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First Monday in October

On Monday, October 6, 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 new year of work since 1916. The first case of the new Term, Villarreal v. Texas , concerns a criminal defendant's right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment; a live-stream of oral argument audio will be provided on the Court's website . Other petitions already granted for the Term address a number of hot-button topics, such as state prohibitions on transgender athletes on girls' sports teams ; LGBTQ "conversion therapy" bans ; the death penalty for inmates with intellectual disabilities ; campaign finance spending limits ; and potential liability by internet service providers for piracy of digital music by users . To learn more about individual cases on the Court's docket this year, SCOTUSblog offers quick access to case information and filin...
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Constitution and Citizenship Day

Wednesday, September 17 is Constitution Day , commemorating the 1787 signing of the United States Constitution in Philadelphia. The National Archives and Records Administration, which houses the original document, maintains a page for America's Founding Documents: The Constitution of the United States with a transcription and historical background about the document and its signing. The full text of the U.S. Constitution, along with extensive commentary, can also be found in the government publication Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (CONAN) , which is linked from Congress.gov. This version of the Constitution made headlines in early August, when eagle-eyed readers noticed the omission of several key sections in both the document text and the accompanying annotations , which included discussion of habeas corpus, emoluments, and tariffs. The Library of Congress quickly restored the missing sections, blaming a website coding error. As the P...

A New Source for State Constitutional Research

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...

Lex Machina Now Available in Lexis

The Duke Law community now has access to Lex Machina , a litigation analytics tool containing data on courts, judges, law firms, attorneys, and parties. Access Lex Machina by logging into Lexis+ and choosing it from the product switcher grid in the top left corner of any research screen.   Duke's Lex Machina pilot access from Lexis is expected to last for the 2025-2026 academic year. It includes federal court and specialty venue modules, with limited read-only access to state court materials. Sections beyond the pilot program's access are clearly labeled as out of scope, and may include a brief preview or overview of the data contained within that section. The "Quick Tools" section includes the ability to compare and explore litigation history for parties, courts and judges, and law firms as well as expert witnesses; Analyzers for the case history of attorney teams and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on courts’ workload; and a case assessment tool. Lex Machina a...