The Goodson Blogson

For years, members of the Duke Law community could reach the full text of stories from Bloomberg.com via their Bloomberg Law accounts, but it required a few extra steps of browsing to News & Analysis > News from Bloomberg Terminal and searching for the correct article (often with a slightly different headline from the web version). Now, the process has become much simpler: you can use your  Bloomberg Law  credentials to directly access content on Bloomberg.com ! At  Bloomberg.com , click "Sign In" and enter the email address associated with your Bloomberg Law account. You'll be taken to a sign-in screen where you should enter your Bloomberg Law credentials to proceed. Once signed in, you'll have full-text access to Bloomberg.com stories, financials, and even games. You can also sign up for newsletters and download the mobile app to keep up with the latest content. Not a Law community member? If you're part of the Duke University community, you may be el...

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its opinion in five cases . The next announcement day is Thursday, June 25, although with a dozen opinions left to issue for this October Term, additional opinion days seem likely. As noted on the New York Times opinion tracker , the remaining cases are mostly on blockbuster topics, including the president's ability to fire members of the Federal Reserve Board and other government regulators, prohibitions on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports teams, restrictions on mail-in ballot deadlines, Hawaii's firearm concealed carry restrictions, and the fate of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants. How can a researcher keep up with the latest news as the Court marches toward adjourning its October Term 2025? SCOTUSblog features a free daily liveblog of these final announcements on opinion days, as well as longer articles on the opinions' impact. The site also includes a "Statist...

Time to start preparing for spring exams! Just a few weeks separate you from your summer, and here are some resources to make the most of your remaining study time. Additional recommended strategies and time management tips are available from Thomson Reuters' Law School Survival Guide and the Duke Academic Resource Center's Study Strategies that Work . First, fill in those outline gaps with study aids, available in print and online via the Law Library. The West Academic Study Aids Library includes Acing, Concepts and Insights, Hornbooks, Nutshells, Black Letter Outlines, Legalines, and Sum and Substance audio. The Aspen Learning Library includes Examples & Explanations, Glannon Guides, and Emanuel Law Outlines. Elgar Advanced Introductions to Law provides accessible yet comprehensive overviews of more than two dozen legal topics, particularly strong in comparative and international areas of law. All three study aid databases can be accessed quickly from the Law Libra...

January 1 marks the effective date for many new laws passed by legislatures in the previous calendar year. While individual statutes (or subsections of statutes) may include language indicating that they will take effect immediately upon passage or at a different specified point in time, most jurisdictions have a default time period for new laws to take effect if the text does not otherwise specify an effective date. See charts of the general dates at LegiScan and StateScape . January 1 is the general effective date for laws passed in the states of California, Oregon, and Illinois (at least for laws enacted prior to May 31). Other popular dates for new state laws to usually take effect are August 1, October 1, or 60–90 days after enactment or legislative adjournment. The North Carolina General Assembly maintains annual Effective Dates compilations on its website, with the 2025-26 document available here . New laws or portions of laws taking effect on January 1 in North Carolina i...

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...

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...

Time to get ready for spring exams! Just a few more weeks separate you from your summer, and here are some resources to make the most of your remaining study time. Additional recommended productivity apps and time management tips are available from Bowdoin's Wicked Smart Learning Strategies , Central Michigan University's Study and Success Strategies , and the Duke Academic Resource Center's Study Strategies that Work . First, fill in those outline gaps with study aids , available in print and online via the Law Library. The West Academic Study Aids Library includes Acing, Concepts and Insights, Hornbooks, Nutshells, Black Letter Outlines, Legalines, and Sum and Substance audio. The Aspen Learning Library includes Examples & Explanations, Glannon Guides, and Emanuel Law Outlines. Elgar Advanced Introductions to Law provides accessible yet comprehensive overviews of more than two dozen legal topics, particularly strong in comparative and international areas of law...

