1.
Law library
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A law library is a library designed to assist law students, lawyers, judges and their law clerks, and anyone else who wishes to determine the state of the law. Law libraries can be classified as a type of special library because of their focus on providing specialized resources on the law, most law schools around the world have a law library, or in some universities, at least a section of the university library devoted to law. Law libraries can also be found in courts, government departments, private law firms and these countries include but are not limited to Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand. Law libraries in these countries can be found in law schools, courts, government, private law firms, the largest law library in the United Kingdom is the Bodleian Law Library with a collection of over 550,000 volumes. Outside of England, the largest law library in the British Commonwealth is Osgoode Hall Law Schools at York University in Canada, the earliest common law law libraries were founded in the late 15th century in London and include Grays Inn and Lincolns Inn. The largest law libraries in the world are found in the United States, the worlds largest law library is the Law Library of Congress, which holds over 2.9 million volumes. The worlds largest academic law library is the library of Harvard Law School, by way of contrast, the largest law library in the United Kingdom is the Bodleian Law Library with a collection of over 550,000 volumes. Broadly speaking, there are three categories of law libraries in the United States, every law school accredited by the American Bar Association houses a law library. Public law libraries are available in states, often in the local courthouses. A typical law library holds a number of works not seen in other libraries, including a full set of United States Reports. Most academic law library websites also contain legal research guidelines on numerous legal topics that are available to the public, a number of law libraries have therefore reduced the availability of printed works that can easily be found on the Internet, and have increased their own Internet availability. On the other hand, some university law libraries retain extensive historical collections going back to the earliest English reports, many law libraries also participate in the Federal Depository Library Program which provides access to government information and documents to the public at no cost. This is particularly true of law school libraries as the library at any accredited law school is eligible to become a depository library under the Program. Most law libraries are members of the American Association of Law Libraries, as of 2010, the Association has over 5,000 member libraries. Another important association for law libraries is the Special Libraries Association, some law school libraries are kept in the same building as the general library, but many are either in the law schools building, or in a separate facility altogether. S. The ABA also requires a collection to meet the academic needs of the students and research. The ABA also requires that the library have sufficient staff and facilities to attend to the needs of the institution, many academic law librarians participate in the AALL and specifically the Academic Law Libraries special interest section. Public law libraries are available in states, and many courthouses also have a law library
2.
Law report
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Law reports or reporters are series of books that contain judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts. When a particular judicial opinion is referenced, the law report series in which the opinion is printed will determine the case citation format, the term reporter was originally used to refer to the individual persons who actually compile, edit, and publish such opinions. For example, the Reporter of Decisions for the U. S. Supreme Court is the person authorized to publish the Courts cases in the volumes of the United States Reports. In American English, reporter also denotes the books themselves, in the Commonwealth, these are described by the plural term law reports, the title that usually appears on the covers of the periodical parts and the individual volumes. In common law countries, court opinions are binding under the rule of stare decisis. That rule requires a court to apply a principle that was set forth earlier by a court of a superior jurisdiction dealing with a similar set of facts. Thus, the publication of such opinions is important so that everyone—lawyers, judges. Official law reports or reporters are those authorized for publication by statute or other governmental ruling, governments designate law reports as official to provide an authoritative, consistent, and authentic statement of a jurisdictions primary law. Official case law publishing may be carried out by a government agency, unofficial law reports, on the other hand, are not officially sanctioned and are published as a commercial enterprise. In Australia and New Zealand, official reports are called authorised reports - unofficial are referred to as unauthorised reports, some commercial publishers also provide court opinions in searchable online databases that are part of larger fee-based, online legal research systems, such as Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis and Justis. But once a court opinion is officially published, case citation rules usually require a person to cite to the official reports, a good printed law report in traditional form usually contains the following items, - • The citation reference. • A recital of the facts of the case, • A note of the arguments of counsel before the judge. The development of the Internet created the opportunity for courts to publish their decisions on Web sites and this is a relatively low cost publication method compared to paper and makes court decisions more easily available to the public. Because a court can post a decision on a Web site as soon as it is rendered, Decisions of courts from all over the world can now be found through the WorldLII Web site, and the sites of its member organizations. These projects have strongly encouraged by the Free Access to Law Movement. Many law librarians and academics have commented on the system of legal information delivery - brought about by the rapid growth of the World Wide Web. Professor Bob Berring writes that the primacy of the old paper sets is fading, in theory, court decisions posted on the Web expand access to the law beyond the specialized law library collections used primarily by lawyers and judges. The general public can more readily find court opinions online, whether posted on Web-accessible databases, questions remain, however, on the need for a uniform and practical citation format for cases posted on the Web
3.
Supreme Court of the United States
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The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
4.
