Russell v. Devon case found! (Or, You're Welcome, part II)

We discovered the opinion for Russell v. Men dwelling in Devon (1788, 2 TR 667) in John Henry Wigmore's Select cases on the Law of Torts (Northwestern, 1912). see pp. 837-839. Thanks, Google Book project!

You're welcome

NewYork (State). Task Force on School Violence. Safer Schools in the 21st century. Report from 1999. Lovingly preserved through a NYS Library digitization initiative.

Find Paper decisons in the Nassau Area

We used some library catalogs to locate if the older, paper versions of the Commissioner's Decisions AKA the Judicial Decisions of the Commissioner of Education AKA the Education Department Reports were available in the Nassau County Area.

We found them at (Be sure to call or email them before you visit!!!)

• Hempstead Public Library
• Suffolk Community College (yes, we know what county it's in)
• Nassau County Court Library [maybe; we're not sure] in Mineola
• Adelphi University Library
• Dowling College Library
• CW Post Library
• 
  

National Library Week presentation

If you plan to be in the Hudson Valley on the 15th, please consider attending our thought-provoking panel on school libraries. Or invite a library school student!

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You're invited to attend a SUNY New Paltz program celebrating National Library Week 2009:

"Teachers and School Librarians: Partnerships that Work"


School librarians are an extraordinary educational resource. Every day, they introduce students to libraries as important information resources, teach essential information seeking and evaluative skills, and prepare students for higher levels of research. When teachers and librarians work together, they ensure that learning doesn’t end when students leave the classroom.


How do teachers and librarians form working collaborations? What are the benefits and what are the obstacles? As an educator, how can you make these collaborations work? Join us as we welcome four educators from nearby schools who have created exceptional and thought-provoking partnerships.


Dale Thompson, an eighth grade English teacher and Joan Alley, school librarian are from Bailey Middle School in Kingston. Thompson and Alley have collaborated on an innovative Civil War learning unit with their classes. Alley has presented workshops on Big 6, an information and computer literacy program designed for children and teens.


Charlotte Adamis and Victoria Brooks are from Chambers Elementary School. Prior to becoming a librarian, Adamis worked in the arts and in journalism. Brooks is a New Paltz graduate with twenty-two years experience teaching first and second grade. Together, they will discuss how they collaborate on science lessons.


This program will take place on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 4:30pm at SUNY New Paltz, Lecture Center 102.

This event is free and open to the public.


For details please contact Stephan J. Macaluso at (845) 257-2699, macaluss@newpaltz.edu, or Amanda Merritt at (845) 257- 2335, merritta@newpaltz.edu.

This program is sponsored by Sojourner Truth Library, the SUNY New Paltz School of Education and the SUNY New Paltz Career Resource Center.

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Shepardizing....

...is available in case decisions in Lexis Nexis Academic. Find prior and subsequent history as well as how the decision was treated in cases and in secondary sources like reviews and law textbooks.

When I shepardize a case, I usually do so by clicking the "Next Steps" feature on the case display.

I forgot that Lexis Nexis does a pretty good job of explaining how to do these things. See here, for example.

If you're so inclined, LexisNexis also has a nifty guide to navigating the paper version of Shepard's (pdf)

First Amendment and the Internet

A student in one of the Law classes recently emailed me about issues with finding First amendment cases in LexisNexis that concern the online environment. I've pasted an edited version of my reply below.

Mucho disclaimer: This represents just one way to approach the problem. By this posting, I don't intend to scoop up new decisions or follow this issue unless it becomes a personal interest.

Thanks for your question. Sounds like you're doing a pretty thorough search; here are some suggestions, based on what what you wrote.

First, from what you describe, you're using the Federal and State Cases feature in LexisNexis. Great!! There are lots of terms that might describe the online environment, you might try a few other terms. Remember you can link them all together in the keyword search box by using "OR" connectors. Copy and paste the following into your search box; mine the results for other synonyms and follow the pattern:

(internet or cyberspace or web or "world wide web" or myspace or facebook or online or AOL or computer or network)

I got more than 3000 results from this search, but then I used the "Search within results" feature to add "first amendment". Worked well for me, anyway.

You seem to be looking for any case having to do with the internet and people who have gone to court, for whatever reason, to defend their speech using the first amendment. I'm not sure, but it may be more fruitful to concentrate on particular laws that have been challenged by first amendment claim, including, but not limited to, copyright and trademark infringement, peer-to-peer file sharing, piracy. Consider also Fraud, which will yield a lot on its own.

And while it may not seem relevant at first glance, there's also Privacy, which is the other side of the coin. Oftentimes, one claims one's (first amendment) right to privacy has been violated in order to find out just what they've been saying. There's a range of wiretap laws and other terms that you can use here. Consider that recent case in which Google was sued for having pictures of some Pennsylvania couple's house on Google Earth.

As you can tell from all this, looking by particular laws might work really well, rather than wading through all the first amendment cases that involve the internet.

You might be thinking of defaming/defamation, cyberstalking (which has some laws attached to it, but still very few). And harassment, which will surely offer you some cases. here are a few cases on harassment involving the internet, students and the first amendment (all in lexis!)

2008 u.s. dist. Lexis Nexis 72685 j.s. v. blue mountain school district

412 f.supp. 2d 502 layshock v. hermitage school district (2006)

a.b. v. state of indiana 863 n.e. 2d 1212

You might also do a case law search on applicable laws, which might be the Communications Decency Act, or the Interstate Stalking Act (47 usc 223) or the children's online privacy protection act. Other applicable laws are 18 usc 2425, and 18 usc 875(c).

