libraries Catalog Subject Headings provides access to additional resources, which can be filtered to e-resources by using the "Available Online" checkbox.

In response to increased interest in accessing these resources, the Duke University Libraries have recently purchased additional copies for several popular titles on the EBSCO e-book platform, including How to Be an Antiracist and White Fragility. Due to the continued high level of interest, readers may still encounter a wait list for certain titles. For more information about using the various e-book platforms available through Duke, please visit the Duke University Libraries eBook FAQ or Ask a Librarian.

Engaging with EDGAR

Do you suffer from page fright? When you're drafting a legal document for the first time, having an example (or "form") to go by can alleviate writer's block. Of course, you will have to edit any forms to reflect the specifics of your client's case or transaction, but starting with a form can save you time and help you avoid mistakes and omissions.

Last week, we highlighted the SEC's EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) system as a notable source of information about publicly traded companies. Did you know that EDGAR is also a goldmine of forms for transactional drafting? Issuers are required to file "material contracts" as exhibits to their EDGAR filings, and you can repurpose those agreements as sample documents when you are drafting. (When agreements from completed transactions as used as forms, they are often called "precedents.")

If you have a specific precedent in mind, the SEC's Company Filings search is a free, increasingly user-friendly way to find it. You can easily search by the company's name or better still, its ticker symbol, and then limit your results to the relevant filing type. Material agreements are always found at Exhibit 10 to registration statements, like S-1s, and periodic reports, like 10-Qs. So it's pretty straightforward to find, say, the CEO of Zoom's most recent employment agreement. (Review the SEC’s Quick EDGAR Tutorial for additional search tips.)

If you are still looking for a good form, try to find a precedent that matches the specifics of your transaction as closely as possible. For this research task, you need a tool that gives you more control over your search criteria, and a fee-based source like Bloomberg Law's Transactional Intelligence Center or Westlaw's Business Law Center will do the trick. Both services allow you to limit EDGAR exhibit searches by criteria like document type, industry, and governing law.

For sophisticated transactions, you might need a bit more help to find exactly the right form. Bloomberg's Example Searches and Westlaw's BLC Research Library will construct complex terms & connectors searches for you and will show you exactly what search is running in the EDGAR exhibits. (For researchers, that transparency is a refreshing change from opaque natural language search algorithms.) Bloomberg lets you modify these pre-formatted searches if desired, and both services offer post-search filters to refine your results.

Want to learn more about using forms and other practice tools? For law students, this week's Duke Law summer Legal Research Bootcamp covers transactional forms and checklists. Everyone is welcome to check out the Goodson Law Library's research guides on Legal Forms, Transactional Resources, and Securities Law.

--Laura Scott, Research Services Librarian

Know Your Companies

Did you know the same company that makes Sunlight dish detergent also makes Axe cologne, or that Starbucks owns an insurance company in Vermont? Ever wonder which law firms represent the Disney Company? Finding company information is a useful skill, whether you are looking to make a good impression in an interview, conducting due diligence as you prepare your client for a merger, or trying to come up with some decent trivia questions. Fortunately, there is a lot of information you can learn about companies, and much of it is accessible for free.

If it's a publicly traded company, check out EDGAR, the Securities and Exchange Commission's free company search website. Track down the latest 10-K form, and see what surprises await. This is the annual report, where you will find everything you could want to know, including a list of subsidiaries, a rundown of the past year's performance, and projected income for the coming year. If you want to see how a company has been impacted by recent events, take a look at the 10-Q quarterly report, or for significant new developments, the 8-K report.

For information on privately-held companies, you'll have to do a little more sleuthing. The company website can be a treasure trove of information, and news stories can also help you follow a company’s activities. If you know the state where a privately held corporation is incorporated, see what's available through that state's Secretary of State website (access via NASS directory). If you don’t know the state of incorporation, there are company research resources like Reference USA and Hoover's that require a subscription (or a Duke NetID). If you just want to take a guess, start with Delaware, which has corporate-friendly laws that make it a popular state for incorporation.

Finding information about company litigation and legal representation generally requires a paid database. Want to learn more? The Duke Law summer Legal Research Bootcamp module for this week is "Finding Company Information." If you are a law student who is signed up for the Bootcamp, log in and find out everything you've always wanted to know about Burt's Bees. If not, take a look at the library's research guide to Business Associations and Ask a Librarian for help with any resources.

