Law

This Week in the Law Library ... Sept. 16, 2024

This week in the Law Library we’re teaching researching cases and using citators, Advanced Legal Research, celebrating Constitution Day and Week, and recognizing the contributions of Hispanic Americans.

This Week’s Research Sessions

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Advanced Legal Research Ohio Legal Research

  • 2:00pm - 2:55pm
  • Room 245
  • Ronald Jones, Electronic Resources Instructional Services Librarian & Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian

Thursday, September 19, 2024

Lawyering I, Cohort 2

  • 10:40am - 12:05pm
  • Room 245
  • Susan Boland, Associate Director
  • Researching Cases & Using Citators

Lawyering I, Cohort 6

  • 1:30pm - 2:55pm
  • Room 245
  • Ashley Russell, Instructional & Reference Services Librarian
  • Researching Cases & Using Citators

Friday, September 20, 2024

Advanced Legal Research Criminal Law Procedure

  • 11:10am - 12:05pm
  • Room 245
  • Associate Dean Michael Whiteman and Instructional & Reference Services Librarian Ashley Russell

Constitution Day Celebration, September 17, 2024

constitution-1486010_640
#Constitution Day is observed each year to commemorate the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787. Public Law 108-447 requires that every educational institution which received Federal funds hold a program on the Constitution for students.

This year the College of Law’s Constitution Day speaker is Katie Eyer, professor of law at the Rutgers Law School. She will speak on “Transgender Equality: An Inflection Point for Equal Protectin?” The case of United States v. Skrmetti (currently pending before the Supreme Court) will provide the Supreme Court with its first opportunity to address transgender rights under the Equal Protection clause. But Skrmetti may also prove to be an inflection point for Equal Protection doctrine more generally. In recent decades, the Court has moved away from the formalist tiers of scrutiny in its Equal Protection cases, including most notably those involving lesbian and gay rights. But by many accounts, that turn was driven primarily by one Justice: Justice Kennedy, who has since departed from the Court. We do not yet have clear evidence on where the current court—which has shown itself to be highly willing to depart from precedent, and to incorporate originalism into constitutional law—will go with Equal Protection doctrine. Will it adhere to the formalist tiered framework of scrutiny? To those precedents from the Kennedy era focusing to a greater extent on concepts of dignity and due process? Skrmetti will be a testing ground for all of these questions, in addition to its profound importance for transgender rights. The lecture is made possible through the generous support of the Alfred B. Katz Constitution Day Fund in memory of Alfred B. Katz ’35. More at Constitution Day Event Details.

Constitution Day Table

Visit our Constitution Day Table, curated by Rhonda Wiseman, outside of Room 160 before and after the Constitution Day lecture! The Robert S. Marx Law Library is home to one of the largest collections of rare and special law books in Northwest. The collection consists of approximately 10,000 volumes of historical legal books and pamphlets printed during the mid-1500s through mid-1900s. Most of the items in the Collection consists of scholarly, out of print books on English and American law and legal history. These include numerous classics in the field. The books have been individually selected and function together as a comprehensive research tool providing services to scholars and legal communities locally, nationally, and internationally on various aspects of the law and legal history, thus contributing to the further advancement of legal education and scholarship. The Collection is strongest in the areas of constitutional history and early English law.

To celebrate Constitution Day, the Robert S. Marx Law Library is pleased to present a display of a few noteworthy items within the collection

Constitution Week Display

Constitution Week Display

Visit our Constitution Week display to learn more about transgender rights.

Featured Study Aids

Constitutional Law CALI Lessons

Available on CALI, these are interactive exercises for students studying Constitutional Law. You will need to set up a password to use CALI online. To set up a username and password, you will be asked to enter UC Law’s authorization code. You can get this code from any reference librarian or at the Circulation Desk.

Constitutional Law: Individual Rights: Examples & Explanations

Available via the Aspen Learning Library study aid subscription, this is a problem-oriented guide to the principle doctrines of Constitutional law as covered in the typical course. This text walks the student through the provisions that protect individual rights. It combines textual material with examples, explanations, and questions to test the students’ comprehension of the materials and provide practice in applying legal principles to fact patterns.New to the Ninth Edition: inclusion of nearly 50 new Supreme Court cases, as well as expanded discussion of the freedom of association and the Richer treatment of the right to keep and bear arms.

