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Constitution Day and Reproductive Rights

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Picture of the Supreme Court

The law school co-hosted a series of events in honor of Constitution Day. The theme was championing reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.Below are some resources relating to abortion and reproductive rights.

Bloomberg Law’s In Focus Guide on Abortion

Bloomberg Law’s In Focus Guides are designed to help you “find the latest news, commentary, litigation filings, regulatory developments, and practice tools on emerging issues and other topics of note to legal practitioners.” (Website) You will need to log in to Bloomberg Law to use this resource.

HeinOnline’s Women and the Law Database

“Women and the Law (Peggy) is a database containing a unique collection of materials bringing together more than 3,300 books, biographies, and periodicals dedicated to women’s roles in society and the law over the past 200 years. Also included are more than 70 titles from Emory University Law School’s Feminism and Legal Theory Project which provide a platform to view the effect of law and culture on the female gender.” This database includes a subcollection on abortion. If you are off-campus, you may need to login with your Penn State credentials.

CQ Researcher Reports on Abortion, Contraception and Reproductive Issues

C.Q. Researcher provides in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the economy. Reports are published 44 times a year by CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications. You will need to use your Penn State credentials to log into this website.

Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

“A member of the Law Professor Blogs Network.” (Website)

New York Times Articles on Abortion

Law students can sign up for digital access to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

SCOTUSBlog Coverage of Dobbs

SCOTUSblog is a widely-read resource “devoted to covering the U.S. Supreme Court comprehensively, without bias and according to the highest journalistic and legal ethical standards.” (Website) You can sign up for a daily email digest of new stories about the Supreme Court by scrolling down to the footer of the website.

Selected Congressional Research Service Reports on Dobbs and Abortion

The Congressional Research Service can be thought of as a sort of nonpartisan think tank that supports Congress’ work. These reports are intended to inform Congress; however, they often provide others with a timely and objective source of research on legal issues.

Think Tank Search

The Think Tank Search is a custom Google search of more than 1200 think tank and research center websites developed by Harvard University. You can run searches for “abortion,” “reproductive health,” and similar topics.

 

 

Law Library 2nd Floor Print Collections

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The Law Library’s second floor houses various print collections.

Periodicals:
Let’s start with the shelves holding the periodicals (stacks 201-206). They begin at the far wall near Group Study Room 207.  The periodicals are arranged alphabetically by title. The most recently received issues are in the clear plastic boxes on the shelves. Below is an entry from The CAT searching the title, Dickinson Law Review, with “Periodical”, “Bound Journal”, and the “location” highlighted.

Federal Materials:
In Stacks 207-213 the titles consist of American Jurisprudence, American Law Reports, United States Reports, Federal rules, and Atlantic Reporter. Following these books are the Federal statutes and administrative materials.

State Materials:
Stacks 213-215 shelve the statutes of states contiguous to Pennsylvania: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Pennsylvania:
The Pennsylvania collection starts with Stack 215. This collection includes Purdon’s Pennsylvania statutes, House and Senate journals, Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Code and other Pennsylvania specific titles.  There are bound volumes of state reports, Superior and Commonwealth reports, all of which are shelved preceding the Pennsylvania treatises (books classed in the KFP call number range).

The materials on this floor may be also checked out for your use, although the circulation loan period varies with items. For example, statutes may be checked out for two hours, law reviews for seven days and U.S Supreme Court reports for three days. Please make note of when borrowed materials are to be returned.

The Law Library’s web page provides specific research guides to help you with researching and in particular, Pennsylvania.  The University Libraries’ guide to starting library research for using The CAT and other research sources is a primary place to begin using University resources.

If there is difficulty in locating any type of material in the Law Library, ask at the circulation desk for assistance. If you need further assistance with research, please ask our Law Library faculty for help.

Dickinson Law Review

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This month marks the anniversary of the very first issue of the Dickinson Law Review.  The Forum, as it was known then, was first published in January, 1897.

