Ten-hut! all legal research slackers. The law librarians are getting ready to put you through your paces in this new 1-credit summer course. A few weeks with us and your legal research fitness will skyrocket!

This course will cover the basics of legal research, plus some advanced techniques, such that the student should be prepared to enter the workforce with adequate to superior research skills. Included will be paper-based resources, but online sources will be discussed and demonstrated where necessary, such as the online versions of Shepards and Keycite, as well as indexes. The course is pass-fail and passing will be based on class attendance, CALI exercises, and some homework assignments.

RL

Football fans, before you buy your next team jersey, read the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in American Needle v. National Football League. Handing the teams a "Go back 5 spaces card," the court said that

decisions by the NFLP regarding the teams’ separately owned intellectual property constitute concerted action. Thirty-two teams operating independently through the vehicle of the NFLP are not like the components of a single firm that act to maximize the firm’s profits. The teams remain separately controlled, potential competitors  with economic interests that are distinct from NFLP’s financial well-being. …

The fact that NFL teams share an interest in making the entire league successful and profitable, and that they must cooperate in the production and scheduling of games, provides a perfectly sensible justification for making a host of collective decisions. But the conduct at issue in this case is still concerted activity under the Sherman Act that is subject to §1 analysis.

RL

To maximize connectivity in the LRC, electrical outlets will be added to the study tables on the east side of the information services area and in the center of the reading room. Installation will begin on Thursday, May 27, and will continue intermittently until completed. While the disruption may be annoying, the results will be greater convenience for users of laptops and other electrical devices. RL

On April 9, 2010 Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he would retire after nearly 35 years on the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court. President Obama announced the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace Stevens on May 10, 2010. This is President Obama's second nomination to the nation's highest court, following his selection of Justice Sonia Sotomayor in May 2009. Notably the first female Solicitor General and first female dean of Harvard Law School, if Kagan is confirmed, she will also be the fourth woman to serve on the Court.

For more information on Supreme Court nominee Kagan please visit:

• The Law Library of Congress's bibliography for Elena Kagan
• Georgetown University Law Library's Supreme Court Nomination Guide
• The University of Michigan Law Library's Biographical Information page

From ABA Now:

The recently signed immigration law in  Arizona runs contrary to the fundamental tenets of our Constitution relative to  equal protection and due process.  This draconian, and likely  unconstitutional, law threatens to reverse nearly 50 years of civil rights advancements in  our nation.  It is, quite simply put, a law based on prejudice and fear, one whose purpose is to be divisive.

This law encourages second-class treatment  of individuals based on the color of their skin, and that is unacceptable.  The  American Bar Association has long opposed these kinds of initiatives because they intrude on personal civil rights and  because they belie our nation’s principle of justice for all.  When justice for anyone in America is threatened, it diminishes us all as a free people.

As the ABA’s landmark study in our March 2010 report on the immigration adjudication  system demonstrates, the U.S. immigration system is fundamentally broken.  Indeed, the ABA is aggressively urging Congress to enact immigration reform as a top  priority.  The Arizona law gives the authority of state and local police to engage in a broad  range of immigration enforcement activities, enforcement that is — and should  remain — a federal responsibility.

Only with a comprehensive national approach  can we enhance our border and national security — which will benefit Arizona and all  states — while humanely and realistically addressing the undocumented population  and our overburdened immigration court system, and preserving our American  traditions of fairness and due process under the law.

As we become more globally interdependent,  more sensitivity between peoples and nations is called for, not less.  We as Americans must hearken back to the principles on which our nation was formed and  which have led to our providing a beacon of liberty for the rest of the  world.  This law throws a cloak over that light.

With nearly 400,000  members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national  voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that  assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides  continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the  world of the importance of the rule of law.