“The trial court is at the bottom of the hierarchy of authority.  Its decisions are likely constrained by both an intermediate appellate court and a high court.  A state court deciding an issue of federal law will also have United States Supreme Court authority constraining its decision.  Because the trial court is at the bottom of the pecking order, it will care most about binding authority.  Arguments based on persuasive authority and policy arguments are unlikely to persuade the trial judge except on issues of first impression.   If you are trying to preserve an issue for appeal, you may need to cite to persuasive authority or rely on policy arguments.  Otherwise, stick to telling the trial court what its bosses have to say on the issue.”  [Source: Kamela Bridges and Wayne Schiess, Writing for Litigation]

PSL Law Library collection contains a wealth of legal writing tips.  For more tips consult Writing for Litigation or any of the PSL Law Library’s legal writing books.

Taking a seminar this summer? Check out our new seminar display!

The five seminar topics on display are:

      Environmental Law

      Terrorism Law

      Law of Armed Conflict

      Sports Law

      Immigration Law

So, come on into the library and take a gander. You just might find something!!

Just Arrived! 

We've added new editions of study aids, books, and DVDs to the library collection this month. 

Check out our New Arrivals on the Library website.

Photo: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/

Considering tackling your AWR soon? Join us on Wednesday, June 5th from 12-1pm in the Law Library's Teaching Lab, Classroom 1337, for a workshop titled Getting Started on Your AWR. This workshop will expose you to the pre-research process.  You will learn to identify research sources in order to narrow down topics and determine whether a chosen topic is practical - with enough accessible, available research.  This workshop will also include a discussion on setting personal research deadlines. Please feel free to bring your lunch!

Take a look at our library workshops page to view a list of workshop descriptions and a link to the workshop calendar.

The Arizona Association of Law Libraries recently presented a full day program on Congressional Information that featured distinguished speakers from the Department of Justice, the Federal Reserve Board, the Sunlight Foundation, GovTrack.us as well as the Arizona State Library and the ASU Law Library.  This blog will cover two of the speaker presentations: Congressional bill tracking with GovTrack.us and the Sunlight Foundation. Part 1 featured the Federal Legislative Process and Finding and Compiling a Congressional Legislative History.

Joshua Tauberer, creator of Govtrack.us, engaged the audience with his provocative presentation titled Overview of Congressional Information Policy and the Internet.  Mr. Tauberer is an advocate of open government and particularly of open government data. His website Govtrack.us, a legislative reference and bill tracking site, is actually built upon data provided by the U.S. government in similar Congressional websites like FDsys and THOMAS. Govtrack.us has many advanced search capabilities in addition to some unique features like an automatic redlining feature when comparing bill versions and the ability to create a statistical probability chart of a particular bill getting passed in Congress. His presentation materials can be found starting at page 9 of the conference materials.

Eric Mill, who works on tech policy and software at the Sunlight Foundation, led a compelling presentation titled Tracking Government Information Online. One of many of Mr. Mill’s impressive software creations is the search engine and alert system for government information called Scout. Mr. Mill is in the same “camp” of open government advocates as Joshua Tauberer (above) and the two have collaborated on numerous projects. Other search engines created/recommended by Mr. Mill to try: federalregister.gov, govpulse.us and data.gov. Mr. Mill’s materials can be found starting on page 128 of the conference materials.

Need help with a legislative history project? Ask a Librarian!