Ross-Blakley Law Library Blog

For many law graduates, studying for the July bar exam has commenced.  We want to remind you that the Law Library is open to ASU law graduates studying for the bar and that there are a number of bar preparation materials in the Library collection that may be helpful to you in the coming months:

• Past Arizona bar exam essay questions and summary of issues (February 1995-July 2011)
• Bar prep series – videos recorded by ASU law professors on bar exam subjects
• Bar Exam Resource Guide – a guide to information and services for ASU law graduates preparing to take … Continue Reading
  

The final exam period comes to a close tomorrow, and many of you will soon be starting summer jobs.  The Law Library has compiled a Resources for Summer Associates guide to help you successfully navigate your summer employment.    The guide details how you can continue to use both your Bloomberg Law and LexisAdvance accounts this summer, even when working in a commercial setting or studying for the bar exam.   The guide also offers information on a number of topical research guides from the Law Library and a variety of legal resources that might be useful to you in your … Continue Reading

Hopefully you signed up early to attend Thursday’s book-signing event for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s book reading and signing event for her new book Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court. This event is now sold out; Out of Order is out of tickets!

If you’ll miss the event, you can check out the book from the Law Library’s collection or purchase it from event co-host Changing Hands Bookstore or other retailers. We also found this recent NPR interview with Justice O’Connor about the book (39 min).

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Manifest Injustice: The True Story of a Convicted Murderer and the Lawyers Who Fought for His Freedom
By Barry Siegel
Law Treatises KF224.M18 S56 2013

Manifest Injustice, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Barry Siegel, details the story of Bill Macumber and the efforts of the Arizona Justice Project, led by lawyer Larry Hammond and Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Professor Bob Bartels, on his behalf.   In 1974 Macumber was convicted for a double homicide that occurred in 1962, despite his assertion of innocence, questionable evidence linking Macumber to the crime, and a confession from a violent … Continue Reading

Exams are right around the corner and you may still be trying to work through all those hearsay exceptions for your evidence final, but you can take heart in the fact that law school is tough for everyone – even two-time Super Bowl champions.  Randall Gay, who won the Super Bowl while playing for the New England Patriots in 2004 and the New Orleans Saints in 2009, is now a 1L at the Southern University Law School.  Gay compares the rigors of the NFL to law school:

“I didn’t have to really study for football. … Continue Reading

Due to scheduled maintenance of the integrated library system, the following library services will be unavailable  Monday, October 29, 2012 from 8am-5pm.  We apologize for any inconvenience.

Research Databases - selected resources will be available from the ASU Libraries’ E-resources page.

Library Catalog - Electronic journals will be accessible through the ‘Journals’ tab on the ASU Libraries’ homepage.

Course Reserves

My Library Account

Library users must present their university ID card to check out books during the outage.

The ASU Homeowner Advocacy Unit at the College of Law is hosting a free conference on homeowner rights October 19th. The conference will feature Joseph A. Smith, the National Mortgage Settlement Monitor, as well as representatives from the Offices of the Attorneys General of Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Laws concerning homeowner rights can be complicated, so the Law Library has developed research guides related to the subject. The guides include information for homeowners, attorneys representing clients, and students researching this area of the law. They list both primary and secondary sources, with … Continue Reading

Periodically throughout the semester we will be highlighting new books in the Law Library collection on the Library Blog. Today’s focus is on America Votes! A Guide to Modern Election Law and Voting Rights, edited by Benjamin E. Griffith.

America Votes!  is an excellent resource for lawyers, professors, and election officials in advance of the November elections as it offers a snapshot of current key election and voting rights issues.  The book is divided in to three parts: the first part focuses on redistricting, the second on the Voting Rights Act, and the third on … Continue Reading

This day in history, it was lights out for the Man in Black; music legend Johnny Cash died September 12, 2003.
 
Mr. Cash, of course, was no stranger to the law. He kept lawyers busy with arrests for drug smuggling, setting a forest on fire, and more. Through his legal adventures, he developed compassion for prisoners, performing free concerts in prisons and advocating for prison reform.
 
While learning a little about Mr. Cash, we found a nifty journal article titled: “Social Justice and Social Context in the Music of Johnny Cash”  (2009 J. Inst. Just. Int’l Stud. 53), which is available on Westlaw and HeinOnline.
 
If you ever see … Continue Reading

Having difficulty choosing a topic for the seminar paper you will be writing this semester?  Then check out the new How to Choose a Paper Topic research guide on the Law Library’s website.  The guide is designed for law students who are writing a substantive legal research paper and are looking for guidance on how to begin. It details sources for help in selecting a paper topic and offers insight in how to check whether your paper will add new information to the field of law.