The Goodson Blogson

You probably already know that current state constitutions are reprinted in state code publications, and are generally freely available on state legislature websites (like North Carolina's ). But what if you want to search across all fifty states? A new free resource from the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, 50Constitutions.org , allows researchers to explore the text of current state constitutions individually or across the country. Fourteen states, including North Carolina , also include constitutional histories , detailing amendments over time and providing access to historical texts. The site’s editors note that “additional features will be added for other states on a rolling basis.” 50Constitutions.org has been added to the Law Library's Legal Databases & Links page. Other sources for state constitutional research available at Duke include Oxford Constitutions of the World , which provides U.S. state materials in its Juri...

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will open its annual October Term, with its first oral argument scheduled for 10 am. The "First Monday in October" has marked the start of the Supreme Court’s year since 1916. The first case of the new Term, Williams v. Washington , concerns state court claims under section 1983; a live-stream of oral argument audio will be provided on the Court’s website. To learn more about individual cases on the Court's docket this year, SCOTUSblog offers quick access to case information and filings on its October Term 2024 page , organized by argument date. Oyez provides a similar overview of OT2024 cases, and will link to oral argument audio and opinions when they become available for each case. The ABA also publishes a regular Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases ( available in HeinOnline ; Duke NetID required) that provides an overview as well as legal analysis of each featured case. ( Williams is featured in the latest Preview issue...

It's been three years since the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston that the NCAA's rules on player compensation violated federal antitrust law. Since then, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals have proliferated for college athletes, and universities and fans alike are grappling with the changes and their impact on the recruitment and retention of top prospects. You can read more about the history and future of these developments in College Sports Law in a Nutshell , a newly published title now available in the West Academic Study Aids Library . Attorney Dan Lust and Ole Miss sports law professor William W. Berry III cover such topics as NIL, the transfer portal, and the impact of conference realignment. West Academic Study Aids Library also includes Walter T. Champion, Jr.'s Sports Law in a Nutshell , 5th ed. 2017, which includes some content about collegiate athletics. Other general sports law treatises can be fo...

Curious about how casebooks and study aids have treated a particular court opinion or doctrine over time? The Goodson Law Library now has access to a brand-new collection in HeinOnline: the West Academic Casebooks Archive , available to the Duke University community with NetID and password. This collection contains nearly 4,000 historical West casebooks and study aids, including the American and University Casebook series, Hornbooks, and Nutshells. Contents of this collection date from the 1830s to 2018. Hundreds of additional titles will be added in the near future. However, don't go looking for the latest editions of casebooks and study aids here: The two most recent editions of any series are held back from the collection until a newer one arrives to push the third-oldest title into the archive. (Recent West Academic study aids series can be found in the separate database of West Academic Study Aids , while recent West casebooks assigned in Duke Law courses can be found in the ...

Most legal researchers are familiar with the federal government's treaty powers (for an overview, check out the Constitution Annotated discussion of Article II, section 2, clause 2 or the three-part 2023 Congressional Research Service report series on International Agreements ). Likely less familiar to many are state -level commitments with foreign governments. After all, the Constitution expressly prohibits states from entering into their own treaties, and requires congressional consent for states to enter into agreements or compacts with foreign governments. However, individual U.S. states can and do enter into memoranda of understanding and other commitments with foreign entities. Due to their more ad hoc nature as compared to the highly formal federal process, locating the text or information about these state-level commitments can be difficult.  A new library within the HeinOnline research database called U.S. State Commitments with Foreign Governments , now available to t...

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will open its annual October Term, with its first oral argument scheduled for 10 am. The "First Monday in October" has marked the start of the Supreme Court's year since 1916. The Court recently confirmed plans to continue live-streaming oral arguments on its website; the first case of the new Term, Pulsifer v. United States , concerns the "safety valve" provision in federal criminal sentencing laws. To learn more about individual cases on the Court's docket this year, SCOTUSblog offers quick access to case information and filings on its October Term 2023 page , organized by argument date. The ABA also publishes a regular Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases (available in HeinOnline; Duke NetID required) that provides an overview as well as legal analysis of each featured case. ( Pulsifer is featured in the latest Preview issue, along with other cases from the October sitting.) A looming federal government shut...

