The Goodson Blogson

Monday, October 3 marks the start of the United States Supreme Court 's October Term. Congress established the "first Monday in October" as the beginning of a new Court term in 1916, as seen in 28 U.S.C. § 2 . The term will be the first for new Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson , who was sworn in on June 30 following the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. (A formal investiture ceremony for Justice Jackson will be held on Friday, September 30.) With less than a week before the opening of oral argument, the Court looks a little more welcoming than it did at the end of the last term, although it has maintained some pandemic-era access protocols. In late August, the Court removed the 8-foot security fence that was erected in advance of the controversial opinion Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , which overruled Roe v. Wade . However, the building still remains closed to the public, except for official business . The Court began streaming real-ti...

On August 28, a new law took effect in the state of Missouri, which in part added Mo. Rev. Stat. § 1.016 : "A secondary source, including a legal treatise, scholarly publication, textbook, or other explanatory text, does not constitute the law or public policy of this state to the extent its adoption would create, eliminate, expand, or restrict a cause of action, right, or remedy, or to the extent it is inconsistent with, or in conflict with, or otherwise not addressed by, Missouri statutory law or Missouri appellate case law precedent." Most law students learn that secondary sources do not constitute the actual law of a jurisdiction in their first semester of legal research instruction, so this code section's text may seem strangely obvious. However, it's not the only such law on the books enacted or proposed recently: even North Carolina has one specific to insurance law at N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-1-2 which took effect last year, and a nearly identical version of t...