--Jane Bahnson, Head of Research and Instruction

Antiracism Resources

Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in south Georgia when he was pursued and shot by several white men. Breonna Taylor, an EMT from Louisville, was shot multiple times in her bed by police officers executing a surprise "no-knock" warrant. In Milwaukee last month, George Floyd died after a police officer placed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. These brutal and horrifying deaths of Black citizens are recent high-profile examples of a long history of injustice and inequality. These deaths, along with murders and law enforcement abuses that have taken place before and since, have generated widespread public protest as well as calls for justice, accountability, and police reform.

As demonstrations and calls to action continue to grow, many activists and organizations have developed resource and reading lists for people who wish to educate themselves about the history of inequality and racism in America, as well as proactive next steps toward reforming unjust systems. One comprehensive resource, recently shared with the community by Duke Law's Student Coalition for Anti-Racist Action, is the "Educate Yourself" page, which includes the "Lesson Plan for Being an Ally" as well as a list of Anti-racism resources.

Some additional reading lists of recommended books include:

• Hennepin County (MN) Library, Tools to Talk About Race and Racism
• Ibram X. Kendi, An Antiracist Reading List

This post points to electronic access to some highly-recommended book and film titles from these resource lists. Due to publisher licensing restrictions, most titles will require a current Duke University NetID. Durham County residents may be able to access some of these materials through the Durham County Library's e-book service (more information).

• Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist (2019)
• Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (2018)
• Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (10th anniversary ed. 2020)
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Urban Modern America (2011)
• Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014):
  (Note: Warner Brothers has also made the recent feature film version free to stream throughout the month of June)
• I Am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin and Race in America (2017)

To search for additional online access to titles from these resource lists, use the "Available Online" checkbox in the Duke Libraries Catalog. Note that some e-books may have waiting lists, due to restrictions set by the publisher. While the library buildings on campus remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, staff are happy to advise about the online availability of particular titles. Please Ask a Librarian for help with your research.

New COVID-19 Resources Guide

The COVID-19 pandemic has had implications across multiple fields: health, education, politics, and law. It has also affected all of us, in some way, personally. As it touches on nearly every aspect of our lives, the amount of information related to the outbreak can be overwhelming. We are inundated with claims from news, social media, friends, colleagues, and more.

Most concerning for many is finding resources on the outbreak and the virus that are reliable. In response, the Goodson Law Library's Faculty and Scholarly Services Librarian Wickliffe Shreve has created a new research guide on COVID-19 Resources, now available on the library website. The new guide covers sites dedicated to health, government, international, and legal resources on reactions to and studies of the pandemic. It also focuses on work on COVID-19 produced by the Duke community, in particular the Duke Law community. For law students, faculty, and members of the legal profession familiar with the major legal databases, it also points to dedicated collections on COVID-19 in Bloomberg Law, Lexis, and Westlaw.

The new COVID-19 Resources guide is just one of many detailed Research Guides available from the Goodson Law Library. If your research topic isn't listed (such as a research guide to the law of a state outside of North Carolina), try the link to Search All Law Schools to locate research guides from other U.S. law school libraries, or Ask a Librarian to show you the way.

--Wickliffe (Wick) Shreve, Faculty and Scholarly Services Librarian

Freeing the Law

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc., with a 5-4 majority ruling that the non-binding annotations in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated were not eligible for copyright protection under the government edicts doctrine.

As the New York Times noted, the voting blocs were not the typical 5-4 ideological division: Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Justice Thomas wrote one dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Alito in full and Justice Breyer in part. Justice Ginsburg authored a separate dissenting opinion, which was also joined by Justice Breyer. SCOTUSblog includes photo illustrations of vote alignment by both ideology and seniority, each demonstrating the unusual alliances in this case.

The Code Revision Commission of Georgia had contracted with LEXIS to prepare the revisions; annotations were drafted by Lexis staff as a work-for-hire. Lexis sells hard copies of the annotated code for $412, and provides a free public-access version online, subject to Terms & Conditions that "the State of Georgia reserves the right to claim and defend the copyright in any copyrightable portions of the site."

Public.Resource.Org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to government information, posted its own scanned copy of the print OCGA online, prompting the copyright litigation that eventually reached the Court. Yesterday's decision will likely affect the other state governments that work with private publishers on their official publications and/or claim at least partial copyright protection in portions of their official legislative or regulatory codes.

Public.Resource.Org has several other government information access lawsuits pending, including a lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit related to its scans of public safety codes. These privately-produced standards are frequently "incorporated by reference" in legislative and regulatory codes, but are usually available only for a fee or through restrictive public-access versions with limits on printing/saving/downloading. In a Tweet thanking his legal team, Public.Resource.Org founder Carl Malamud noted, "What's funny is that Georgia isn't even the main show in terms of effort. That's the standards case currently in DC court." A listing of ongoing litigation (with links to dockets) is available at Public.Resource.Org.

