Chief Justice John Roberts

Chief Justice John Roberts released from hospital after an overnight stay. Chief Justice Roberts suffered a seizure Monday while on vacation. He suffered minor scraps from the fall. NPR and CNN news stories provide details.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Dressing Down for Court

As you may have heard, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales recently announced changes to simplify the traditional court attire worn by judges and lawyers there. Effective January 2008, judges and advocates appearing in civil and family courts will no longer wear the wigs and wing-collars for which they are known throughout the world. At criminal trials the traditional dress, including wigs, will continue to be worn. The official announcement is posted on the Judiciary of England and Wales website, where other interesting facts about English judges and photos of judicial court dress are available. For a brief and amusing look at how English court dress came to be--and why it remained that way for centuries--I recommend "Wigs, Coifs, and Other Idiosyncrasies of English Judicial Attire," by Cardozo School of Law professor Charles Yablon (Cardozo Life, Spring 1999).



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Universal Currency Converter

Are you planning a vacation abroad to celebrate your having leapt the hurdle of the Bar Examination, or simply to give yourself a break before returning to school? If so, then you may want to know how far your dollar will go when you exchange it for the local currency. To that end, the Universal Currency Converter offers a quick and easy way to obtain the latest exchange rates for the U.S. dollar versus foreign currencies.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Online Etymology Dictionary

Attorneys are noted for deploying language with precision. Knowing a word's origins may help in this endeavor, by alerting the writer to the subtler shades and tints of meaning that a word's origins may reveal. Although any good print dictionary will contain etymological (word origin) information, here is a link to a worthwhile Online Etymology Dictionary.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Tracking Actual Innocence

One of the best new sites for law students, attorneys and anyone else following the hot topic area of wrongful convictions in criminal law is the Actual Innocence Awareness Database, recently launched by the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas School of Law. Keeping up with this subject in a streamlined, savvy way is what the site is all about. Organized by subtopics including forensics/DNA, eyewitness identification, false confessions, jailhouse informants, prosecutorial misconduct, and ineffective counsel, the database is also fully searchable. It is updated daily or as new resources become available, listing citations and links to United States news media (including newspaper articles and television news magazine segments) and to new law journal articles, legislation, and web sites. Links for law review articles are to the first full page of text in PDF. Best of all, the site is RSS-enabled for automatic updates. If this is an area of interest for you, this is a site to know.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Internet Beginner's Guides

I realize that anybody reading this must know something about the Internet or they probably wouldn't have made it to this posting. But if you use your computer mostly to IM and use applications such as Word and think the only thing you need to know about the Internet is Google, this page may be for you. It is filled with links to various guides and tutorials, from simple to more advanced, that will help you get much more out of the Internet. There is so much out there, take advantage of it.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Project Vote Smart

As the 2008 election season heats up, where can you find a reliable nonpartisan web site for accurate political information? One that includes federal and state candidates and office holders, with simple navigation and quick links to biographical facts, public statements, finances, issue positions, campaign web sites, interest group ratings, and voting records, all in one place? Look no further than Project Vote Smart. Winner of a "Best Political Science Web Site" award from the American Political Science Association, and dubbed "heaven for political junkies" by USA Today (USA Today, "Best of the Web," January 30, 2000), Project Vote Smart is also heaven for law students looking for accurate information and links to authoritative news media resources (magazines and journals, TV and radio, blogs and other online media) and think tanks representing views across the political spectrum. For legislative and policy research, or for real politics, this site is a keeper.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

State government online

A recent llrx column focuses on The Government Domain: State Government Fundamentals. The intent is "to turn the spotlight to the states with a guide to some of the most useful, free web reference sources covering the governments of the fifty states. These resources are not specific to a single state, but rather provide nationwide coverage of state information. They can help you find state personnel, news, legislation, laws, regulations, policy updates, and statistics. The following list highlights helpful information available from many websites, but it is by no means comprehensive."



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Summer Pre-Bar Examination Library Hours

This is just a reminder that, now that Independence Day has passed, the Law Library will be following its pre-Bar examination schedule. These hours are in effect from today, July 5, through July 24. The schedule appears immediately below.

Monday - Thursday 8:00 A.M. - 11:00 P.M.
Friday 8:00 A.M. - 10:00 P.M.
Saturday & Sunday 10:00 A.M. - 10:00 P.M.





Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Enjoy Your 4th of July!

Enjoy the fourth. Weather has been lovely so beach activities and back yard cook outs are in order. For viewing fun check out the musical "1776".

The law library is closed July 4th, so there no excuse not to relax for at least part of the day.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat