TMLL Library News

UELMA Adoption

Connecticut recently joined Colorado, North Dakota, Hawaii and Minnesota in passing the Uniform Electronic Materials Act.  The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (ULC) approved the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act (UELMA) in July 2011, recommending that it be enacted in all states.  UELMA was created in response to many state governments moving towards online distribution of primary legal materials like statutes and regulations.  The act requires government publishers to authenticate, preserve, and provide permanent public access to primary source legal materials, ensuring that the online information is verified and accurate.  Other states that are currently considering UELMA include Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Proposed Changes to Discovery Process in Federal Civil Cases

The Judicial Conference of the United States' Advisory Committee on Civil Rules is considering changes to the discovery process in federal civil cases.  The changes that the Advisory Committee are considering can be found beginning on page 220 of the Minutes of the January meeting of the Standing Committee (or page 130 within the document). 

The process for changing the discovery process involves several levels of consideration and approval.  When a rule is approved by the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, the proposed amendment must then be considered and approved by the Judicial Conference, the Supreme Court, and then Congress. You can follow proposed rules on the Administrative Office of the US Courts website, and download the proceedings of the Judicial Conference here.

Summer Research Assistant Training

This summer the library will again have an orientation program for research assistants to help them understand how best to find and retrieve the materials they need for research.  The sessions will be on:

Wednesday,  May 29th at 12:00 pm
Wednesday, May 29th at 4:00 pm
Thursday, May 30th at 4:00pm

The sessions will be held in the TAL Classroom (Room 4403 in the Library).  If you have any questions, please contact Camilla Tubbs.

Updated Edition of the Benchbook for U.S. District Court Judges

The 6th edition of the Benchbook for U.S. District Court Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center, is now available online.  The Benchbook covers procedural matters with detailed guidance from experienced trial judges.

According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, "the 6th Edition includes a primer on a prosecutor's duty to disclose favorable information to defendants under Brady v. Maryland. There's a new section on civil pretrial case management focusing on the judge's role as an active case manager, and a completely revised section on sentencing, which contains an extensive colloquy for the sentencing hearing. There also are subsections on handling disruptive or dangerous defendants, and expanded jury instructions on the use of social media."

How to Search the Internet

The National Security Agency (NSA) has compiled an exhaustive guide on how to find information on the internet. This fascinating 642-page guidebook called Untangling The Web (pdf) was written by Robyn Winder and Charlie Speight, and published by the NSA's Center for Digital Content in 2007.  Muckrock, a public records request service, was able to obtain the document through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Katherine L. Vaughns (1945 - 2013)

Katherine L. Vaughns, University of Maryland Carey School of Law professor, and well known supporter of the arts, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer after a short illness. She was 68.  A member of the Carey School of Law faculty for almost thirty years, Professor Vaughns taught immigration law and policy, complex litigation and remedies. She wrote and published articles in several subject areas, but primarily in the area of immigration law.  Two recent articles on immigration policy will be published posthumously.

Articles

Of Civil Rights and Wrongs: Kiyemba v. Obama and the Meaning of Freedom, Separation of Powers, and the Rule of Law Ten Years After 9/11, 20 Asian American Law Journal (forthcoming 2013) (with Heather L. Williams). [Full Text]

Border Fixation: The Appearance of Security and Control in Immigration Reform, 27 Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development (forthcoming 2013). [Full Text]

Book Review, 19 Law & Politics Book Review 21 (2009) (reviewing Fresh Perspectives on the "War on Terror" (Miriam Gani & Penelope Mathew eds., 2008)). [Full Text]

Restoring the Rule of Law: Reflections on Fixing the Immigration System and Exploring Failed Policy Choices, 5 University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class 153 (2005). [Full Text]

Women Law Journals in the New Millennium: How Far Have They Evolved? And are They Still Necessary?, 12 Columbia Journal of Gender and the Law 492 (2003) [Full Text]

Women of Color in Law Teaching: Shared Identities, Different Experiences, 53 Journal of Legal Education 496 (2003). [Full Text]

Retooling the 'Refugee' Definition: The New Immigration Reform Law's Impact on Asylum Policy and the Adjudication Process, 1 Rutgers Race and the Law Review 41 (1998).