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of The American Law Institute (ALI) , whose mission is "to clarify, modernize, and improve the law" through its highly respected publications and projects . While the Restatements of the Law are likely the ALI's best-known publications (due to their frequent citation and endorsement by courts, which can "adopt the Restatement view" of a particular topic), the ALI has also developed important codifications like the Model Penal Code and the Uniform Commercial Code , among other publications, studies, and projects. The Goodson Law Library is joining the celebration of the ALI Centennial with an exhibit on Level 3 of the Library. From Monday, March 20 through the end of spring semester classes, visit the main floor of the library and the Riddick Rare Books and Special Collections Room (accessible on weekdays from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm) to learn more about the history of the ALI and of Duke Law faculty contributions to their semin...

The end of 2022 also marked the end of a long-running government publication series, when the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register published a rule announcing the discontinuation of the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States . The Public Papers book series began in 1957, after the National Historical Publications Commission recommended the creation of an official government publication that brought together the various speeches, remarks, and writings for a particular presidential administration. Prior to the Public Papers , access to presidential materials was less consistent and less timely, with some materials published decades later at the direction of Congress (such as Richardson's 20-volume set A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789 – 1897 ), and other materials privately published (such as the Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ). The Public Papers has covered the administration of every U.S. preside...

Legal matters seem to generate an avalanche of headlines every day, in both mainstream and specialized publications. How can a reader possibly keep up with the latest news? A few well-chosen RSS feeds and/or browser bookmarks may help, such as from the recommended legal news resources below. The ABA Journal website provides recent news stories from the American Bar Association, as well as articles and issues of its monthly print and digital magazine. (Back issues and articles can also be found in a number of third-party databases .) State and local bar association journals are another good source to keep up with legal developments in a particular jurisdiction. Many titles are available online, though often only to association members; the Duke community can access many titles through HeinOnline's Bar Journal Library . Law.com and Law360.com are two popular legal news sources. The full text of articles on their websites can be accessed directly from within the Law School...

The end of June usually marks the conclusion of the U.S. Supreme Court's October Term, when the Court issues the last of its opinions in cases argued since the start of the term in the previous fall. Last term, with disruptions to Court operations and argument sittings in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Court's final ten opinions of OT19 were issued in July. This week, the Court has five opinions left to issue from the 2020 October Term. Will they successfully conclude the term before the end of the month, or push into July for the second year in a row? Court-watchers will be following the activities at One First Street closely this week. To join them, you can visit SCOTUSblog , which live-blogs order and opinion release days at the Court beginning at 9:30 am Eastern time. SCOTUSblog's FAQ page on Announcements of Orders and Opinions provides some additional detail about the process. Although the Court highlights opinion release days on its publi...

The Law School community now has institutional access to PowerNotes , a research organization and outlining tool that uses a browser extension to capture, organize, and track sources from other databases and websites. Current Law School community members may sign up under an institutional account allowing unlimited projects with their Duke.edu email address. (Anyone may sign up for a free individual account that includes the creation of one project.) PowerNotes provides a helpful "Quick Start" guide to using its system. Users must install a browser extension for Chrome (also works with Microsoft Edge) or Firefox , and create an account with the system. The browser extension allows researchers to capture highlighted text on a website and add it to a project outline with notes. Outlines can be easily organized and also exported into various formats, including Microsoft Word and Excel or Google Docs and Sheets. PowerNotes can be used with free websites as well as subscrip...

This afternoon marks the start of the second Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, a first in U.S. history. Trump was previously impeached last year by the House but acquitted in the Senate for abuse of power and obstruction charges, in connection with the Robert Mueller investigation of Russian election interference. The 2021 articles of impeachment are focused on Trump's role in inciting the deadly events of January 6, in which supporters of the 45th President stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress formalized the 2020 election results. If convicted by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, he could then be barred from holding federal office in the future (by a simple majority). The House of Representatives voted to impeach on January 13, and delivered the article of impeachment to the Senate for trial on January 25. As NPR outlines , the first day of the trial will contain arguments on the constitutionality of holding an impeachment trial for a former president. (F...

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 lear...

The Goodson Law Library's subscription to HeinOnline now includes the module History of International Law . This library currently contains more than 2,000 titles and one million pages on international law topics, including the development of the Hague Conventions, international arbitration, the Nuremberg trials, law of the sea, and much more. While the earliest titles in this collection date back to the 17th century, more modern texts and treatises are also available, including a number published by Duke University Press (such as 2016's Man or Monster? The Trial of a Khmer Rouge Torturer ). The full list of titles can be accessed in the Hein library , and the Duke Libraries Catalog will point to individual works in the collection as well. For additional help with researching the history of international law, check out the library's research guide to International Law or Ask a Librarian .

