On Thursday, May 23, our library catalog vendor will perform a major upgrade to the system that runs GULLiver and GULLiver Discovery, our library catalog systems. During this time, off-campus access to databases will probably not work. The outage is expected to last from 8am to 8pm on Thursday, May 23. Updates posted here.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is holding a hearing today on Apple, Inc.'s use of complex structures of foreign subsidiaries to minimize or avoid U.S. income taxes (e.g., "Dutch-Irish sandwiches") and subsidiaries that have no country of residence.
Westlaw has recently announced that spring 2013 graduates will be able to enjoy access to the full range of content on WestlawNext and Westlaw Classic through the end of November – perfect for those studying for the bar or job hunting.
Graduating students can extend their access by registering for Westlaw's Grad Program. Once registered, May graduates will retain access to Westlaw through November 2013. Although all content is included, please note that this extension will be limited in the number of hours allowed per month. All graduates will also automatically retain access to a number of career-related databases for 18 months following graduation.
Continuing students involved in academic or non-profit research can also take advantage of full Westlaw access through the summer by registering for a password extension.
Among the unique resources in the National Equal Justice Library are 74 oral histories of lawyers and other advocates who helped found and sustain criminal and civil legal services programs for the indigent. The goal of the oral history project is to capture the experiences of these lawyers and other advocates so that future generations can learn from these experiences. It is also designed to help inspire and guide lawyers to take on the goal of fighting for equal justice under law.
Since this is the 50th Anniversary of the landmark Gideon v. Wainwright case, we would like to highlight the video recordings of three critical figures in the Gideon case: Abe Krash, Bruce Jacob, and Anthony Lewis. Victor Geminiani conducted each interview as part of the 1993 celebration of the 30th anniversary of the case. Videos of all interviews as well as transcripts are available on the NEJL website.
Abe Krash, a Georgetown Law faculty member, worked for Arnold, Fortas & Porter at the time, and assisted Abe Fortas in researching the issues and writing the brief for the case. In the interview, Krash recalled his extraordinary experience of working for Fortas.
Bruce Jacob argued the case on behalf of the State of Florida as a young Assistant Attorney General. In the oral history interview, Jacob recalls the "brutal" oral argument in front of the Supreme Court. Following the Supreme Court's decision, Florida created its own public defender system, and Jacob volunteered as a special assistant public defender in Florida.
Another interview available in our collection is that of the late Anthony Lewis. He died just days after the 50th Anniversary of the Gideon’s case. Lewis covered the Gideon case as a Supreme Court reporter for the New York Times. He then went on to write the definitive history of the litigation. Gideon’s Trumpet, published in 1964 was also the basis of the film of the same name. The library screened the film during the recent Georgetown Law Library Equal Justice Film Festival. In the oral history, Lewis recalls how he became involved in the case after seeing Gideon’s petition in the Supreme Court file room on the day the Court agreed to hear the case. He also recalled the experience of meeting Clarence Gideon in the prison library of the Raiford Penitentiary.
In November, we posted about the IRS's digital release of 10 years' worth of tax-exempt organization returns, which contained more than 6.5 million documents.
ProPublica, a news organization that "produces investigative journalism in the public interest," has now launched an easy-to-use search engine for these returns. You can search by keyword, state, non-profit category, and organization type (e.g., 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4))
For example, if you're interested in the current IRS controversy, searching on "Tea Party", "constitution", or "patriot" will pull up information on numerious 501(c)(4) orgainizations and links to pdf scans of their Form 990 returns.
The library will be holding two orientation training sessions for new faculty research assistants. In the orientation, RAs will learn about library services and policies and will gain an introduction to our databases and to best research practices.
The sessions will be:
Thursday, May 30, 2013, from 11 am to noon
Wednesday, June 5, 2013, from 11 am to noon
All sessions will be held in EB Williams Library Room 520.