For more about copyright law (and what it doesn't protect), check out the resources on our research guide to Intellectual Property. You'll find suggested titles from basic introduction to detailed treatises in the library's collection, as well as links to free resources like the Cornell University Library Copyright Information Center. For help with accessing resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Alumni Author Virtual Celebration

Today would have been the library's ninth annual National Library Week Alumni Author event, with featured speaker Randolph J. May (B.A. 1968/J.D. 1971) of the Free State Foundation. While the global coronavirus pandemic has indefinitely postponed our planned event with May to discuss his new book (with co-author Seth Cooper), Modernizing Copyright Law for the Digital Age: Constitutional Foundations for Reform, we still wanted to recognize May, as well as to celebrate our many Duke Law alumni who have published books on a wide variety of topics, both legal and non-legal.

Books by Duke Law School alumni are marked in the Duke Libraries Catalog with the collection name "Alumni Authors." The items are still shelved by their Library of Congress call number, rather than in a separately-located collection, to aid the discovery of works on a particular topic.

You can view recordings of our eight past Alumni Author event speakers on the National Library Week at the Goodson Law Library playlist at Duke Law's YouTube channel. We look forward to adding future event videos to the playlist, as well as future alumni books to the library collection. If you would like to alert the library to a new or forthcoming alumni author publication, please Ask (well, Tell) a Librarian.

Summer Access to Library Resources

Whether you're continuing at Duke Law next year or graduating this May, your access to legal research services like Westlaw, Lexis Advance, and Bloomberg Law will change.

All Students

Many of the temporary resources for textbooks and eBooks listed on the Library's Working Remotely site will expire at different times this summer.

• Lexis Digital Library (textbooks, treatises, study aids): May 24
• Wolters Kluwer textbooks via VitalSource: May 25
• West Academic textbooks: June 1
• Wolters Kluwer online study aids: June 30
• Online Bluebook codes: 60 days from registration

Continuing Students

For rising 2Ls and 3Ls, your Law School research access generally continues uninterrupted over the summer. Lexis Advance and Bloomberg Law both allow student usage over the summer for educational as well as for commercial purposes. (However, check with your employer before using your Law School accounts for paid work – many employers prefer that summer associates avoid using their school accounts for researching firm matters.)

Westlaw restricts continuing students' summer access to non-commercial/educational research purposes only. The eligible categories for summer access include:

• Summer coursework
• Research assistant assignments
• Law Review or Journal research
• Moot Court research
• Non-Profit work
• Clinical work
• Externship sponsored by the school

2020 Graduates

Before leaving Duke Law, check out the library's information page on Library Services for Law Alumni, which contains helpful details about accessing legal research services, borrowing library materials, and extending building access for bar study.

For graduating 3Ls and LLMs, Bloomberg Law automatically extends educational accounts for 6 months.

Lexis offers a Graduate Program that provides recent law school graduates extended access to Lexis Advance; a customized version of the Law School Home Page with graduate specific content; and a choice of a graduation gift from LexisNexis. Spring graduates have access to Lexis Advance via their law school IDs through December 31, 2020. This ID also grants them access to the Graduate Home Page.By July 8, 2020, spring graduates' view of the Law School Home Page will switch to the graduate view.

Under Westlaw's "Grad Elite" program, access continues for 6 months after graduation. Duke Law graduates are allowed 60 hours of usage per month for services like Westlaw and Practical Law for educational purposes. Graduating students will need to register for extended access this spring.

For help with your summer access to these or other Duke resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian. The library's summer hours, which take effect at the end of final exams, are Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Virtual Law Documentary Festival

This weekend would have marked the 23rd Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, a world-renowned celebration of nonfiction filmmaking. Although this year's festival was canceled due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the festival website continues to provide information about the selected 2020 feature-length and short films that would have been a part of this year's festival. Festival organizers have also shared a list of past Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant Award winners (a prize that brings first-time documentary filmmakers to the festival) with information about where their films can now be streamed.

Current members of the Duke University community have access to a number of resources for streaming documentary films, beyond your own consumer subscriptions to platforms like Netflix and Hulu. If you'd like to host your own documentary film festival this weekend, here are some options available with a NetID, featuring some favorite titles from the Goodson Law Library's DVD collection:

• Alexander Street Video Collections: Still haven't caught critical favorite RBG, the Academy Award-nominated 2018 documentary about the life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg? You can fix that with a visit to Alexander Street, a massive database of streaming films that includes more than 3,000 options on its Documentary Channel.
• DocuSeek: This database of more than 1,600 films includes Hot Coffee, an acclaimed 2013 documentary about the infamous McDonald's coffee burn lawsuit and tort reform.
• Kanopy: This database includes a mix of feature and documentary films, including Ken Burns' 2012 film The Central Park Five.
• NC Live Films on Demand Video Collection includes HBO documentaries like The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley and True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality.