[The Forum] comes not to revolutionize the periodicals of collegiate circles, nor to dim the light of any journal which may be shining in the legal world.  The purpose of The Forum is both general and specific – general in the sense that through its medium well established principles of law will be adduced and treated in the reports of moot court cases, and specific in that primarily it will be devoted to the Dickinson School of Law.  From time to time also, there will be discussions of legal questions and contributions by well-known writers.  1 FORUM 1 (1897).

Although the early editors of The Forum did not intend to be revolutionaries with the publication of their journal, they nonetheless were.  Julia Radle, Class of 1899 and the first female graduate from the Dickinson School of Law, served as one of The Forum’s editors from 1898-1899.  It is believed that Ms. Radle may have been the first female in the United States to serve as a law review editor.  In addition, only four other law schools have law reviews that predate the publication of The Forum:  the University of Pennsylvania (1852), Harvard (1887), Yale (1891), and West Virginia (1894).  Laurel Terry, Foreword:  Why “Tradition, Innovation, and New Beginnings:  Celebrating the History of the Dickinson Law Review” Is an Appropriate Title for Volume 122(1), 122 Dick. L. Rev. 5, 6 (2017).

In 1908, The Forum became known as the Dickinson Law Review.  In 1997, the Dickinson School of Law began its merger with the Pennsylvania State University, and in 2003, the Dickinson Law Review became known as the Penn State Law Review.  In 2016, the two Penn State law school campuses split into two separately accredited law schools.  Thereafter, the law review at the Carlisle location again became known as the Dickinson Law Review, while University Park assumed publication of the Penn State Law Review.

Current volumes of the Dickinson Law Review can be found in our digital repository, Dickinson Law IDEAS.  Volumes of the Dickinson Law Review dating all the way back to the very first issue of The Forum can be found on HeinOnline.

Locations of the Law Library’s Collection

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What do those locations for books and other materials signify in our Law Library when searching the CAT? Where is the “Penna. Collection” on the 2nd floor? The Law Library has distinct locations for similar material types and formats where you can find resources for your research.

A brief note about searching in the CAT: when using the browse (begins with) choice in searching the CAT for a specific title or author (type in the last name first), write down the call number and location for the materials to help you easily find the materials within the Law Library. The entry will also tell you if it is checked out and consequently it will NOT be on the shelf. When that is the case, you can place a hold on that book by using the “I want it” button in the entry in the CAT.

One location you may notice is book, reference. These are treatises but are shelved in 1st floor – reference of the library and have a 2 hour circulation period. The Reference collection consists of titles most frequently consulted and includes study aids, directories, dictionaries, and indices.

Course reserve materials are searched under the course reserves tab in the CAT. The entry will indicate the item is on Reserve and has a 2 hour loan period. Print reserves, like reference items, are located on the 1st floor at the Circulation Desk. They are available for check out when the desk is staffed.

The Law Library’s main treatise collection, which covers multiple subjects for research, is located on the lower level of the library. These books are shelved on the movable stacks. To retrieve a book in the movable stacks, select the correct aisle by checking the range of call numbers on stack end signs. You move the book stacks on the lower level by pressing the flashing red arrow and then press the grey arrow. You can find the book by using the call number you recorded and compare it with the spine labels on the books.  The books are arranged on the shelf sections from left to right and top to bottom for each section.

Law journals and law reviews are located on the second floor and are arranged alphabetically by the journal title. The location is periodicals and that includes paper issues as well as bound volumes.

If you do not find the specific volume, it may be found online. One database to check would be HeinOnline.  You can go through the CAT for e-journals or the Law Library’s website.

Also on the 2nd floor are federal resources, U.S. Statutes, state statutes and our Pennsylvania collection. The Pennsylvania collection includes print House and Senate journals, Pennsylvania bulletin, and Pennsylvania statutes and treatises specific to our state. Remember to write down the call number to find a treatise.

As always, please ask for assistance at the Circulation Desk or from a Reference Law Librarian in locating materials or placing a hold on a title that may be checked out.  Law Library floor maps designating these collections by location are coming soon!