Recently, HeinOnline added the new library Democracy in America , an enhanced digital edition of Alexis de Tocqueville's classic text on the American political system. There's no shortage of copies in the Duke Libraries collection (with 18 e-book versions alone), so what makes this one special? As Hein's user guide for this new library explains, this version provides an interactive experience that links readers directly to the source material that Tocqueville referenced during the creation of Democracy in America . Alan Keely, Associate Director for Collection Services at Wake Forest Law Library, has curated links to contemporaneous source materials and supplemental editorial or translator notes. The Democracy in America library also includes the full text of Works Cited, 18 varying Editions/Translations (with a plan to eventually include all known editions and translations), and a small library of Related Works also published by Tocqueville. The Democracy in America...

Monday, October 7 marks the official start of oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court 's new term. In 1916, Congress enacted a law establishing the Court's opening date as the "first Monday in October," although the number of sessions per year and the timing of the opening day has varied throughout American history. This new term is already packed with dozens of cases, with still more to come as the Court continues to decide on pending petitions for certiorari. The Supreme Court website provides Calendars in PDF and HTML formats. First up on Monday morning is argument in Kahler v. Kansas ( docket ), on the ability of individual states to abolish the insanity defense for criminal defendants. To learn more about individual cases on the Court's docket, SCOTUSblog offers quick access to case information and filings on its October Term 2019 page, organized by argument date. Yesterday, Bloomberg published A Lawyer's Guide to the Upcoming Supreme Court Term ...

The Goodson Law Library has recently added Immigration Law & Policy in the U.S. to its collection of libraries in HeinOnline . This library includes more than 2,600 primary and secondary sources related to immigration law in America, including historical editions of the U.S. Code and Code of Federal Regulations , legislative history materials, administrative law decisions, U.S. Supreme Court briefs, scholarly articles, and books. Topics covered include the history of immigration law and international extradition policy. A particularly useful feature of this library is the index to BIA Precedent Decisions , which provides quick subject access to Board of Immigration Appeals decisions. The decisions themselves are available here as full-text PDF scans from 1940-present. This Hein library joins other Duke Law Library resources pertaining to immigration, such as the AILALink database and the seminal treatise by Gordon & Mailman, Immigration Law and Procedure (KF4815 .G663 ...

Live on the air during a BBC radio interview late last week, best-selling author Naomi Wolf received some unwelcome news about her new book, Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love . While discussing the history of same-sex relations in Victorian England, the program host disputed the author's claims that "several dozen executions" for the crime of homosexuality were recorded at the Old Bailey (London's Central Criminal Court). Wolf based this claim on the use of the phrase "death recorded" for defendants, such as 14-year-old Thomas Silver, whose guilty plea and death sentence for sodomy were recorded in 1859 . During the exchange, which can be heard around the 20:00 – 25:00 minute mark of the recording , host Matthew Sweet refuted Wolf's assertion that death sentences had been carried out for Silver and others convicted of sodomy or homosexuality. Sweet, whose 2001 book Inventing the Victorians debunked a number of common misconcep...

"I've been searching case law for a while, and I'm not finding anything helpful!" If that sounds familiar, consider picking up a treatise instead. Secondary sources often provide a better starting place for legal research than searching in case law databases, since they will provide a bigger-picture overview of the legal concepts and terminology, along with footnotes to selected primary law like court opinions and statutes. But how do you decide which treatise to consult? Simply searching the campus libraries' online catalog can present a dizzying array of results, and it isn't obvious there which ones are also available online in Law School-only databases like Westlaw , Lexis Advance , or Bloomberg Law . Below are some recommended resources to find the right treatise for your research topic. Appendix B of Olson's textbook Legal Research in a Nutshell (on Course Reserve) contains a brief list of selected legal treatises by subject, with information ...

Around this halfway point of the semester, many law students are thinking about potential topics for their seminar papers, law journal notes, and/or other scholarly writing projects. In the first year at Duke Law, professors determine the topic of LARW writing assignments – after that, students are largely on their own. This can be a difficult adjustment for many, since topic selection is a critical stage of the academic writing process. Authors must find a potential topic that is both interesting and novel, and examine it from an angle that has not previously been explored in great depth by prior publications. The associated process of preemption checking can seem frustrating and overwhelming, as it often results in false starts and discarded potential topics. Fortunately, the Goodson Law Library has resources to help students navigate the maze. Some guidebooks on academic legal writing are available in the Reserve collection, and may be borrowed for four hours at a time: Volok...