Next year's Full Frame festival has been scheduled for April 8-11, 2021, but you can enjoy many documentaries online in the meantime using the resources above. For help with accessing Duke databases, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Tax in the Time of Coronavirus

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced a 90-day extension of federal income tax payments for 2019, due to the global coronavirus pandemic (story at CNN). Despite the extension of time to pay federal taxes owed, Mnuchin recommended that taxpayers still attempt to complete and file their 2019 returns by the normal April 15 deadline. [UPDATE 3/20: The deadline to file has now been extended to July 15 as well, per an updated announcement by Secretary Mnuchin.] (The extension also does not apply to states, which must set their own deadline extensions for tax filing; California has already changed its payment and filing deadline to June 15.)

Taxpayers whose income was at or below $69,000 in 2019 may qualify for the IRS Free File service, which offers online tax preparation assistance and free e-filing for federal taxes. The Free File Online Lookup Tool helps taxpayers identify available free online filing offers that are appropriate for their tax situation.

If you do not qualify for Free File, the IRS also outlines additional e-File Options, including free fillable online forms for federal taxes. Should your taxes prove too complicated to go it alone, the IRS also has tips for Choosing a Tax Professional.

For more resources on federal tax law, including access to research databases like Thomson Reuters Checkpoint, visit the Goodson Law Library's research guide to Federal Tax or Ask a Librarian.

Resources for Social Distancing

The global response to the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been swift and drastic, with most universities and other public spaces closing temporarily in an effort to "flatten the curve" of new infections. For information on Duke University's response, check https://coronavirus.duke.edu/; the Law School information page can be found at https://law.duke.edu/about/coronavirus-response.

Experts agree that "social distancing," which encourages people to self-isolate as much as possible at home, is key to preventing further transmission. While schools transition to online learning and many workers shift to remote employment, that leaves the question of how to spend free time in an age when most restaurants and non-essential services are shuttered for the foreseeable future. Here are some resources to brighten your time at home.

• Read a good book: Current members of the Duke University community can access thousands of e-books via the Duke Libraries Catalog eBook search. Additional titles are available via NC Live, the statewide library cooperative. Not sure what to read next? Take advantage of recommendations from the database NoveList.
• Stream some online entertainment: Subscription streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are likely to see lots of traffic during this time. Don't forget the numerous video databases available to the Duke community, including Kanopy and Alexander Street Online. Both services offer feature films and documentaries.
• Learn a new language: We've previously written about resources at Duke for learning a new language. Mango Languages and Transparent Language Online remain available for the Duke community to learn dozens of languages.
• Tour a virtual museum: Although many museums have closed their doors, more than 500 offer virtual tours on Google's Arts & Culture site. Included here are the collections of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico, among many others.
• Take in a show: Broadway has gone dark and so have most concert halls, but New Yorker music critic Alex Ross has compiled links to free online performances by symphonies and other groups in the coming days.

Additional online resources can be found on our website, including access to the Duke Libraries Catalog and Research Databases A-Z.

Putting Your Papers to Work

Sure, grades are a good enough reason to put in the hours of research and writing on a seminar class paper. But what if all that hard work could earn you even more than a top grade? You might consider reworking past or current research projects for a law student writing competition. Many organizations sponsor writing contests for current law students, and most offer cash prizes as well as potential publication opportunities.

How can you identify potential writing competitions for your project? The T.C. Williams Legal Essay Contest Catalog, maintained by the University of Richmond Law School, is the most comprehensive listing of law student writing competitions. The website features several useful searching and sorting options, including the ability to sort by subject matter, deadline, and even prize amount.

The American Bar Association also maintains a list of Writing Competitions, which includes some contests not currently featured on the Richmond list. (This is likely because many of the listed contests are not currently open for submissions, but the ABA list could be helpful in planning ahead for future deadlines.)

Be sure to closely review each individual competition's rules before submission, as they may vary on matters like word count, font size, and required documentation.

For help with fine-tuning your work for potential publication, some useful resources in the library include:

• Eugene Volokh, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review, 5th ed. (Course Reserves KF250 .V65 2016)
• Elizabeth Fajans & Mary R. Falk, Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar Papers, Law Review Notes, and Law Review Competition Papers, 5th ed. (Reserves KF250 .F35 2017)
• Jessica Lynn Wherry, Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution (Reserves KF250 .C528 2019)

For assistance with locating these or other legal writing texts, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Being Counted

Over the next week or so, you may notice library staff members taking notes about where our users are sitting (or standing, in the case of our sit/stand desks). It's no cause for alarm – we're conducting an assessment of library space usage, in order to identify patterns (such as the most popular places, times of day, and furniture types), and to help inform future space planning projects. No individually-identifying information is being recorded or reported, just tallies of where and when library visitors are using our space at certain times of day.