The Supreme Court Reconvenes

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October 1st marked the first day of oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court for the October 2018 Term. Information about the oral arguments, including the availability of transcripts and audio of the arguments, can be found on the court’s website. Slip opinions, the first version of the Court’s opinions, are posted within minutes of the issuance of the opinion, remain on the website for the entire Term, and are published in the United States Reports. Electronic copies of the opinions from US Reports can be found either on the Supreme Court’s website (1991-2012) or on the website for the Law Library of Congress (1791-2004).

Print Resources:

United States Supreme Court Slip Opinions, 2nd Floor – Reporters

Official Reports of the Supreme Court (Preliminary Print), 2nd Floor – Reporters

United States Reports, 2nd Floor – Reporters

The Supreme Court’s Style Guide, KF250.U55 2016

Databases:

ProQuest Supreme Court Insight
Supreme Court Insight is a complete online collection of full opinions from Supreme Court argued cases, including per decision, dockets, oral arguments, joint appendices and amicus briefs. Content associated with each case is compiled and organized to facilitate understanding of the judicial process and is also retrievable on a document by document basis.

CQ Supreme Court Collection
CQ Supreme Court Collection contains summaries and analysis of more than four thousand major decisions, historical and contemporary, including all cases in which the Burger and Rehnquist Courts (October 1969 to the present) issued a written opinion. Includes links to the full text of the cases. The collection can be searched by topic, justice, and case name. Includes tools to research justices’ voting records and opinion alignments.

HeinOnline: U.S. Supreme Court Library
Complete coverage of the official U.S. Reports bound volumes as well as preliminary prints, slip opinions, and books and periodicals related to the U.S. Supreme Court are included in this library.

HeinOnline: History of Supreme Court Nominations
This library features the complete print series Supreme Court of the U.S. Hearings and Reports on Successful and Unsuccessful Nominations of Supreme Court Justices by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Browse by Justice option allows you to see relevant works related to that Justice, including links to articles, a bibliography of other works, and links to Scholarly Articles.

Honoring Women’s History Month

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Since 1987, when Congress declared the month of March Women’s History Month, there have been events drawing awareness to notable accomplishments by women. The guiding force trailblazing the way is the National Women’s History Project (NWHP), which was founded in 1980 in Santa Rosa, California as a grassroots organization to focus attention on the contributions of women. NWHP provides information and training nationally in educating teachers and organizations about women’s historical achievements.

A vital resource available to the Dickinson Law community is featured in honor of Women’s History Month. Since 2014, HeinOnline has provided an extensive collection, Women and the Law.  Subtitled Peggy, the database is an archive of contemporary and historical works devoted to the advancement women’s roles in society and the law for the past 200 years. In a touching preface from Hein’s company president, Kevin Marmion dedicated this specialized database to two women, Ilene N. Hein and Margaret (Peggy) Marmion, who were instrumental and supportive of the company’s success as an invaluable resource for researchers.

This online resource offers more than 685,000 pages of current and historical books, periodicals and biographies pertinent to women’s participation in society and the law. It provides an efficient and constructive platform for users to explore topics such as Women & Education, Famous Women – Biography, Legal Rights & Suffrage, Abortion, Scholarly Articles, Periodicals, and more.  If the subject Feminism and Legal Theory Project is chosen, the researcher may browse articles and books by author, title subject and date. If the inception of the Women’s Suffrage Movement is the topic you are researching, this page provides comprehensive resources for research. The Hein materials are available to read online, download as a pdf, or email.

To access HeinOnline and its databases, please go to the Law Library’s website, or the Law Databases A-Z.

 

Black History Month: Civil Rights Activists

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February is Black History Month. In honor of this occasion, the Law Library will publish a blog each week highlighting resources that focus on African American leaders in their law-related fields: Civil Rights Activists; Justices & Judges; Government Officials; and, Firsts in Their Field.