United States Government Publishing Office
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The United States Government Publishing Office is an agency of the legislative branch of the United States federal government. Following signature by the President, the change took effect on December 17,2014, the Government Publishing Office was created by congressional joint resolution on June 23,1860. It began operations March 4,1861, with 350 employees, for its entire history, GPO has occupied the corner of North Capitol Street NW and H Street NW in the District of Columbia. An additional structure was attached to its north in later years, the activities of GPO are defined in the public printing and documents chapters of Title 44 of the United States Code. The Public Printer, who serves as the head of GPO, is appointed by the President with the advice, the Public Printer selects a Superintendent of Documents. The Superintendent of Documents is in charge of the dissemination of information at the GPO, adelaide Hasse was the founder of the Superintendent of Documents classification system. GPO first used 100 percent recycled paper for the Congressional Record and Federal Register from 1991-1997, under Public Printers Robert Houk, GPO resumed using recycled paper in 2009. In March 2011, GPO issued a new illustrated official history covering the agencys 150 years of Keeping America Informed, following signature of this legislation by President Barack Obama, the name change took place on December 17,2014. By law, the Public Printer heads the GPO, Public Printers, Almon M. Clapp John D. Defrees Sterling P. Rounds Thomas E. Benedict Frank W. Palmer Thomas E. Benedict Frank W. Palmer, O. J. Tapella William J. United States Code United States Statutes at Large House Journal, the United States Department of State began issuing e-passports in 2006. GPO produces the blank e-Passport, while the Department of State receives and processes applications, GPO ceased production of legacy passports in May 2007, shifting production entirely to e-passports. In March 2008, the Washington Times published a story about the outsourcing of electronic passports to overseas companies. GPO designs, prints, encodes and personalizes Trusted Traveler Program cards for the Department of Homeland Security, Customs, cumulative Copyright Catalogs Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion Official Records of the American Civil War US Congressional Serial Set United States. Military Information Division, p. Publications, Issues 33-34, slocum, Carl Reichmann, Adna Romanga Chaffee. Reports on military operations in South Africa and China, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list Stephan LH. Slocum, Carl Reichmann, Adna Romanza Chaffee, United States, Reports on military operations in South Africa and China. CS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list United States, Bureau of Foreign Commerce, United States. Commercial relations of the United States with foreign countries during the years, cS1 maint, Multiple names, authors list United States
5.
Bluebook
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The Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation, a style guide, prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. The Bluebook is compiled by the Harvard Law Review Association, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, currently, it is in its 20th edition. It is so named because its cover is blue, the Bluebook is taught and used at a majority of U. S. law schools, and is also used in a majority of U. S. federal courts. Alternative legal citation style guides exist, including the Maroonbook and the ALWD Citation Manual, there are also several house citation styles used by legal publishers in their works. The U. S. Supreme Court uses its own unique style in its opinions, even though most of the justices. Furthermore, many courts have their own citation rules that take precedence over The Bluebook for documents filed with those courts. Some of the rules are simple modifications to The Bluebook system. In other states, notably New York, Texas, and Michigan, since 2008, California rules of court have allowed citations in Bluebook form as well as the states own style manual. An online subscription version of The Bluebook was launched in 2008, according to a recent study however, by two Yale librarians, Fred R. Shapiro and Julie Graves Krishnaswami, and their considerable archival research, Harvards and Griswolds claim is incorrect. They trace the origin of The Bluebook to a 1920 publication by Karl N. Llewellyn at Yale on how to write law journal materials for the Yale Law Journal, eventually, Harvard reversed course and joined the coalition by 1926. The cover of the 1926 A Uniform System of Citation was green, the color was brown from the second edition through the fifth edition. It was only with the edition that it became blue. In 1939, the cover of the book was changed from brown to a more patriotic blue allegedly to avoid comparison with an associated with Nazi Germany. The eleventh edition, published in 1967, was white with a blue border. The cover color returned to blue in the edition of 1976. The full text of the first through the editions are available on the official website. The Bluebook uses two different styles, the first is used by practitioners in preparing court documents and memoranda, while the second is used primarily in academic settings, such as law reviews and journals. The latter uses specific formatting to identify types of references, such as the use of caps for books, newspapers
6.
Brown v. Board of Education
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The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896, which allowed state-sponsored segregation, insofar as it applied to public education. Handed down on May 17,1954, the Warren Courts unanimous decision stated that educational facilities are inherently unequal. As a result, de jure segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and was a victory of the Civil Rights Movement. For much of the sixty years preceding the Brown case, race relations in the United States had been dominated by racial segregation, racial segregation in education varied widely from the 17 states that required racial segregation to the 16 in which it was prohibited. Brown was influenced by UNESCOs 1950 Statement, signed by a variety of internationally renowned scholars. This declaration denounced previous attempts at scientifically justifying racism as well as morally condemning racism, another work that the Supreme Court cited was Gunnar Myrdals An American Dilemma, The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Myrdal had been a signatory of the UNESCO declaration, the research performed by the educational psychologists Kenneth B. Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark also influenced the Courts decision. The Clarks doll test studies presented substantial arguments to the Supreme Court about how segregation affected black schoolchildrens mental status, the plaintiffs were thirteen Topeka parents on behalf of their 20 children. The suit called for the district to reverse its policy of racial segregation. The plaintiffs had been recruited by the leadership of the Topeka NAACP, notable among the Topeka NAACP leaders were the chairman McKinley Burnett, Charles Scott, one of three serving as legal counsel for the chapter, and Lucinda Todd. The named plaintiff, Oliver L. Brown, was a parent, a welder in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad, an assistant pastor at his church. He was convinced to join the lawsuit by Scott, a childhood friend, as directed by the NAACP leadership, the parents each attempted to enroll their children in the closest neighborhood school in the fall of 1951. They were each refused enrollment and directed to the segregated schools, linda Brown Thompson later recalled the experience in a 2004 PBS documentary. Like I say, we lived in a neighborhood and I had all of these playmates of different nationalities. And so when I found out that day that I might be able to go to their school, I was just thrilled, you know. And I remember walking over to Sumner school with my dad that day and going up the steps of the school, and I remember going inside and my dad spoke with someone and then he went into the inner office with the principal and they left me out. To sit outside with the secretary, and while he was in the inner office, I could hear voices and hear his voice raised, you know, as the conversation went on
