Supreme Court Justice statistics
SCOTUSblog has announced the release of a new statpack (9 page pdf) that shows the breakdown of how each Supreme Court Justice has ruled at the quartermark of the term. One new statistic includes how often each Justice votes with the majority, both overall and in divided cases. The idea is that these figures reflect a general, if imperfect, measurement of how often each Justice is presumably pleased with the outcome of the Court’s decisions. Justice Antonin Scalia is the only member of the Court to vote with the majority in every merits decision issued so far this Term.
Continue readingThe internet, Google, libraries
Thanks to my fellow blogger for the link to Fister's article. I recently came across an article (linked through that splendid online publication brought to us by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Arts and Letters Daily) that offers more food for thought. Titled Better than Free,this thoughtful piece by Kevin Kelly of Wired discusses how we might be able to add value to the vast amount of free information now available - value that people will be willing to pay for. He says that "The internet is a copy machine....When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable. When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied. Well, what can't be copied?" He discusses eight "generative values" that are better than free:
immediacy, personalization, interpretation, authenticity, accessibility, embodiment, patronage and findability. All of these are relevant to librarians as we adjust our skill sets to provide information available on the internet.
Fister on Privacy, Facebook, Google, Libraries
This is a very useful and thoughtful piece that starts with musings on Facebook and privacy issues and addresses much larger issues that affect libraries and library users and academic publishing. This is a must read.
- Face Value, By Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Ed (Feb. 18, 2008).
Sample:
Libraries have always taken privacy seriously - not because it's valuable in itself, but because it's a necessary condition for the freedom to read whatever you want without risk of penalty. When the PATRIOT Act was passed, librarians checked to make sure their databases erased the connection between a book and its borrower as soon as the book was returned. That erasure, however, makes it harder to offer the kind of personalization, such as recommendations based on previous book choices, that the public increasingly expects from online systems. After all, it's what they get from Amazon.
...[W]e've barely begun to examine the unintended consequences of the Faustian bargain we strike when we share content through privately-owned digital domains of the public sphere.
Joe Esposito pointed to this article in a posting to the liblicense-l mailing list and he says:
As I was reading this, I reflected on an ongoing conversation with a friend of mine, a former Congressional staffer, about the growing political need for Google to be declared a regulated public utiility, like the AT&T of yesteryear. Too much power in the hands of too few: it's morally wrong, and socially dangerous.
I would just add to this that, when we rely on the government to be the only official repository of all government information, we are putting too much power in the hands of too few. We are allowing the government to be the only entity that controls access to that information and the privacy or lack of privacy of all readers of that information. The solution to that is to build collections of digital government information is libraries. We have barely begun to understand the Faustian bargain we strike when we share content through a single government-controlled digital repository.
Fister is a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College. Her blog is barbara fister's place.
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CRS Report: Notable Deployments Overseas, 1798 – 2007
The Congressional Research Service has issued a report entitled (45 page pdf) Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2007, updated January 14, 2008 . It reviews hundreds of instances in which the United States has sent military forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict to protect U.S. citizens or promote U.S. interests. The listed deployments vary in size and length, legal authorization and significance. In eleven separate cases listed in bold-face type the U.S. formally declared war against foreign nations; but for most the status of the action under domestic or international law hasn't been addressed. A sample entry:
Continue reading"1798-1800 Undeclared Naval War with France. This contest included land actions, such as that in the Dominican Republic, city of Puerto Plata, where marines captured a French privateer under the guns of the forts. Congress authorized military action through a series of statutes.
1801-05 Tripoli. The First Barbary War included the U.S.S. George Washington and Philadelphia affairs and the Eaton expedition, during which a few marines landed with United States Agent William Eaton to raise a force against Tripoli in an effort to free the crew of the Philadelphia. Tripoli declared war but not the United States, although Congress authorized U.S. military action by statute."
Race and Law Wiki at Syracuse
The H. Douglas Barclay Law Library at the Syracuse University College of Law has created a Race and Law Research Wiki that it hopes will be a valuable inter-disciplinary resource for researchers. The topical organization is based on a Race and Law course syllabus and textbook. For each topic, researchers will currently find bibliographies and research guides; web resources and databases; and legislative and administrative material. The wiki also includes sections on statistics, how to find books and articles, and suggestions for relevant news sources and blogs. Emphasis in all categories is on electronic resources; however, some references to print sources have also been included. Anyone interested in contributing to the wiki can contact the librarian in charge here.
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