ABA Backs Major Reform of Immigration System

Yesterday, the ABA House of Delegates voted to adopt a number of the recommendations of the ABA Immigration Commission to improve adjudication of immigration cases, including the removal of immigration adjudication from the Department of Justice and the creation of an independent Article I (or legislative) court for immigration. Boston College Law School's own Daniel Kanstroom participated on the Commission responsible for this extensive immigration reform study. This blog entry's title links to the ABA's press release which outlines the immigration reform recommendations and, in turn, provides a link to a pdf of the ABA Immigration Commission's executive summary of its report.

Lexis and Microsoft to integrate products

Imagine that you're working on a brief and need to quickly Shepardize a cite. No need to access the web, log in to Lexis and start your research - access to Lexis will present as part of the tool ribbon on your Word screen. This is the scenario anticpated by Microsoft and Lexis in a plan unveiled at the LegalTech show in New York this week.

Patent Pending for a Method of Writing Campaign Slogans Using Aerosol Food Coloring on Snow

Scott Brown's chief legal counsel, Daniel Winslow, filed a patent for an advertising method involving aerosol food coloring on snow.

Haitian Nationals in U.S. Granted Temporary Protected Status

In response to the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has announced that Haitian nationals in the United States on January 12, 2010 have been granted Temporary Protected Status. Temporary Protected Status "will allow eligible Haitian nationals in the United States to continue living and working in our country for the next 18 months." The announcement clearly states that Temporary Protected Status applies only to Haitian nationals in the United States as of January 12, 2010, and will not apply to Haitian nationals who attempt to travel to the United States after January 12, 2010.

Revised Rules for the United States Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of the United States has adopted a revised version of the Rules of the Court. The revised version will take effect on February 16, 2010. The Supreme Court has posted the new rules as well as a list of revisions. Notice the new section 5 in Rule 34 which states,
“All references to a provision of federal statutory law should ordinarily be cited to the United States Code, if the provision has been codified therein. In the event the provision has not been classified to the United States Code, citation should be to the Statutes at Large. Additional or alternative citations should be provided only if there is a particular reason why those citations are relevant or necessary to the argument.”
One can only wonder what alternative citations lawyers were providing.

Changes approaching from legal research vendors (LexisNexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg)

What's in store for legal researchers? Plenty of changes, it seems as Westlaw prepares to debut its new interface ("WestlawNext") on February 1st and LexisNexis puts the finishing touches on its new platform ("New Lexis") to be rolled out later this year. Both vendors have seen declining revenues due to the difficult business climate for law firms. Bloomberg is hoping that its fixed seat pricing and new web interface will entice legal researchers to drop their existing research providers and sign on for BloombergLaw access.

Who Owns the Law?

Who owns the law - the body of law in statutes enacted by Congress and the state legislatures, in cases decided in federal and state courts, in the regulations promulgated by federal and state government? Right now, there is limited free access to the official body of law. Law.gov is a new initiative to promote open access to primary law sources at all levels of government. A panel discussion held as part of a Law.gov conference at Stanford Law Library is linked here.