Articles Posted in Legal Subject Area Guides

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Read about the soon to be fully operational U.S. Copyright Office Small Claims Court:

“In December 2020, Congress passed the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act of 2020 (CASE Act), which directed the Copyright Office to establish the Copyright Claims Board (CCB). The CCB is a three-member tribunal within the Office that will provide an efficient and user-friendly option to resolve certain copyright disputes that involve up to $30,000 (called “small claims”). The Office is in the process of developing the CCB, which should begin hearing claims by spring 2022. In the meantime, read about what the CCB is, why you might want to use it, and our implementation progress.” [Link to U.S. Copyright small claims Court page.]

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People new to legal research don’t know that legal histories can be found in judicial opinions and not just in books, articles, or legislative history compilations. There is a reason some judicial opinions are so long.

(New legal researchers also don’t know that one needs to verify any legal history by reading the cases and statutes cited by the judge(s) AND update everything one reads using current sources and citators.)

I read about Judge Matthew Cooper’ canine jurisprudence exposition in a November 22, 2021, New Yorker article, “The Bench: Cats and Dogs,” page 18 (print edition):

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Review: The Multiple Faces of Textualism (Jot Well, Jan 15, 2021)

Article reviewed: Tara Leigh Grove, Which Textualism?, 134 Harv. L. Rev. 265 (2020).

Excerpt: “In her wonderfully-titled article, Which Textualism?, Tara Leigh Grove uses the recently decided Bostock v. Clayton County case to highlight a truth about statutory interpretation theory that scholars have largely ignored: Textualism is not a monolithic interpretive approach, but one that contains multiple competing strands. This observation is long overdue, and Bostock is an excellent vehicle for exploring its implications, given that the three separate opinions issued by the Court all claimed to employ a textualist interpretive approach—while reaching different outcomes….” [Link to full blog post and article.]

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Sabrina Pacifici’s 12/27/2020 blogpost at “bespacific” links you to the answer to the answer about “why you can’t copy a recipe book.”

Excerpt, from the beSpacific 2016 Plagiarism Today (PT) blog post:

“…. The reason isn’t because recipe books are lying to you, it’s because, while recipes can’t be copyright protected, other parts of the books can. So, as we celebrate the holidays in the United States, we’re going to take a look at cookbooks and why, even though recipes can’t be copyrighted, you can’t just photocopy and share a cookbook legally….” [Link to beSpacific post.]

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Who said learning about how laws are made can’t be any fun? Clearly, that person never looked at the Classroom Law Project’s Bill of Rights for Extraterrestrials Lesson Plan for grades 4-12. (It would probably be a lot of fun for grown-ups, too.)

Visit the Resources page of the Classroom Law Project and look for the “Extraterrestrials and Your Rights!” lesson, including handouts you can download.

“In this engaging, interactive strategy, introduce the Bill of Rights, Natural Rights, and other constitutional concepts to your students – as a response to extraterrestrials landing in Oregon! On the sidebar are the components you need for this activity and feel free to adjust them to fit your classroom needs. Let us know if you have any questions or would like us to come and try this out with you or for your classroom – it’s a lot of fun, and will encourage fantastic conversation from elementary through college level.” [Visit the Extraterrestrials and Your Rights! page for more information.]

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A recent (Season 5) Malcolm Gladwell Revisionist History podcast reminded me that there is a long history of elections by lottery. (Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell, The Powerball Revolution, Season 5, Episode 3.)

If you want to conduct a thorough literature search of the topic Election by Lottery or Lottery Voting, you’ll need legal, political science, history, and other indexes – indexes and treatises that go back many centuries (i.e. pre-Google). You will also need to search primary sources of law, again back to the beginning of recorded time.

But if you want a basic introduction to the topic, “The Google” and the Scholarly-ish Google will suffice, along with “The Wikipedia.”

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The Psilocybin Service Initiative of Oregon is expected to appear on the 2020 general election ballot.

(If you want to know more about psilocybin, read Michael Pollan’s 2018 book, “How to change your mind.” See also books about LSD microdosing (e.g. Ayelet Waldman’s 2017 “A really good day.”) Compare with Jill Bolte Taylor’s 2006 book (and her TED talk), “My Stroke of Insight,” and her description of how the world looked from her right brain (while her left brain was incapacitated due to a massive stroke.) There is also the Psilocybin Wikipedia page and the Denver, CO, psilocybin ballot measure.)

You can also read the full text of the Psilocybin Service Initiative of Oregon LC (legislative concept) at the Initiatives, Referendums and Referrals database (from the Oregon Secretary of State, Voting and Election website).

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The 2nd edition of Janay Haas, “Using Small Claims Court in Oregon,” 2018, is now available.

Don’t litigate in Oregon Small Claims Court without it.

Read our previous blog post, Small Claims Court in Oregon, for links additional information on Oregon Small Claims Courts.

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Did you know there was a Project on Predatory Student Lending? This one is at the Harvard Law School Legal Services Center.

And don’t forget about the federal Consumer Financial Protection Board (at least for the next few days) and your state’s consumer law resources at the Department of Justice or maybe other departments. Your own state’s legal services organizations and your own school’s legal services office may also have free information and legal assistance for you.

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