As mentioned in last month’s issue of Check it Out, Beeson Law Library has a significant collection for state legislative and administrative research. What resource can be used that can give a researcher direction for finding what materials are available in a specific state? Two invaluable books fit the bill–William H. Manz’s Guide to State Legislative and Administrative Materials, 2002 ed. (KF/1/.F5/2002/Reference) and the State Legislative Sourcebook 2006: a Resource Guide to Legislative Information in the Fifty States (JK/2403/.E4/2006/Reference) by Lynn Hellebust.

Under the sponsorship of the American Association of Law Libraries, William H. Manz provides in Guide to State Legislative and Administrative Materials, 2002 ed. an alphabetical state-by-state (and territorial) look at the print, online and microform resources that are available to the researcher. Coverage includes guidance on how to find bills (current, historic and bill summaries), the various forms of enacted legislation, codes (current and past codes as well as compilations), legislative history (to the extent that it exists), administrative regulations, rules of court, attorney general opinions, executive orders, administrative rulings (as well as decisions and orders), ethics opinions and legislative reporting services. The final sections for each state list any bibliographies, guides to that state’s legal materials or legislative process, as well as addresses and contact information to pertinent libraries, archives, legislative services and state offices that may be of help to the researcher.

The other highly recommended work on this subject is State Legislative Sourcebook 2006: a Resource Guide to Legislative Information in the Fifty States by Lynn Hellebust. Like Manz, Lynn Hellebust provides a state-by-state description of the materials available to the researcher. She begins by providing information about the state’s legislative structure and process. Included in this section are lists of materials describing “how a bill becomes law” for that state as well as how to find legislative rules and details about the state’s legislative leadership. Section II provides resources for finding information about individual state legislators, their assets as well as campaign contributions and expenditures. Section III provides “session information”, including the means of obtaining legislative bills, tracking information and status information for those bills, bill histories and slip laws. Other sections for each state include ways of finding information about lobbying and legislative committees as well as some bibliographical information covering the overall legislative and administrative structure in that state. Appendices include state-by-state lists of telephone numbers and addresses for finding legislative bill status and “bill rooms or document rooms for each state legislature.” The final appendix provides a bibliography entitled, “Resource Guide to Influencing State Legislatures.”

In its early days in Lebanon, Tennessee, Cumberland School of Law produced two U.S. Supreme Court Justices: Howell Edmunds Jackson and Horace Harmon Lurton. Justice Jackson earned his law degree from Cumberland in 1856. President Benjamin Harrison nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1893, where he served until his death on August 8, 1895. Justice Lurton, who graduated from Cumberland in 1867, was one of the last members of the Supreme Court to serve in the Civil War. Nominated by President William Howard Taft in 1909, Justice Lurton served on the Supreme Court until his death on July 12, 1914. To learn more, consult the following books in the Cumberland Law Library collection:

The Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789-1969, Their Lives and Major Opinions edited by Leon Friedman and Fred Israel (volumes two and three) (KF8744/.F75 - Treatises).

The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995 edited by Clare Cushman, 2nd ed. (KF8744/.S86/1995 - Treatises).

Biographical Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court: The Lives and Legal Philosophies of the Justices edited by Melvin Urofsky (KF8744/.B56 - Reference).

Source: What Law Students are Thinking, http://www.abanet.org (February 1, 2007).

Argument transcripts of the latest U.S. Supreme Court cases are available on the Supreme Court’s web site.

The website states that company involved in reporting the cases “provides transcripts of oral arguments that are posted on this Web site on the same day an argument is heard by the Court. Same-day transcripts are considered official but subject to final review.”

Effective December 1, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court added a new provision to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP). Under FRAP Rule 32.1(a), U.S. courts of appeal must allow the citation of federal opinions designated as unpublished, not for publication, or the like. Two key factors affect application of the rule. First, the new rule does not change the weight of a decision. An unpublished opinion may be persuasive, but not necessarily binding precedent. Second, subdivision (a) of the rule applies only to federal judicial opinions issued on or after January 1, 2007. Right now, the number of decisions within the scope of FRAP Rule 32.1(a) is small. Local court rules continue to govern citation of unpublished opinions issued before 2007.

FRAP Rule 32.1(b) deals with the accessibility of opinions cited. Unless the decision is in an electronic database, parties must file and serve a copy of any unpublished opinion with the brief or other paper citing it. According to Advisory Committee Notes, subsection (b) applies to all unpublished decisions, whatever the date issued.

In the past, some federal circuits prohibited citation to unpublished opinions for persuasive purposes, other circuits allowed it. For an overview of appellate practice and background on the new rule, see Citing Unpublished Opinions in Federal Appeals by Robert Timothy Reagan et al. (KF9052/.A459/R43/2005/Treatises).

Both Westlaw and Lexis include unpublished opinions in their online databases. Often, courts provide free Internet access to their own unpublished decisions. For print copies, look for West’s Federal Appendix (Federal Cases - First Floor). The Federal Appendix contains many appellate opinions not selected for publication in the Federal Reporter, third series.

When citing unpublished opinions, be certain to consult the latest version of federal appellate and local rules. Various publications, including federal codes and handbooks, reprint court rules. Updates vary by publisher. If needed, ask a reference librarian for help in finding the most recent revised editions.

Source: World’s Oldest Newspaper Now Exists Only Online, http://www.cnn.com (February 5, 2007).

[For illustrations in this article, see http://lawlib.samford.edu/cio/ciofeb07.pdf.]

You may have noticed that when the campus moved from GroupWise to Outlook, forwarded e-mails no longer went to other accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, etc. The forward rule needs to be set up again for this to happen. Be sure to use Internet Explorer when setting up the rule. If you use a Mac, try creating the forward rule at a lab computer using Internet Explorer.

Go to http://email.samford.edu and log into your Samford e-mail.

Click on the Rules link in the bottom left corner.

Click on New to create a rule.

A Rules Dialog box will appear. Create a name for the Rule.

Under Then (at the bottom of the dialog box), click Forward it to and insert the e-mail address where Samford messages will be forwarded.

When done, click the Save and Close button at the top of the dialog box.

Your e-mails should now forward to another address.

Your e-mail will continue to arrive at the Samford account even though it is auto-forwarded to another e-mail account. Be sure to check Samford mail and delete unwanted messages so that your mailbox does not fill to the 50 MB capacity.

If you need help with these instructions or other computer issues, please contact Grace Simms, ext. 2687, Law Library 251-A, glsimms@samford.edu.

Source: Twelve-steps to curing E-mail Addiction, http://www.cnn.com (February 20, 2007).

One more issue of CHECK IT OUT will be published this semester. If you have any ideas or suggestions as to ways we can improve, contact: Becky Hutto via e-mail at rmhutto@samford.edu.