“Thinking About Designing Courthouses for Access to Justice,” posted on January 17, 2016
by Richard Zorza.
Courthouse construction is on the minds of all Oregonians. As long as the project managers, judges, courthouse employees, and other courthouse occupants and visitors don’t let the architects go all “let’s get an architecture prize!” on them, then taxpayers, judges, lawyers, and litigants may have a chance at getting the courthouses we need and want.
Many new Oregon laws affecting sick leave, birth control, recreational marijuana, vaping, grandparents, bestiality, early termination fees when you die, and much more are effective January 1, 2016.
How do you find out what these new laws are?
Search online. Here are some keywords to search: new laws oregon 2015 2016 (limiting your results to the past year will get rid of a lot of the old stuff)
The online 2015 ORS will appear shortly, at least we hope before the official start of the 2016 Legislative Session.
The official PRINT ORS is available at law and public libraries around Oregon. (But call first to make sure your library has it in print. Not all libraries get the official print version.)
Note that any legislation passed in the 2016 and 2017 Oregon legislative sessions WILL NOT appear in codified format until the 2017 Oregon Revised Statutes are published in late 2017 or early 2018.
Short of performing a bundy-ectomy (formerly reserved for Al or Ted), let’s get another view of this particular cathedral. Here is an old Law Librarian’s take on protest and occupation:
Read a Book, Read the Law:
The history of protest goes back to the beginning of human time (check out the Flintstones if you doubt me).
The Oregon Innocence Project is presenting this CLE, scheduled for Feb. 5, 2016:
Continuing Debate Over the Sequential Lineup
“Presented by Oregon Innocence Project and featuring Professor Daniel Reisberg.
According to a recent announcement “[t]he United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is taking further steps to ensure that information derived from the Internet and cited in official court opinions remains available even if the original online resource ceases to exist or is altered.” As of January 4, 2016, they automatically add PDF files of websites cited in documents to the case docket, accessible through their online case management/filing system and PACER.
From 2008 through 2015 the Ninth Circuit Library created and maintained an online collection of PDF files of Websites Cited in Ninth Circuit Opinions. This change will make the relevant files more apparent to researchers looking at a case docket.
Source: Online Citation Sources Added to Docket, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Jan. 1, 2016.
Many of the people who glibly toss around the “disruptive” technology or innovation phrase are a lot like the people who toss around the “Kabuki theatre” phrase. The speaker or writer is usually unable in either instance to explain exactly WHY something is disruptive or Kabuki, or even “ish.”
The Harvard Business Review, December 2015 issue, may come to your rescue:
“What Is Disruptive Innovation?” by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor, Rory McDonald, HBR, Dec 2015
You can read a hundred articles about wolves and their prey, including the ODFW Wolf webpages, but not a single one will explain exactly WHY wolves are, or were, on endangered species lists.
If you look hard enough you really can find hundreds of articles on the WHY, but here is an interesting one that sums up the complexity of the issue:
Scientific American: “Can Wolves Bring Back Wilderness? [Excerpt]: People may find it hard to adapt to an ecology of predation and fear,” by Jason Mark on October 9, 2015:
“State lawyer group mulls controversial changes to make pending disciplinary records off-limits to public,” Portland Tribune, 05 January 2016, by Nick Budnick:
Excerpt: “The state agency that oversees the investigation of ethics complaints against 15,000 Oregon lawyers is considering changes that would hide from public view most pending complaints and destroy all public records of dismissed complaints after three years, a radical increase in secrecy for a system that’s received national praise for its transparency….” [Link to full Portland Tribune article.]
The article links to OSB disciplinary process reports, also currently linked to from the OSB homepage.
When Oregon Laws are codified*, they can be scattered all over their corresponding legislative subject compilation, the Oregon Revised Statutes, so, unless you are a researcher with too much time on your hands, I recommend you start with one of the following resources until you become very familiar with all the new cannabis laws, statutes AND regulations – and there will be new cannabis laws until you die or until the world’s lights go out, whichever comes first:
1) Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS): the 2015 ORS, which has not yet been posted online, will be the first ORS with codified recreational cannabis statutes. Toss the word “cannabis” into the ORS search box. You might want to toss in the word “marijuana” just to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
2) Laws & Regs from OHA: Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), which links to their OMMP Administrative Rules, Statutes and Legal Information webpage.