Consider our space assessment a warm-up, of sorts, to another important counting project taking place this spring: the 2020 Census. A decennial requirement from Article I, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, Census data helps to determine such critical matters as congressional seats in the House of Representatives and federal funding distribution for public services.

Everyone living in the United States and its territories is required by law to respond to the Census. Invitations will begin to arrive in the mail in mid-March, with options to complete the form by mail, phone, or online. Form questions can be previewed online. Census-takers will visit neighborhoods in May to collect data from households that have not yet responded; the Census Bureau has tips about verifying a census-taker's identity for anyone concerned about potential fraud or scams.

If you're a current student who is not sure whether you should be counted at your local North Carolina address or a different "home" address, the Census Bureau Who to Count page has a helpful section of student information. Students (including international students) attending a U.S. college or university "should be counted at the on- or off-campus residence where they live and sleep most of the time." U.S. students who are currently living/attending school abroad are not counted in the Census.

Last year's failed attempt to reinstate a long-dormant citizenship question on the 2020 Census (detailed in The New York Times) left many would-be respondents concerned about the privacy of Census data. The Bureau has an information page about how Census information is protected. Individual Census records are kept confidential for 72 years, after which point they are available for archival research purposes. (Want to see records from the 1940 Census or earlier? You can do so in Ancestry Library Edition, available to the Duke University community.)

Some historical background on the Census requirement can be found in the government publication The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation ("Constitution Annotated"). The 2020 Census website includes answers to frequently-asked questions and other helpful resources related to this year’s Census. Whether you're using the library during our space assessment or responding to the Census form (ideally both), be sure to be counted this spring.

PACER's Day in Court

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will hear arguments in the ongoing litigation about the cost of PACER, the U.S. government's repository of federal court filings. PACER, or Public Access to Court Electronic Records, operates behind a paywall of $0.10 per page for searches and document retrieval. Charges are capped at $3.00 per document, and individual users are not billed unless they incur more than $15.00 in charges during a billing quarter. While the costs of PACER were designed to support the system’s infrastructure, critics have noted that PACER's annual income (more than $145 million) far exceeds the actual operating costs.

As The New York Times reported over the weekend, several consumer groups have filed suit over PACER costs. The complaint highlighted practices of overcharging or double-charging individual users, and also challenged the judiciary's practice of using excess PACER income for costs unrelated to the maintenance of the court records system. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia allowed the suit to proceed; its denial of the government's motion for summary judgment and partial grant of summary judgment on liability in favor of plaintiffs is now on appeal before the D.C. Circuit. Numerous advocates for free access to federal court filings have filed amicus briefs in the case, which has the potential to unlock PACER's paywall.

In the meantime, current members of the Duke Law community have free access to PACER materials through Bloomberg Law's Litigation Intelligence Center. Docket tracking is also available within Bloomberg Law. For filings that pre-date the PACER service, or from state courts, the library's research guide to Court Records and Briefs provides guidance on additional sources for researching court filings. For assistance with any of these resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.

Landmark Circuit Court Records Now Available

The Goodson Law Library has recently subscribed to Gale Primary Source's new database, The Making of Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 1950-1980. The eleventh library in the Making of Modern Law series expands access to online court records and briefs with more than half a million pages of content spanning three decades.

Materials may be searched by keyword, browsed by jurisdiction, or explored in the Topic Finder. A "Term Frequency" tool allows researchers to conduct textual analysis. Coverage varies by jurisdiction, but the First through Tenth Circuits as well as the D.C. Circuit are represented (the Eleventh Circuit was formed from part of the Fifth in late 1981, one year past the database’s cutoff date). The "Circuits" browse menu shows the source libraries and approximate number of pages available for each jurisdiction. Coverage is currently strongest for the Second Circuit and D.C. Circuit, each with about 225,000 pages; the Ninth Circuit is a distant third at 115,000 pages; other circuits range from 6,000 to 50,000 pages of content.

This new database expands our community’s access to court records and briefs from the intermediate federal appellate courts. Other options for accessing print, microform, and electronic court records from federal and state courts can be found in the Goodson Law Library research guide to Court Records & Briefs. For help with navigating this new database or locating other court records, be sure to Ask a Librarian.