A Blackmun Digital Archive, District Court Transcripts, and the Truth About Wikipedia: Tips and Treats from the Moritz Law Library
The following research tips and stories of interest are excerpted from the Moritz Law Library's newsletter for faculty, Opinio Juris, September and October issues. For more information about other legal research topics, please visit the Library's blog.
Law Review Article Submission Information
Emory Law School's MacMillan Law Library has created a helpful chart that contains article length restrictions and preferences, as well as contact information, for the 35 most-cited law reviews. George Washington Law School Professor Daniel Solove has some additional information about article submission at the Concurring Opinions Blog.
Wiki Scanner
Many people have long suspected that corporations, special interest groups and others edit Wikipedia articles anonymously. Now there's proof. WikiScanner "traces millions of Wikipedia entries to their corporate sources, and for the first time puts comprehensive data behind longstanding suspicions of manipulation, which until now have surfaced only piecemeal in investigations of specific allegations." Read the Wired article about WikiScanner.
Justice Blackmun Digital Archive
Northwestern University Law School Professor Lee Epstein has created a digital archive containing some of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun's papers from the Library of Congress. The archive currently contains PDF files of docket sheets and preliminary (pool) memoranda from Justice Blackmun's term on the Rehnquist Court, 1986-1993.
District Court Transcripts to be Available on PACER
U.S. Courts press release: "The Judicial Conference of the United States today voted to make transcripts of federal district and bankruptcy court proceedings available online through the Judiciary's Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system. Under the new policy, transcripts created by court reporters or transcribers will be available for inspection and copying in a clerk of court's office and for download from PACER 90 days after they are delivered to the clerk. Individuals will be able to view, download, or print a copy of a transcript from PACER for eight cents per page."
Get Your FBI File
A new website, Get My FBI File, provides an easy way to request your files, if they exist, from the FBI. Additional features allow you to ask for files from other federal agencies including the CIA, DIA, NSA, the Secret Service, and the Army Criminal Investigative Command. The website assists you in automaticallty generating letters to be sent to the appropriate federal agencies. Get My FBI File is the companion site to the Get Grandpa's FBI File website, which assists people in requesting files related to other people.
