Oregon Legal Research Blog

I survived my first appearance on OSB LegalLinks, as host yet. For those of you who have never done this kind of public speaking before, it is not a small bit unnerving, but our OSB hosts (producer, director, and crew – what a lot of people it takes to produce a program!) were kind, patient, funny, and they even fed us! I’ve never used a teleprompter before and have only spoken in front of real people so this empty studio with camera is a bit odd (now I know why Oprah has a studio audience). But our program on How to Find a Lawyer will be out on the OSB Legal Links web pages soon so you can decide for yourself how it went.

And, for those of you who know me, no, I haven’t put on 10 pounds. The camera really does add 10 pounds (or even more depending on the angle). But focus on the content (not on the zaftig women :-). And thirty minutes really isn’t enough to cover the topic, but it’s a good start.

Between this case, Klamath County School District v. Teamey, and this proposed bill (SB 671) we have the beginnings of some interesting conversations, among government lawyers, citizens, and possibly, in time, the state bar. More stories here and here. The Oregonian reported on this story in their Sunday Metro/Northwest print edition (an AP story by Tim Fought (who I believe is based here in Portland)), but the story is not on their website, at least not right now or maybe ever (it’s a mystery).

I’ve posted before (here, here, and here) about how to verify military status (required in some court documents) and now, thanks to a law librarian on our uber-lawlib listserve, have information on verifying the status of National Guard members. Here’s the scoop, lightly edited:

“A person who is in the National Guard will be listed as not “currently on active duty.” They are not currently deployed. The results won’t differ from a civilian; there is no indication that the name searched is a member of the National Guard unless they have been deployed. Once deployed the status will be listed as active and you won’t be able to tell them apart from other (regular/enlisted?) military.

I talked to someone from the military and the key is Title 32 status. When in Title 32 status the guard member is under Federal Jurisdiction and becomes part of the active forces and would be listed as active by this site. This differs from performing state or training duties. If the guard member is performing state duties (helping part of his/her state recover from flooding for example, he/she is not active under Federal Jurisdiction and would not be listed as active by this web site).

For those of you on another planet, change your clocks for daylight saving (hah!) time, Sunday, March 11th, if you plan to visit the United States that weekend. (In the Willamette Valley, we really do save that hour for a rainy day.) I think you Fall Back, but Falling Forward sounds about right too. Inter-Alia will help you out if you’re wired (and you’ll know that you are if you’re the one Falling Forward).

PC Magazine’s “The 50 Most Important People on the Web” puts Senator Wyden at 29th. Well, well, well.

When I worked in academic law libraries, a charming and [usually] young law student would invariably come up to the reference desk, ask a question, and then say deprecatingly, “it’s really not that important, it’s just an academic question.” My rueful retort was usually, “hey pal, this is a law school – it’s ALL academic.” If I got a chuckle I knew the two of us would enjoy the student’s law school years. (If I got a really big laugh, I knew to look out. It wasn’t *that* funny!)

Well the same kind of retort could be applied to life. HEY PAL, IT’S ALL LAW, which is why I like what the Classroom Law Project is doing. But reading the newspapers on my long day’s journey into work this morning left me a bit law-stunned. Just about every story had a law connection. And I looked at only the Oregonian and the Portland Tribune before throwing up my hands and turning to the OSB Bulletin where at least I found some humor!
Here’s a taste of this morning’s legal news.

Vancouver Students’ Prayer Circle Controvery

The print OSB Bulletin also has a new look, which we like very much. Editor Paul Nickell talks about it in his “Letter from the Editor” and has a sidebar, Postscript and Post Mortem, where he gives a very brief, not to mention humorous, history of the dingbat and its application to the OSB Bulletin. [Urgh Note: I’m not finding a link to this sidebar, but will add it when I do.]

And don’t forget to check out the Bulletin’s Legal.Online column, by Robert Ambrogi, one of our favorite blawgers.

The latest issue of the Oregon State Bar (OSB) Bulletin has two veterans’ related articles and announcements. One is a message to the membership announcing that the Board of Governors has authorized a vote regarding allowing Armed Forces advertising in the OSB Bulletin. The other is a Parting Shots column by Jesse Wm. Barton who writes about veterans and lawyers interested in practicing veterans’ law. More information on OSB work with veterans is here.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Travis McDade’s, “The Book Thief: The True Crimes of Daniel Spiegelman.” This is one book thief who will have your hair standing on end, while you clutch your books tightly to your chest (and look out for those elevator shafts while you’re at it). There are also some wonderful dramatic courtroom scenes toward the end, so don’t expect this book about librarians, rare books, sentencing guidelines, and lawyers to put you to sleep. I was horribly frazzled at the end of a long day yesterday and figured a 90 minute yoga class and an hour with The Book Thief would calm the nerves (where is a bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment when you need it! I settled for a nice Australian Port). Well, those courtroom scenes all but had me cheering and laughing out loud, so there went sleep for another hour. I highly recommend it. (The book could have used one more edit to clean up some pesky grammar and syntax problems, but I’m never hard on new writers, especially ones who tell such a great tale. These are not easy stories to tell!)

One thing that isn’t mentioned, and was probably not known at the time the book was written, is that Associate Supreme Court Justice Alito (former U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit Judge Alito) who played such a lovely role in this tale at the end, is married to a law librarian (maybe former also – but to librarians, once a librarian, always a librarian 🙂

We have a good selection of materials for tenants, but for landlords and property managers, not so much. Washington County does offer this monthly class for landlords. It seems focused on crime prevention, not on “how to be a landlord” with associated financial and legal issues, but it’s a great start and every landlord would benefit from the information. I’m working on improving our collection of materials for landlords, so stay tuned.