Since the presidential inauguration on January 20, a flurry of executive orders from the Office of the President has generated dozens of legal challenges. The President is on track to break the previous record for executive orders issued in the first 100 days, currently held by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. On February 25, Law360 launched Trump's Legal Battles , a free public database tracking the status of current challenges to executive activity, as part of its dedicated coverage of Trump's First 100 Days . While links to news and analysis about each case will require additional access to  Law360 (including some docket features that are beyond even Duke Law's subscription), the dashboard itself is free to review, sort, and browse. Convenient links to specific executive orders are also provided to the White House website, and docket numbers provide sufficient information to locate additional case information on the free CourtListener Advanced RECAP Search or in Bloomberg...

January 1 is more than the start of a new year – it also marks the effective date for many new laws around the country. While all jurisdictions have different rules about when recently-enacted legislation takes effect if not specified in the law itself (see table at StateScape for an overview), January 1 is a common date for new laws to become effective. The North Carolina General Assembly maintains annual Effective Dates compilations on its website, with the 2023-24 document available here . New legislation taking effect on January 1 in North Carolina are mostly portions of larger laws that have already taken effect, including provisions of an overhaul to the state employee retirement systems, modifications to the Alcoholic Beverage Control laws, and amendments to the juvenile justice code (passed after overriding the governor's veto). Elsewhere around the country, the New York Times rounds up some key new legislation taking effect in the Empire State for the New Year. These...

Where did the semester go? While the fall semester may have disappeared quickly, there’s still plenty of time to prepare for a successful exam season. First, fill in those outline gaps with study aids , available in print and online via the Law Library. The West Academic Study Aids Library includes Acing, Concepts and Insights, Hornbooks, Nutshells, Black Letter Outlines, Legalines, and Sum and Substance audio. The Aspen Learning Library includes Examples & Explanations, Glannon Guides, and Emanuel Law Outlines. Elgar Advanced Introductions to Law provides accessible yet comprehensive overviews of more than two dozen legal topics, particularly strong in comparative and international areas of law. All three study aid databases can be accessed quickly from the Law Library’s Legal Databases & Links page. First-semester students might also want to take a look at general exam preparation guides , like those listed on the library orientation guide to Law School Success . Titles...

Tired of newspaper website paywalls? At Duke, you have access to more popular news sources than you may think! The Goodson Law Library offers current members of the Law School community access to group subscriptions for several outlets, including The New York Times , Financial Times , and the Washington Post ; additional titles are available through your NetID or other credentials, such as the Law School Lexis login. Details for major titles are available at the Legal Databases & Links page and highlights are below. The Law community can set up an individual account with The New York Times by visiting https://nytimesineducation.com/access-nyt/ while connected to the VPN (be sure to choose "Library Resources" option rather than the "Default" when logging in). Once connected, type "Duke" under "Find School" and select "Duke University School of Law." Student accounts last until December of the graduation year; faculty and staff a...

The Goodson Law Library research guide to Court Records & Briefs has recently been updated. In addition to corrected web links and updated guidance to free and premium resources like PACER and Bloomberg Law dockets searching, the guide includes a number of new records and briefs compilations that were added since the last update. Some highlights include: The Making of Modern Law: Landmark Records and Briefs of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 1891-1980 features selected records and briefs from the U.S. Courts of Appeals dating from the 1890s to 1980. Drawn from a number of source libraries (including the National Archives, the New York City Bar Library, and the University of Iowa), featured cases cover a wide range of subject matter. The database is searchable by case name, citation, and keyword, and a "Topic Finder" feature is also available. LLMC Digital has expanded its records and briefs offerings since the last guide update. Its Records and Briefs search tab (avai...

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...

A common question at the Law Library reference desk involves how to find contact information for various people: potential academic collaborators, government employees like court clerks or agency officials, or attorneys who participated in a particular case. A basic web search on your favorite search engine may reveal contact information for academics and other public figures. (Go beyond the usual suspects with PC Mag’s " Best Alternative Search Engines .") If contact information is omitted or behind a login wall, though, some additional free options are available: SSRN contains author contact information, although researchers are restricted to accessing the email addresses of 3 contacts per day (click the author's name to access their profile, then the down arrow next to "Contact," then the link to "Email"). This can be a good method to locate contact information for academic authors whose emails are not provided on their institutional website. S...

