This week in the Law Library we’re teaching statutes and technology in law practice, as well as reminding you to vote, honoring our veterans, continuing to celebrate American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, and previewing US Supreme Court oral arguments.
This Week’s Library Sessions
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
Technology in Law Practice
Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
Room 107
11:10am – 12:05pm
Thursday, November 9, 2023
Lawyering I, sec. 4
Ronald Jones, Electronic Resources Instructional Services Librarian
Room 135
10:40am – 12:05pm
Researching Statutes
Technology in Law Practice
Shannon Kemen, Legal Technology & Research Instructional Services Librarian
Room 107
11:10am – 12:05pm
Lawyering I, sec. 6
Susan Boland, Associate Director & Ashley Russell, Instructional & Reference Services Librarian
Room 135
1:30pm – 2:55pm
Researching Statutes
Vote!
November 7th is election day! Have you voted yet? If not, please vote tomorrow! Elections matter, even non-presidential ones, and so does your vote. Need voter information? You can find links to resources in our Election Law Guide or check out the resources below:
State of Kentucky Voting Website
State of Indiana Voting Website
Veterans Day
This Friday Veterans Day is observed. Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary marking the end of World War I. Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and November 11th became a national holiday beginning in 1938. There were an estimated 16,200,322 million veterans in 2022. There were an estimated 602,318 veterans in Ohio in 2022. Thank you to all who have served!
The College of Law will hold classes and the Law Library will be open on Veteran’s Day.
Featured Study Aids
Election Law in a Nutshell
Available via the West Academic study aid subscription, this Nutshell provides a succinct and thorough description of the law governing elections, the right to vote, and the political process in the United States. The topics addressed include “one person, one vote,” gerrymandering, minority voting rights, ballot access, voter identification, recounts, direct democracy, and campaign finance. The Nutshell covers U.S. constitutional law in these areas, as well as the Voting Rights Act, Federal Election Campaign Act, and other essential statutes. It includes Evenwel v. Abbott, McDonnell v. United States, and other cases from the 2015-16 Supreme Court Term. Election law is a dynamic and rapidly expanding field that generates enormous public interest. It is also of great practical importance to lawyers and law students, with increasing litigation and many controversial Supreme Court decisions such as Bush v. Gore, Citizens United v. FEC, and Shelby County v. Holder.
Understanding Election Law and Voting Rights
Available via the LexisNexis Digital Library study aid subscription, this study aid takes readers through the electoral process, beginning with the right to vote and continuing through the election itself. Along the way, the authors provide thorough explanations of manifold topics, including Congress’s power to protect voting rights, the use of race in districting, political gerrymandering, political parties’ rights, the place of third parties, free speech and the First Amendment rights to participate in campaigns and run for office, campaign-finance regulation, vote-counting, and the role of courts in adjudicating disputes about political power and challenges to election “irregularities.” Did you know that Prof. Michael Solimine is one of the authors?
Examples & Explanations: Legislation, Statutory Interpretation, and Election Law
Available via the Aspen Learning Library, this study aid tackles the complex subjects in this field, including statutory interpretation, lobbying, bribery, redistricting, campaign finance law, and voting rights.
Featured Guide
Election Law Guide
This guide is intended as a starting point for research in the law of elections.
Featured Video
Election Law Program Videos for Judges & Journalists
Created in 2005 as a joint venture of the National Center for State Courts and the William & Mary Law School, the Election Law Program seeks to provide practical assistance to state court judges called upon to resolve difficult election law disputes.These videos are a series of web-based lectures designed to educate judges and journalists about the fundamentals of election law.
Featured Database
CQ Press Voting and Elections Collection
This database provides reference narratives and documents on elections, parties, voter behavior, and campaigns. It allows users to extract election results by characteristics such as: candidate, office, locality, and race type over time. Access U.S. election results across states with great historical depth and accuracy.
