New Title in the U.S. Code: Hello, 51 U.S.C. !!!

For over eighty years, the statutory law of the United States has been arranged into fifty titles of the U.S. Code. Fifty is a nice, even number, but there’s nothing legally significant about it. One of the titles, Title 34, has been empty since 1956 and no one seemed to care. Or notice.

Challenger Disaster Anniversary and Presidential Documents

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The Challenger disintegrated seventy-three seconds after launch and that evening President Reagan, in lieu of his scheduled State of the Union address, spoke to the nation on the loss of the shuttle and its seven astronauts. His remarks, written by then-speechwriter and now-Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, comforted the nation and evoked the tenuous nature of life with the words of WWII-era pilot and poet John Gillespie Magee, quoting his poem High Flight to say that the Challenger crew had “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God”.

Politics and the Financial Meltdown

Congress established the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in May of 2009 to conduct a bipartisan investigation into the financial and economic crisis. Yesterday, the FCIC issued its final report which concluded that the financial meltdown was "avoidable—the result of human actions, inactions, and misjudgments." It is no surprise that the Commission split along party lines in what commentators describe as routine partisan bickering. All of the Democrat members supported the final report, while the Republican members wrote dissenting reports. At least for now, the political drama threatens to overshadow the substantive work of the Commission. The report, the dissents, and background materials are available on the FCIC web site http://fcic.gov.

Not so funny ...

The National Law Journal is reporting that a certain unnamed bar applicant has been denied admission after (finally) passing the bar exam because of extenuating circumstances. Specifically cited are his criminal record and his failure to repay his student loans to this point.

What makes this story interesting is the applicant was one of his convictions was for "reckless conduct" involving an incident in which he pulled a seven inch knife on a store clerk in what the applicant claims was an "April's Fools Day" joke. The court does not cite to this as the sole reason for denying him based on character and fitness but it is definitely a story to be cognizant of when planning your "fun".

For more information on this particular story I recommend the NLJ article by Leigh Jones that is linked above.

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has many things that this library does not, including historical artifacts, murals, and a dome. And now, it has something that no other library in the country has--a resident raptor.

http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2011/01/and-watch-a-hawk-makin-lazy-circles-in-the-dome/

Publish Post

Justices Laugh at Scalia

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/scalia_is_funniest_and_grouchiest_justice_laughter_study_concludes/

Yes, someone conducted a study on who gets the most laughs.

This Washington Post chart shows from where the humor flows:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2011/01/16/GR2011011604725.html?sid=ST2011011700433

A New Semester and A New Westlaw

If you haven’t noticed yet, Westlaw has unveiled a new version of its legal research service, “WestlawNext”. Westlaw has been slowly rolling out WestlawNext during the past year, and it is now available for law students around the country and here at Loyola New Orleans. But, at least for the time being, you still have the option of using either WestlawNext or Westlaw “Classic”, the version we’re all familiar with. What's the difference? Let’s take a look.