In this first entry of the series, explore materials on African American history and some of the nation’s most revered civil rights activists, who are known for their fight against social injustices and lasting impact on the lives of black citizens.  Highlighted resources include documentaries and books by or about James Baldwin, Daisy Bates, Rosa Parks, Charles Hamilton Houston, Benjamin Hooks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Featured Databases:

Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law
This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Also included in the collection are UNC Press titles, scholarly articles and periodicals, and much more.

Oxford African-American Studies Center
The Oxford African American Studies Center provides over 10,000 articles by top scholars in the field on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. The core content includes: Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America, Second Edition; African American National Biography; Dictionary of African Biography; and, The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought.

govinfo : Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, partnership with The University of Maryland
Since its inception in 1957, the United States Commission on Civil Rights has been at the forefront of efforts by the Federal Government and state governments to examine and resolve issues related to race, ethnicity, religion and, more recently, sexual orientation. Although the fortunes of the Commission have ebbed and flowed with changes in presidential administrations, the Commission has continued to be a vital part of the effort to build an America that is truly equal. By providing access to the historical record of this important federal agency, the Thurgood Marshall Law Library will offer scholars an opportunity to examine the efforts of the Commission more closely. Available as a partnership of the United States Government Printing Office, The United States Commission on Civil Rights and the Thurgood Marshall Law Library.

Peace Research Abstracts
Covers essential areas related to peace research, including conflict resolution, international affairs, peace psychology, Genocide, human rights, international law, refugees voluntary and nongovernmental organizations, armed conflicts, civil wars, territorial disputes, terrorism, counterterrorism, democratisation, migration, arms control, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, humanitarian aid, cultural relations, race relations, interpersonal violence, ethnic relations, race relations, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.

Print & Video Resources:

Eyes on the Prize : America’s Civil Rights Movement
Call Number: E185.61.E94 2006 DVD
Volumes 1-3 tell the story of America’s civil rights years from 1954 to 1965; volumes 4-7 examine the new America from 1966 to 1985, from community power to the human alienation of urban poverty.

The Long Shadow of Little Rock: A Memoir by Daisy Bates
Call Number: F419.L7B3
On September 3, 1957, Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to surround all-white Central High School and prevent the entry of nine black students, challenging the Supreme Court’s 1954 order to integrate all public schools. On September 25, Daisy Bates, an official of the NAACP in Arkansas, led the nine children into the school with the help of federal troops sent by President Eisenhower–the first time in eighty-one years that a president had dispatched troops to the South to protect the constitutional rights of black Americans.

Boycott
Call Number: PN1997.2.B696 2001 DVD
One woman refuses to give up her seat in a “whites only” section of a public bus. The bus stops. The city stops. The world stops. December 1, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama. A time when resentment gives birth to rebellion; when a gesture has the power to bring about change. This single act by Rosa Parks inspires an uprising that will make history, and make a leader of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin
Call Number: E185.61.I15 2017 DVD
I Am Not Your Negro is a 2016 American documentary film based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript, Remember This House. The film explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin’s reminiscences of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr, as well as his personal observations of American history.

The March for Civil Rights : The Benjamin Hooks Story by Benjamin Hooks and Jerry Guess
Call Number: KF373.H66A3 2003
The author recounts his inspiring leadership role in the ongoing struggle for civil rights and racial equality in America and abroad.

Selma
Call Number: PN1997.2.S4384 2015 DVD
The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.

Undoing Plessy : Charles Hamilton Houston, Race, Labor, and the Law, 1895-1950 by Gordon Andrews
Call Number: KF373.H644A53 2014
The book explores the manner in which African Americans countered racialized impediments, attacking their legal underpinnings during the first half of the twentieth century. Specifically, Undoing Plessy explores the professional life of Charles Hamilton Houston, and the way it informs our understanding of change in the pre-Brown era. Houston dedicated his life to the emancipation of oppressed people, and was inspired early-on to choose the law as a tool to become, in his own words, a “social engineer.” Further, Houston’s life provides a unique lens through which one may more accurately view the threads of race, labor, and the law as they are woven throughout American society.

