This summer the BLS Library will sponsor a book exchange. A book exchange provides a forum for people to divest themselves of books already read in favor of books yet to read.

Participants can drop off their gently used fiction and biographies at the Library circulation desk beginning today. We will also accept children’s books to help out parents of young readers!
On May 3rd, all donated books will be placed on a book shelf in the Library lobby area. The BLS Community (students, faculty, staff, and their children) can browse the shelves for that “good book to read” at any time between May 3rd and August 13th. We will continue to accept book donations up until the last day of the program.

At the end of the summer, any remaining books will be donated to charity. Most public library branches no longer accept paperbacks, so we will identify a needy organization who will appreciate these books. If you have a recommendation, let a Librarian know.

Thanks for your donations and happy reading!

The Law Library Blog at Stanford’s Robert Crown Law Library reports that researchers can get around the 8 cents per page that Congress allows the federal courts to charge for printing documents in the PACER database. Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy has developed a Firefox plug-in called RECAP (PACER spelled backward) designed to make more court documents available to the public at no cost. Users who want to install RECAP must use Firefox.

“RECAP helps users exercise their rights under copyright law, which expressly places government works in the public domain. It also helps users advance the public good by contributing to an extensive and freely available archive of public court documents,” Harlan Yu, a Princeton graduate student, said in a blog post marking the public beta release.

It is possible that if RECAP becomes successful and PACER loses revenue, the federal courts could move to ban it. Until then, RECAP is a cost effective research tool. Another potential problem is that the RECAP developers plan to make the source code available so that it may be easy to seed the Internet Archive with “official court documents” that had been modified in some way.

The way it works is simple: when you log in to the federal court system and pay with a credit card to download a document, the RECAP plug-in automatically and transparently forwards a copy to the Internet Archive, where it becomes available for free to the next person who wants to read it. See the video Watch RECAP in Action.

The effort is a collaborative one, with others benefiting from your purchases, while you benefit from theirs. For more information on RECAP see Erika Wayne’s article More than One Document a Minute.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Besser v. Walsh ruled on an appeal from the Southern District of NY that a state statute permitting enhanced sentences for persistent felony offenders violates a defendant’s constitutional rights. New York’s Penal Law §70.10 provides that defendants convicted of two previous felonies face sentences of a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of life for conviction of a third felony are eligible for the persistent designation. It also directs the judge to determine if a persistent felony offender declaration would be in the public interest. Citing US Supreme Court case Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004) in the 52 page opinion, Judge Ralph K. Winter concluded that the sentencing scheme vests unconstitutionally broad discretion in judges to set sentences of up to life in prison for offenders deemed to be persistent felons saying:

We hold that the Sixth Amendment Right to a jury trial, applicable to the states as incorporated in the Fourteenth Amendment, prohibits the type of judicial fact finding resulting in enhanced sentences under New York’s {Persistent Felony Offender] statute.

The New York Law Journal article, Penalties for ‘Persistent’ Felons Violate Constitution, Circuit Says, stated “The immediate effect of yesterday’s ruling was not clear. Second Circuit rulings on New York law are not binding on the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The federal panel did not, however that state court rulings upholding the constitutionality of the persistent felony offender statute have been ‘unreasonable’ in light of seemingly contrary U.S. Supreme Court decisions in similar cases.”

The article goes on to say that there are 2,467 inmates now serving sentences in New York as persistent felony offenders. The question of retroactive application was an issue in only one of the five cases decided yesterday by the circuit. The 2d Circuit made its ruling in five cases it heard arguments on at the same time on April 16, 2008. The state solicitor general in Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office and assistant district attorneys in Brooklyn and Manhattan defended the statute at the circuit. A state spokesman said yesterday Mr. Cuomo’s office is reviewing the decision and would have no immediate comment.

The Brooklyn Law School Library has this recent item on the topic, Three Strikes Laws by Jennifer E. Walsh (Call #KF9685 .W356 2007) with chapters Rising crime rates and the get-tough movement — The three strikes solution — The California controversy — Constitutional challenges to three strikes and you’re out — Implementation and impact of three strikes laws — Effectiveness of three strikes laws — Attempts to reform three strikes laws

In January of this year, the US Department of Justice for the first time argued that it could enforce Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., to seek protection against discrimination based on gender expression. The DOJ made the argument in a Memorandum of Law in support of its motion to intervene in the case of J.L. v. Mohawk Central School District filed in US District Court for the Northern District of New York. The New York Civil Liberties Union filed the civil rights complaint in August of 2009 on behalf of a male teenage student bullied for acting too effeminate. The suit maintained that district officials were aware of the bullying and did nothing to stop it. The School District denied the allegations. The Motion to Intervene presented to the District Court a novel question about the reach of Title IX.

Before the Court could rule on the motion, the parties reached a settlement agreement providing $50,000 to the plaintiff, $25,000 to the ACLU, district-wide training on appropriate responses to anti-gay harassment, and payment to cover the plaintiff’s continued therapy. The NY Times’ article Gay Student Settles Lawsuit Against NY District and the NYCLU website provide more detail on the facts of the case and a link to the settlement agreement.