Featured Treatise
America Votes! A Guide to Modern Election Law & Voting
Available to law students & faculty only via Westlaw, this treatise provides a snapshot of key election and voting rights issues from practitioners highly experienced in a wide variety of areas. Part 1 details the election administration processes, challenges, and opportunities at the local and national level. Included are chapters on the FEC, enforcing federal election law, using census data to prove citizenship, and administrative challenges for recounts, contests; and post-election audits. Part 2 details the Voting Rights Act and discusses rights of language-minority voters, voter suppression tactics including voter ID laws, immigration voting rights, and redistricting issues to watch during the current redistricting cycle. Part 3 details the challenges of redistricting and includes state legislative reapportionment, Section 2 vote-dilution litigation, and corporate districting and the Voting Rights Act.
Featured Website
Federal Election Commission
American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month
This month is American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month! Celebrate with us as we explore the contributions and history of the Native people in the United States of America.
5 Selected Resources to Learn More About American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage
ABA, Celebrating Legal Trailblazers (PDF)
This ABA publication highlights Native American legal trailblazers.
ABA Commission on Women in the Profession & the National Native American Bar Association, Excluded and Alone: Examining the Experiences of Native American Women in the Law and a Path Towards Equity (PDF)
Nearly a decade after NNABA’s comprehensive research on Native American attorneys was released, the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession and
NNABA have collaborated to release what is only the second research study focused solely on Native American attorneys – and the first focused on Native American female lawyers. This research builds on the 2015 NNABA study, delving deeper into the unique experiences of Native American women who navigate the intersection of tribal identity, race, and gender in the legal profession. This study also explores the generational perspectives of Native American women and illustrates that, while progress in advancing Native American women in the legal profession is evident, it proceeds at a glacial pace.
ABA Presidential Speaker Series, Deb Haaland and Native American Women “Firsts” (Video)
This program featuring Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, and a panel of other Native American women “firsts” including Abby Abinanti (Yurok), Chief Judge, Yurok Tribe and First Native American Woman to pass the California Bar Exam; Kimberly TeeHee (Cherokee), first Delegate-designate to the U.S. House of Representatives from the Cherokee Nation and former senior policy advisor for Native American affairs in the White House; Stacy Leeds (Cherokee), Willard H. Pedrick Dean and Regents Professor of Law, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and first Native American woman to serve as a law school dean; and Valerie Nurr’araluk Davidson (Yup’ik), President/CEO of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium; interviewed by Makalika Naholowa’a, Executive Director, Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. and President, National Native American Bar Association (and first Native Hawaiian in this role). Sponsored by the National Native American Bar Association.
ABA 21-Day National Native American Heritage Equity Habit Building Challenge
The goal of the Challenge is to assist each of us to become more aware, compassionate, constructive, engaged people in the quest for equity, and specifically to learn more about the Native American communities. It transcends our roles as lawyers. Non-lawyers are also welcome to participate.
The National Native American Bar Association, The Pursuit of Inclusion: An In-Depth Exploration of the Experiences and Perspectives of Native American Attorneys in the Legal Profession (2015) (PDF)
In order to raise the visibility of Native American attorneys in the legal profession at large, to effectuate lasting reforms in the legal community, and to help build a better pipeline to law school, the National Native American Bar Association (NNABA) conducted the first-of-its-kind study of Native American attorneys. This research provides the first comprehensive picture of the issues confronting Native American attorneys across all settings – including private practice; government practice in state, federal and tribal arenas; the judiciary; corporate legal departments; and academia.
November Arguments at the United States Supreme Court
From SCOTUS Blog:
Monday, November 6, 2023
Dep’t Agric. Rural Dep’t Rural Hous. Serv. v. Kirt – whether the civil-liability provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act unequivocally and unambiguously waive the sovereign immunity of the United States.
Tuesday, November 7, 2023
United States v. Rahimi – whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8), which prohibits the possession of firearms by persons subject to domestic-violence restraining orders, violates the Second Amendment on its face.
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
Rudisill v. McDonough – whether a veteran who has served two separate and distinct periods of qualifying service under the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill is entitled to receive a total of 48 months of education benefits as between both programs, without first exhausting the Montgomery benefit in order to obtain the more generous Post-9/11 benefit.