Hard to believe that summer is almost here! Whether you are graduating from Duke Law this month or continuing your legal studies next year, your access to legal research services and other campus databases may change this summer. Below is a summary of policies for the major legal research databases that you might wish to access in the next few months. Continuing Students Westlaw allows continuing students to use Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw Precision and Practical Law, over the summer for non-commercial research ( i.e ., "to gain understanding and build confidence in your research skills, but you cannot use them in situations where you are billing a client"). Examples of permissible uses for your academic Westlaw password include the following: Summer coursework Research assistant assignments Law review or journal research Moot Court research Non-profit work Clinical work Externship sponsored by the school Your Westlaw summe...

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 ...

Last month marked a milestone for the Caselaw Access Project (CAP) , an ambitious project from the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab to digitize centuries of U.S. federal and state case law for free public access. Launched in 2016 with the financial backing of online legal research company Ravel Law (now owned by LexisNexis ), the Caselaw Access Project involved the digitization of more than 36 million pages of printed case reporters. The original agreement contained a commercial use restriction for eight years, which has now expired. The Innovation Lab commemorated the occasion with a conference on March 8 , highlighting the history of the project and use cases for the future. For more information on the history of the project, see Adam Ziegler's guest post at Bob Ambrogi's Law Sites . The Search feature on the legacy version of the CAP website links to CourtListener's Advanced Case Law Search , which has incorporated the CAP content. The beta version of the  CAP websit...

The Goodson Law Library has just subscribed to MuniPro MuniCode Library , a database with nearly 4,000 municipal codes. While many municipal and local ordinances are freely readable and searchable online (such as Durham, NC ), MuniPro allows researchers to search across multiple codes and jurisdictions, as well as create saved searches and alerts for topics of interest. For more details, visit the vendor help page .    Municode is available to current members of the Duke University community and is linked from the Legal Databases & Links and campus libraries Databases A-Z list . If using off-campus, connect via the Library Resources Only group of the Duke VPN . At the Municode home page, select "Sign in" in the header area and then click "Log in with site-wide subscription." Additional resources for researching municipal codes include: Fastcase (University) includes city codes for Durham, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Winston-Salem in its North Carolina Statut...

The Goodson Law Library has recently subscribed to Jus Mundi , a research platform containing the full text of treaties, case law, rules, and publications related to international law and arbitration. This database is available to current Duke University students, faculty and staff with NetID and password, and links are available through the Duke Libraries Catalog and Legal Databases & Links page. Jus Mundi includes thousands of documents on the topics of investment arbitration, commercial arbitration, public international law, law of the sea, and international trade. Decisions from more than 100 commissions and organizations are included. Duke's subscription also includes access to the ICC Dispute Resolution Library and Juris Arbitration Library. Additional international arbitration databases include Kluwer Arbitration and the Oxford Legal Research Library 's International Commercial Arbitration module. For more information about researching international arbitrat...

If you’ve ever ventured to the Superseded Looseleaf collection on Level 1 on a cite-checking quest, you know that locating archived issues of BNA Law Reports and similar titles can be challenging. Bloomberg Law , which acquired BNA more than a decade ago , has long offered access to the full text of various Law Reports back to the 1990s, but many titles have had a much longer history in print than that. Thanks to an inquiry from Indiana University Maurer School of Law Library Director Susan deMaine this summer, Bloomberg Law has now activated a fuller archive of Law Reports publications for its users.  The BNA Current Reports Archive is accessible from the Practice Centers & Tools home page. To reach it, click on " Practice Centers & Tools " under "Popular Links" on the Bloomberg home page, then scroll down to News & Analysis > " Bloomberg BNA Law Reports (Archive) " to view available titles. Once you've selected a title, you can sea...