The issue of bullying and especially cyber-bullying in schools has drawn the attention of lawmakers. NY State Senator Kemp Hannon has spread cyber-bullying awareness on Long Island and across New York State and introduced legislation which prohibits bullying and cyber-bullying on school property and establishes a statewide central registry for bullying, cyber-bullying and hazing complaints. “Tragically, cyber-bullying has become a new reality, and thus, a serious focus in our communities. We must respond by increasing awareness as well as prohibiting such dangerous behavior,” said Senator Hannon whose bill S7158 increases penalties for hazing and prohibits bullying and cyber-bullying.

The Brooklyn Law School Library has in its collection material on the topic. See Confronting Cyber-Bullying : What Schools Need to Know to Control Misconduct and Avoid Legal Consequences by Shaheen Shariff (Call # HV6773.2 .S5 2009) with these chapters: Cyber-misconduct : who is lord of the bullies? — Profile of traditional and cyber-bullying — Cyber libel or criminal harassment: when do kids cross the line? — Student free expression: do the schoolhouse gates extend to cyberspace? — Fostering postive school environments: physical and virtual — Censoring cyberspace: can kids be controlled? — The tragedy of the commons: lessons for cyberspace?

See also Bullying in Schools: How Successful Can Interventions Be? edited by Peter K. Smith, Debra Pepler, and Ken Rigby (Call # LB3013.3 .B85 2004) a comparative account of the major intervention projects against school bullying carried out by educationalists and researchers since the 1980s, across Europe, North America and Australasia.

Episode 053 – Conversation with Environmental Law Society.mp3

This podcast is of a conversation with two officers of Environmental Law Society (ELS) at Brooklyn Law School. ELS is a student organization with interests in environmental law, international law, the laws of war and bio-terrorism, real estate law, land use and zoning laws. The ELS officers talk about their efforts to create opportunities for its members by hosting events where students can meet with leading experts in a variety of fields. They also discuss their plans for the upcoming year. ELS recently sponsored Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into an important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century – The World Water Crisis. The documentary is called Flow: How Did a Handful of Corporations Steal Our Water?

ELS showed the film during the same week when the United Nations sponsored World Water Day on March 22. Starting in 1993, the United Nations General Assembly by resolution designated March 22 of each year as the World Day for Water. Here is the trailer for the documentary Flow.

Are you a recent graduate of Law School and need to earn CLE credits? Are you a law student who wants to learn practical research skills to prepare for life after law school? Then attend the Bridge the Gap program hosted by The Law Librarian Association of Greater New York (LLAGNY) tomorrow. The program will be held at the New York City Bar Association from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. Tuition is $30 and includes breakfast and lunch.

Our own Professor Szymczak will be co-chairing one of the sessions on cost effective legal research. Additional topics include: New York online legal research, social media: ethics and the practice of law, patent research, international arbitration research and research for career development.

To access information about the event as well as the application, click here. Walk in registrations will be accepted if space is available.

Former Library Student Circulation Assistant Francisco Rivera, Brooklyn Law School Class of 2008, is making news in the job market despite the harsh reality of the current economic downturn. Featured in a Westchester.com article Community Action Helping Unemployed Find Work, Rivera explains that he put his dream of becoming a practicing lawyer temporarily on hold and sought alternative employment options.

Funds from the 2009 Stimulus Bill, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (Pub. L. 111-5), allowed Rivera to find alternatives at this stage of his career. “Without ARRA, my job search might still be continuing,” said Rivera, who is now employed as a Community Advocate with the Westchester Community Opportunity Program (WestCOP), a private not-for-profit agency providing multipurpose social service assistance and operating community programs to combat poverty in Westchester and Putnam counties.

According to the article, WestCOP has received $2.1 million in ARRA funding for job creation and training and has added 43 staff members to help others in the community through the Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counseling (CASAC) program and to place them into paid jobs. In addition to social assistance and outreach supported by ARRA, Westchester and Putnam county residents in need can receive resume writing direction, often the first step towards securing employment.

Rivera, as part of his work with WestCOP created the Resume Improvements for Securing Employment (RISE) to help those looking for employment. “It is all in the presentation. Regardless of your background or what type of job you are seeking, the resume is a universal language that can make an impact upon employers,” said Rivera, who is providing help to both Spanish and English speaking individuals looking to create or enhance their resume. “I am so grateful to be in a position where I am helping young people in my community get into college. I’m providing tax assistance and even helping with job placement,” said Rivera. “There is a lot of hardship out there, but there is also a lot of help.”

The American Branch of the International Law Association and the International Law Students Association will present the annual International Law Weekend (ILW) at Fordham Law School in New York on October 21-23, 2010. The event marks the the 89th annual meeting of the American Branch. The overall theme at this year’s ILW 2010 is “International Law and Institutions: Advancing Justice, Security and Prosperity.” ILW organizers are seeking proposals for 90-minute panels with three or four speakers, in a point-counterpoint, roundtable, or other format. Proposals for panels are due no later than Friday, April 9, 2010. Panels at past ILWs have addressed a wide range of topics related to public and private international law. At last year’s panel, Brooklyn Law School Professor Claire Kelly chaired a panel on Trade and Climate Change.

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court began hosting its own website http://www.supremecourt.gov. The Court assumes responsibilities for site management from the Government Printing Office (GPO) which provided hosting services for the past ten years. The new site has a new clean look.

The former, much maligned GPO URL, http://www.supremecourtus.gov, will redirect users to the new site through July 1, 2010. The Office of Public Information of the US Supreme Court issued a press release saying :