The Goodson Blogson

Need to know some details about a state or federal judge? The Goodson Law Library just added another place to look, with a new subscription to the online version of The American Bench . While the library has always kept the latest copy of this directory in the Reference Collection (and will continue to do so), the online version allows searches by judge name or by court/jurisdiction. Although the Goodson Law Library has a number of other judicial directories available in print and online formats, The American Bench is unique for its inclusion of more extensive biographies of state court judges . (The website also reproduces the print version’s helpful maps of state and federal judicial districts, which are posted in PDF.) Available information varies by judge, but generally entries provide basic biography (such as education and date of appointment) as well as contact information for the judge’s chambers. Occasionally, the entries also include professional affiliations and activities,...

From time to time, we all feel ripped off. Whether it’s a sleazy car salesman selling you a lemon, or furniture on Craigslist which turns out to be scratched and reeking of smoke, or the online date who hasn’t updated his profile picture since 1999, everyone can relate to being so angered by a raw deal that you just want to forcibly remove the scammer’s facial hair and make him eat it. Wait...maybe we can’t all relate to that last part. But that’s exactly what happened last November to Harvey Westmoreland, a Kentucky man who just wanted to sell his lawnmower to neighbors Troy Holt and James Hill. But when their negotiations broke down, an intoxicated Holt and Hill held Westmoreland and his brother at knifepoint, then cut off Westmoreland’s beard and force-fed it to him . The unusual story made headlines around the country, and before he “knowed” it [sic], Westmoreland’s grammatically-challenged video interview with a local news station became a top hit on YouTube (as did the dance remi...

Over the weekend, the John Hughes class-cutting classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off turned 25. An intern at the blog Jezebel marked the anniversary of the film’s release like a typical first-year law student whose thought process has been overtaken by legalese: by compiling a video identifying the various laws broken by Ferris throughout the course of the film . The compilation was partly inspired by a running list from 2009 at the Metafilter discussion board , which came complete with citations to the Illinois Compiled Statutes . But to play the advanced version of this home game, you’d need to determine what the laws in question actually said back in 1986 . In particular, relevant statutes about computer tampering (shown in the video as Ferris revises his school attendance record before the principal’s incredulous eyes) likely changed a great deal between the film’s release and today. How could you accomplish this impossible-sounding task, for this or any other research which require...

From political love children to movie star arrests, who doesn’t love a bit of trashy celebrity gossip? As it turns out, many British celebrities, who can spend upwards of £20,000-50,000 to squash would-be scandals with a super-injunction , an exceptionally strict UK gag order which keeps the requestor completely anonymous and prevents the British media from publishing details about either the salacious story... or the existence of the gag order itself. Earlier last month, an anonymous Twitter user attracted more than 100,000 followers by leaking information about alleged scandals which had been smothered by a super-injunction. Following coverage on celeb-watch blogs like Gawker , that Twitter handle fizzled out almost as quickly as it appeared. But by the end of May, a new username seemed to take its place, and then quieted just as quickly as its list of gossip-hungry followers grew. The popularity of these two accounts illustrated the challenges of maintaining an anonymous legal r...