Research assistants should RSVP to Morgan Stoddard (mms237@law.georgetown.edu) and indicate which session they would like to attend.
In conjunction with the library staff, a Catholic University library school student, Matt Foley, prepared this virtual tour during his Spring internship with the reference department. Check out the tour to identify where material is located in the library, including books, printers, computers and group study rooms. Also, find out where the best drinking fountain in the library is located!
As always, please feel free to ask a reference librarian if you have any additional questions when using the library.
The Tax Analysts database (http://0-services.taxanalysts.com.gull.georgetown.edu/Login) provides electronic access to back issues of their publications. (Please be sure to use the proxy link from the library rather than go to the website directly --- even when on campus.)
To access the back issues, you can “browse archives by date” or do an advanced search. Be sure when doing an advanced search to change the date range from the default (2008) to the years you are interested in.
Tax Analysts enables searching on the entire publication run of their newsletters from the first issue.
“Browse archives by date” lets you read full issues of:
Tax Notes: 2001 -
Tax Notes Today: 2012 -
Tax Notes International: 2001 -
Worldwide Tax Daily: 2012 -
State Tax Notes: 2000 -
State Tax Today: 2012 -
The Library also has a nearly complete collection of the back issues of Tax Notes (starting from volume 4) and full runs of the back issues of Tax Notes International and State Tax Notes in print.
Washingtonians and tourists alike make a pilgrimage every year to view the National Cherry Blossoms. The marvel of the delicate blossoms is not a recent phenomenon. The forefathers of our National Cherry Blossoms, which were gifted to United States in 1912 by the Mayor of Tokyo, came from the banks of the River Arukawa in Tokyo. The blossoms gracing the banks of Arukawa River also caught the eye of John G. Brannon, a defense attorney appointed by MacArthur to defend Class A Japanese War Criminals at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. As he remarks in his March 19, 1947 letter to his brother in Washington, DC,
“To fully understand the intimate love of the Japanese for their traditional national flower, I need only say that many persons contemplating suicide will put off the accomplishment of their intention until they again can view this abundant wealth of nature next month… the famous “Gosiki sakura” or fine colored cherry trees still found on this embankment[River Arukawa] well these gift trees were planted in your fair abode along the tidal basin of the Potomac River stretching about six miles. To be popular in the crowd you must know these sources of light conversation and I assure you the ole professor gives it to you accurately. Ah! I love the cherry blossoms. But, lo! There are few cherries—since the G.I.s invaded Japan.” (John G. Brannon, March 19, 1947)
One can wonder about his last comment, if he is still truly discussing cherry blossoms. Apart from remarking about the splendor of cherry blossoms, Brannon does eventually discuss the trial and more important legal matters in his letter going on to state, “The pace of the trial—now ten months—, the poor whiskey, the ever decreasing caliber of food and the what-nots of overseas life have put many defense lawyers on the ropes.”
Good thing he had the cherry blossoms to look at in all their splendor!
For more information on the unique collection of the John G. Brannon Papers please contact Special Collections at htm@law.georgetown.edu .
The Government Accountability Office is known as the “Congressional watchdog,” since they monitor how the federal government spends its money and report back to Congress with their findings. On a daily basis, the GAO produces in-depth reports on all aspects of the government and federal law. They also issue legal decisions on “bid protests, appropriations law and other aspects of federal law.” In the past few months alone, the following reports were issued:
Federal Employees' Compensation Act Case Examples Illustrate Vulnerabilities That Could Result in Improper Payments or Overlapping Benefits. GAO-13-386, Apr 3, 2013
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Standards Needed to Improve Identification of Racial and Ethnic Overrepresentation in Special Education, GAO-13-137, Feb 27, 2013
International Religious Freedom Act State Department and Commission Are Implementing Responsibilities but Need to Improve Interaction, GAO-13-196, Mar 26, 2013
GAO reports and legal decisions are freely available on their website, through Facebook, and on their mobile app.
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