BLS Library Blog

The Library will be open the following hours during the Independence Day weekend:

Friday, July 3rd:  9am – 10pm

Saturday, July 4th:  9am – 5pm

Sunday, July 5th:  10am – 10pm

Enjoy the holiday!

The United States Supreme Court on Thursday, June 25, 2015 upheld federal health insurance subsidies for moderate and low income Americans as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

The vote was 6-3, with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. The Court ruled that subsidies are valid even in those states that did not set up their own exchanges. This decision, in King v. Burwell, was the second time in three years that the Supreme Court upheld provisions of “Obamacare,” that otherwise might have decimated the law.  The Court upheld the law’s individual mandate in 2012 in National Federation of Independent Business, et al. v. Sebelius.

The Court also handed down another major decision on Friday, June 26, 2015 in Obergefell v. Hodges. By a vote of 5-4, the Court ruled that states cannot ban same-sex couples from getting married.  This decision establishes a national right to same-sex marriage throughout the country and requires states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. The majority opinion was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

On Thursday, June 18 at CALIcon 2015 held at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law, one of the opening sessions was called Incorporating Technology, Business Development and Marketing in the Law School Curriculum. The session by Brooklyn Law School Reference Librarian Harold O’Grady and Brooklyn Law School Technology Educator Lloyd Carew-Reid examined how law schools are now incorporating technology, business development and marketing in the law school curriculum. Using Google Hangouts, Harold and Lloyd were joined by Brooklyn Law School Professor Jonathan Askin and MIT’s Danza Greenwood to discuss their ABA-MIT Online Legal Appathon which took place at the ABA Tech Show 2015 in April.

Three BLS students participated remotely in the session: Alex Goldman, Class of 2014, Patrick Mock, Class of 2017 and Paula Collins, Class of 2017. Alex discussed his project on Technical Standards for Warrant Canaries. Patrick and Paula talked about their awards at the second annual Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE) Innovators Competition held in April 2015. Patrick won 1st Prize for his proposal, Buoy, which addresses the problem of student loan debt by incorporating a crowdfunding model into a student loan service. Paula won 3rd prize for her FLIC (Film Legal Information Center) app, which would deliver a virtual law practice, direct client services, and business/entrepreneurial services to a community of Indie film artists in Brooklyn and surrounding areas.

A video of the hour-long session is available on YouTube at this link.

Today the Supreme Court issued rulings on two cases dealing with First Amendment issues.

 In Walker v. Texas the Court ruled that Texas did not violate the First Amendment when it rejected a specialty license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag.  Justice Clarence Thomas joined four liberal members of the court to keep the flag off Texas license plates. The court’s four other conservative members called the decision an assault on free speech rights.

In Reed v. Gilbert the Court ruled for an Arizona church’s challenge to a sign ordinance.  The justices unanimously said the town of Gilbert, Arizona, ran afoul of the First Amendment by setting tougher rules for signs placed in the right of way along public streets to direct people to Sunday church services than for signs for political candidates and real estate agents.

Listen to this episode on BrooklynWorks. 

This podcast features former Cataloging Librarian Bob Harned who worked for the Brooklyn Law School Library in Technical Services from 2001 to 2006. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Bob grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. A lifelong research librarian, he worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and in several universities and law firms in New York City. He now resides in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, with his partner, food journalist, cookbook author, and broadcaster Arthur Schwartz. Robert’s interests are film history, Greek and Roman archaeology, and singing. He has recorded four CD albums. Since leaving the BLS Library, Bob has been busy with many projects, the most recent of which is the publication of Sally Phipps: Silent Film Star, a biography of his late mother.

A complimentary copy of the 290 page book with its 150 pictures, mostly photographs, is at the BLS Library Circulation Desk for library users can look through it. It is also available for purchase in paperback and via Kindle on the Amazon webpage which states:

Sally Phipps was only three years old and the veteran winner of several beautiful baby contests when she appeared as the Baby in the film “Broncho Billy and the Baby.” It was made at the Niles California Essanay Studio in late 1914. This book follows her amazing life and a career that culminated in her receiving the Rosemary (for remembrance) Award shortly before her death in 1978. Her memories of the early years at Essanay include sitting on Charlie Chaplin’s lap and enduring a frightening stage coach accident. In her teens, she was a Fox Studio star appearing in 20 films, including a cameo in the classic “Sunrise.” There were bad times also. She was on the set of her Fox two-reel comedy “Gentlemen Preferred Scotch’” in 1927 when word reached her of the scandalous death of her father, a state senator. But in that same year, she was selected as one of the 13 Wampas Baby Stars, starlets that were considered destined for future success. Despite her popularity in Hollywood, she left for New York where she became the darling of gossip columnists, particularly Walter Winchell. She appeared in two Broadway shows, made a Vitaphone comedy short, and married and divorced one of the Gimbel department store moguls before she darted off for India and around the world travel. Back in New York, there was another marriage, two children, and later a stay in Hawaii. Earl Wilson wrote about her in 1938 when she was working for the Federal Theatre Project during the WPA period — headlining his column “Wampas Ex-Baby Lives on WPA $23 – And Likes It.” Her images – especially her pinup photographs – have become highly collectible. The book features 150 pictures from Sally’s personal and professional life, including glamorous portraits and pinups.

The Brooklyn Law School Library is adding ten copies of the newly released 20th edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Call #KF245 .B58) to the Reserve Collection at the Circulation Desk as well as a copy to the Reference Collection at the Reference Desk.

There are changes in content but now the numbering of the rules in the Bluepages (non-academic citation) parallels the numbering in the Whitepages (academic citation). Typeface rules were relaxed to permit use of large and small caps in court documents for stylistic purposes. Rule 14 includes more examples of citations for a wide variety of administrative materials. Rule 15 adds a citation format for e-books. Rule 18 was revised and is much clearer. It no longer distinguishes between direct and parallel citations to Internet sources, and no longer requires that the URL be preceded by “available at.”

The new edition of the Bluebook recognizes Perma.cc as a reliable tool for preserving internet sources.Rule 18.1 provides the Basic Citation Forms for Internet Sources table on page 178 and gives the following example for citing to archived sources:

Rule 18.1 Basic Citation Forms for Internet Sources table on page 178:

• Rocio Gonzalez, Puerto Rico’s Status Debate Continues as Island Marks 61 Years as a Commonwealth, HUFFINGTON POST (July 25, 2013, 9:00 AM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/puerto-rico-status-debate_n_3651755.html [http://perma.cc/C6UP-96HN].

The Bluebook includes a new rule: 18.2.1(d), which states:

Archiving of Internet sources is encouraged, but only when a reliable archival tool is available. For citations to Internet sources, append the archive URL to the full citation in brackets.

• Letter from Rose M. Oswald Poels, President/CEO, Wis. Bankers Ass’n, to Elizabeth M. Murphy, Sec’y, SEC (Sept. 17, 2013), http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-03-13/s70313-178.pdf [http://perma.cc/B7Z7D9DJ].