A Tale of Two Opinions: The Meaning of Statutes and the Nature of Judicial Decision-making in the Administrative Context 1995 Brigham Young University Law Review 139. [Full Text]

Taming the Asylum Adjudication Process: An Agenda for the Twenty-First Century, 30 San Diego L. Rev. 1 (1993). [Full Text]

Towards Parity in Bar Passage Rates and Law School Performance: Exploring the Sources of Disparities Between Racial and Ethnic Groups, 16 Thurgood Marshall Law Review 425 (1991). [Full Text]

Of Morality, Politics and the Legal Order, 14 Maryland Journal of International Law & Trade 127 (1990). [Full Text]

Eduroam Wireless Access to Students, Faculty, and Staff

The University of Maryland now offers Eduroam, or education roaming, a secure wireless system that enables students, faculty and staff to access the internet on their laptop or Smartphone throughout the University of Maryland campus and other participating Eduroam locations.

With this service, traveling University of Maryland students, faculty, and staff will be able to seamlessly access wireless networks as the gateway to the Internet while visiting campuses around the world. Furthermore, guests from other Eduroam institutions will be able to make use of Maryland's extensive wireless network to gain access to the Internet using their own institutional credentials while visiting the University of Maryland. 

Connect to the Eduroam network with your local login credentials (UMID) by following the directions below for each of the listed devices. 

1. Apple Devices - iPhones, iPads, iTouch
2. Apple Devices - Macbooks
3. Windows 7 Standard
4. Windows 7 IntelPROSet
5. Windows XP Standard
6. Windows XP IntelPROSet
7. Android
8. WindowsMobile Devices

If you are not sure what device instructions to use, please contact the Center for Information Technology Service Help desk via email or phone: 410-706-HELP(4357).

Once you have successfully connected to the Eduroam network your user credentials will be cached on your device and the username string will not have to be entered again until your are required to change your password in the UM Account Management system.

This same username will allow you to connect to wireless networks around the University of Maryland and participating Eduroam locations. 

New Supreme Court Statistics Available

The SCOTUS Blog in association with Bloomberg Law has released the third interim Stat Pack for Supreme Court's 2012 October Term. This edition features updates for each chart, including the popular “Opinions by Sitting” table and Justice Agreement tables. You can download the full Stat Pack
here.

• Opinions by Sitting
• Circuit Scorecard
• Cases by Vote Split
• Make-Up of the Merits Docket
• Opinion Authorship
• Majority Opinions
• Frequency in the Majority
• Justice Agreement
• Pace of Grants
• Pace of Opinions
• Oral Argument – Advocates

Westlaw Discontinuing Designated Printer Program

Due to a steady decline in Westlaw printer usage in law schools across the country coupled with the availability of document management tools on WestlawNext, Thomson Reuters will discontinue support of its Westlaw printers in all schools as of June 30, 2013. The printers will be removed from our school on that date.  Students will retain the ability to print from WestlawNext – just not to a designated Westlaw printer.

Since WestlawNext was launched, the need for Westlaw-dedicated printers has dramatically declined. More importantly, law firm subscribers have not used dedicated Westlaw printers since 2007, so the removal of printers from the law schools more closely aligns legal research habits in law school and in practice. WestlawNext tools such as folders, highlighting, downloading, emailing and copy with reference are more in line with how lawyers practice in the real world every day.

The environmental benefits are huge: with the elimination of the printer program we will no longer generate a staggering 267,354 lbs. of carbon dioxide in a single year!

Congressional Boot Camp

Do you need to know about Congress to function in a job, externship, internship, volunteer position or other placement? Or are you just curious about how Congress works? Consider attending the next Congressional Boot Camp on Thursday May 16th at 11 a.m. in room 405. The approximately 3 1/2 hour program will include an introduction to House and Senate procedure, legislative writing style, Congressional culture and legislative research methods (taught by course librarian Maxine Grosshans.) We will also be showing the Congressional Research Service's legislative training video. If you are planning to attend, please email Ruth Fleischer so that we can provide the correct number of handouts.

There will be another boot camp in late August which is required for students in the Fall semester of the Legislative Workshop.