Understanding Constitutional Law

Available via the LexisNexis Digital Library study aid subscription, this study aid covers all of the central concepts and issues students encounter in any basic constitutional law course. Structure of Government issues revolve around the twin themes of federalism and separation of powers. Individual rights and liberties follow a concept organization-Due Process, Equal Protection, and First Amendment. Clearly written and authoritative, Understanding Constitutional Law addresses the central concepts and issues students encounter in most Constitutional Law casebooks. “Structure of government” issues revolve around the twin themes of federalism and separation of powers. Individual rights and liberties follow a concept organization – Due Process, Equal Protection, and First Amendment.

Constitutional Law Stories

Available via the West Academic study aid subscription,
Dorf’s Constitutional Law Stories provides a student with an understanding of 15 leading U.S. constitutional law cases. It focuses on how lawyers, judges, and socioeconomic factors shaped the litigation, and why the cases have attained landmark status.

Featured Database

World Constitutions Illustrated

This database, available on HeinOnline, provides access to the current constitution for every country in its original language format along with an English translation, as well as substantial constitutional histories for each country.

Featured Guide

Exam Study Guide — Constitutional Law

This guide page features study aids to help you with understanding Constitutional Law and for review and exam preparation.

Featured Treatise

Treatise on Constitutional Law: Substance & Procedure

Available on Westlaw, Nowak and Rotunda's Treatise on Constitutional Law: Substance and Procedure provides scholars, practitioners, judges, and officials with an up-to-date analysis and synthesis of federal constitutional law. The focus is primarily on the Supreme Court and incorporates the political, historical, and economic background of court decisions.The text analyzes constitutional questions in terms of precedent, political science theory, economics, and American history, making the leading cases understandable concerning both their overall significance and the precise legal rules they establish.

Featured Videos

Federal Law Part I: Overview of Constitutions, Statutes, and Legal Authority

This video introduces US Constitutional and statutory law. It explains where they fit in the hierarchy of legal authority, what a session law is, what a code is, and the difference between official and unofficial codes. The video is 11:24 minutes long and features closed captioning

Federal Law Part II Video: Researching Constitutional & Statutory Law on Westlaw

This video provides an overview of researching the US Constitution, federal statutes, and federal court rules on Westlaw. It covers retrieving by citation; using the notes of decision; making sure a statute is still good law; finding materials citing a statute; navigating to the United States Code Annotated when you don’t have a citation; and using statutory finding tools such as the table of contents, index, and popular names table. This video is 10:36 minutes long and it is closed captioned and features a table of contents.

Federal Law Part III: Researching Constitutional & Statutory Law on Lexis

This video covers researching the US Constitution, federal statutes, and court rules on Lexis. It covers finding statutes, court rules, and constitutions by citation, finding them when you don’t have a citation, navigating the annotated code, using the annotations, and shepardizing them. It is closed captioned and is 10:26 minutes long. It also features a table of contents.

Featured Website

Constitution Annotated

The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation ("Constitution Annotated" or "CONAN") provides a legal analysis and interpretation of the United States Constitution based on a comprehensive review of Supreme Court case law and, where relevant, historical practices that have defined the text of the Constitution. This regularly updated resource is written in "plain English" and useful for a wide audience: from constitutional scholars to those just beginning to learn about the nation's most important legal document. In publication for over 100 years, the Constitution Annotated is a comprehensive, government-sanctioned record of the interpretations of the Constitution.

Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month

Miniature flags representing Hispanic Nations

Photo by Texas Military Department, CC BY-ND 2.0

Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15 to October 15 and celebrates the contributions and importance of Hispanics and Latinos to the United States and those American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. This year’s theme is "Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together."

UC Celebrations & Events

UC Alumni Association Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

The UC Alumni Association proudly joins with our Hispanic and Latino Bearcats to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. The full UC success story cannot be told, and would not be so inspiring, without the great contributions of our Hispanic and Latino alumni and students.

UCBA Hispanic Heritage Month Display

Browse the online guide of suggested reads!

NALP Statistics from the Report on Diversity

  • Total LatinX attorneys: 4.93% 
    • Total of LatinX attorneys who are women: 2.34%
  • Percentage of LatinX partners: 3.01%
    • Percentage of LatinX partners who are women: 1.00%
  • Percentage of LatinX associates: 7.05% 
    • Percentage of LatinX associates who are women: 3.75%
  • Percentage of LatinX summer associates: 9.31% 
    • Percentage of LatinX summer associates who are women: 5.46%

Learn more at the NALP Report on Diversity

Posted Sept. 16, 2024 by Susan Boland  

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