[I say "might be..." because one might go to court to defend ones self against such a claim of violation of such laws via the first amendment. What's actually taken place in court is up to you to discover.]

Couple of sites that might help you scope things down and find relevant cases and laws are
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu

http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/computer_and_internet_fraud


And try out the Law Reviews and Journals feature in LexisNexis to get some background.


It's important to note that laws pertaining to cyberspace are relatively new, and so sometimes other laws (not those listed above) are the conditions under which a trial takes place. It's also important to note that pending cases might yield more than the decisions themselves. head over to the Unified Court System website and search the eCourts feature for pending cases that might relate (although the first amendment is a federal matter, NYS courts might have similar cases pending). Finally, remember that Lexis only represents judicial matters; it might be worthwhile to see if the Commissioner's decisions yield anything, too.

Russell v. Men of Devon

Just to clarify the reporter and citation
100 Eng.Rep. 359 (1788)

"Eng. Rep." stands for "English reports";. it's volume 100, page 359; year 1788

As of this writing, I'm unaware of an online, full-text of the decision. However, one should search Lexis Nexis for cases that cite it (yes, it was cited in American cases!) and search Google Scholar (like this search) or Jstor for articles that mention it.

Interns: Great questions

One of our interns here at the library participated in a law refresher that I gave the other day. She told us about here experiences doing some grad work at the New York state Library, where she was frequently asked about "chaptering" laws. What, pray, tell, is chaptering?

Simple enough: Nolo offers this definition
Chaptered: A bill becomes chaptered if it is approved by the legislature and signed by the governor.

Long story short, session laws -- the laws that are grouped together by subject but are not yet incorporated into the Consolidated Laws -- are given chapter numbers. Chaptering is the process of taking a new law and locating it in the session laws.

Interns. Always another brilliant question!

New York City Chancellor's Regulations...

...are available here.

CF this post from Gotham Schools, which refers to the recent Pollicino decision.

Other Commish decisions related to the DOE or the Chancellor? Glad you asked!!

• Appeal of K.S.
• Appeal of Scanlon
• Appeal of V.C.

Part 113 of 8 NYCRR concerns how the DOE fits into the Commish's appeals process.

Article 52-A, or section 2590, or the Consolidated laws of NYS, covers the New York City Community School District System

Public Access Libraries

Here is a listing of court libraries in NYS. This page currently also links to library policies, contact information and to LION, the combined law library catalog.

Here's the search result for "Education Department Reports" AKA The Commissioner's Decisions

Court decisions we'll see often.

• Plyler v. Doe
• Schaffer v. Weast
• Elk Grove v. Newdow
• Rowley v. Hendrick Hudson School District
• Parents involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1
• Lee v. Weisman
  

Commissioner's Decisions Sampler

These decisions often make their way into our class demos:

• Appeal of R.S. 38 Educ. Dept. Rpts 419. Decision no. 13, 695
  
• Appeal of J.D. 39 Educ. Dept. Rpts 593 Decsision no. 14,884
  
• Appeal of EDDY Decision no. 13,748

• Appeal of C.D. Decision no. 15,041

Now, you try! Click to the Commissioner's decisions website and locate by searching or browsing (or both)

• Appeal of McKenna Dec. no. 14,774
• Appeal of Pintka Dec. No. Decision No. 13,034

Need I remind you that these are not referred to as "cases" but as appeals or matters!

NYPER??

In looking up the Taylor Law, I was reminded that compilations of the NYS Public Employment Relations Board are available online, but they're not complete. We DO have access PERB's decisions, collected in New York Public Employee Reporter, or NYPER, In LexisNexis Academic.

How to search for, and Search inside, NYPER:

1. Log into Lexis Nexis, then click the Sources tab at the top of the page
2. Click the Search by Source button, then
3. on the next screen , type in the Keyword box "public employee reporter". Search!
4. From the results, locate New York Public Employee Reporter and click it. Then click Continue
5. Lexis is ready for you to search that resource. type in what you're looking for in the search box and all your results should be from the NYPER.
   

Which Education Law Journals do we own?

Here's a list we compiled using our "Journals" search tool, found on the [NEW!] orange tool bar on our library's website

• Education Law journals
• School law journals [NOTE: a few irrelevant hits here because of the search engine's limitations]

Remember that results that say "SUNY New Paltz Library Catalog" are items we have in paper; ones that mention the name of a database, like LexisNexis Academic, are online.

Where's Education Department Reports??

For our students studying away from our home campus (and needless to say, we welcome your visit!), we've compiled a short list of libraries that may have Education Department Reports, AKA "Judicial decisions of the Commissioner of Education and formal opinions of counsel", volumes 1 to ___.

While we've tried to ascertain that these libraries own the older, paper volumes you may need for your, we can't make any guarantees. Additionally, every library has its own policies for admitting visitros to use their libraries, so please call them before you travel!

Here's a short list of nearby libraries. Google 'em for their phone numbers and to search their catalogs top verify they have the volumes you need

SUNY New Paltz

Vassar

Greene County Courthouse

Newburgh Free Library

Mount Vernon

Yonkers –Riverfront

[Many CUNY libraries]

Iona College

Concordia

Pace (and Pace Law library)

Columbia Teacher’s College

ALSO: are you familiar with worldcat.org? It's a tool for locating materials in libraries and it even informs you how far away those libraries are! Here is the search result for Education Department Reports (distances may appear with New Paltz as the origin),

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1760195&referer=brief_results

U.S. Department of Education Home Page

Arne Duncan is the [new] Secretary of Education. A link to his youtube video is available at the
U.S. Department of Education Home Page