Finding Journal Articles

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Legal research databases such as Lexis and Westlaw can be great sources for current primary law and secondary sources. However, neither database contains every current legal journal or every issue of a given title. For example, if Lexis or Westlaw has a specific title, it probably won’t have issues older than the mid-1990’s. Why should you care? Restricting your search to only the sources available in one database may not provide you with either the full scope or depth of analysis that you require for your project. So, how do you conduct a broader search for journals and where do you find those journals?

Index to Legal Periodicals

The Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Full Text indexes legal journals, law reviews, yearbooks, and bar association publications from 1918 to the present, along with many other resources. This robust database allows researchers to find both contemporary and historical materials. Many of the articles are available full-text in the database or link to full-text in HeinOnline. Instead of searching several databases, the researcher can start with Index to Legal Periodicals and find a comprehensive selection of U.S. legal journals and periodicals. (The Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals can be found in HeinOnline.)

HeinOnline

I’m probably biased, but I think HeinOnline is the best single-source for law journals and periodicals. The database has a built-in search interface, but does not index journals that are not licensed by Hein. (Although HeinOnline has excellent resources, a more comprehensive search can be conducted by searching both Index to Legal Periodicals and HeinOnline.) The browse features make it easy to locate an article by citation when you already know your journal is in HeinOnline. Finally, all materials in HeinOnline are available in PDF format, which facilitates precision citation as required by the Bluebook.

E-Journal Portal

Finally, if you already have a citation to a journal article, the fastest way to find it is to use the E-Journal Portal. Simply enter the title of the journal and, if the journal is available electronically through a Penn State resource, all databases in which the title is available will be displayed. Be sure to check the dates of coverage to ensure that your article can be found in the database you select. The E-Journal Portal is particularly useful when looking for a non-legal journal for cross-disciplinary research when you have the citation.

Library Research Page

Links to all of the sources mentioned above and many more can be found on the Dickinson Law Library Research page.

Women’s History Month 2017

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The theme for Women’s History Month 2017 is “Honoring Trailblazing Women in Labor and Business.” The National Women’s History Project Gazette highlights the women who are being honored this year for their lifelong contributions that improve the lives of all women, sometimes achieved through legal action.

Similarly, the American Bar Association has compiled a list of trailblazing women of the legal profession. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that most of the legal and political gains made by women toward equality were made in the twentieth century – no so long ago. Although this year marks the centennial of the swearing-in of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to become a member of Congress, the political arena remains particularly challenging for women. In honor of Women’s History Month, the United States National Archives convened a panel of cross-generational, bipartisan, former Congresswomen to discuss their work in public service. [Note: actual presentation begins at 3:26.] One panelist notes that her interest to run for office stemmed from her desire to actively work toward changing the law, not just enforcing the existing law. This desire to act in the public good was complicated merely due to their gender – a situation faced by many women.

The documented legal challenges women face forms substantial body of scholarly work that HeinOnline has compiled into a database called Women and the Law (Peggy). “[Peggy] is a collection that brings together books, biographies and periodicals dedicated to the role of women in society and the law. This unique collection of materials provides a convenient platform for users to research the progression of women’s roles and rights in society over the past 200 years. Also included are more than 70 titles from Emory University Law School’s Feminism and Legal Theory Project which provide a platform to view the effect of law and culture on the female gender.”

The Women’s Studies International database pulls together over 232,000 records from ten separate databases and will be useful for researchers seeking a broader scholarly perspective on women’s history and rights.

For a more general resource on American Women’s history, see Click. “This resource highlights the collective action and individual achievements of women from the 1940s to the present.  In the spirit of 1970s consciousness-raising, the name refers to the “click” moment when women discovered the powerful ideas of modern feminism.”

 

Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases

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Once again, HeinOnline has partnered with the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases provides comprehensive expert analysis of all cases argued before the United States Supreme Court, and is now available online exclusively via HeinOnline’s fully searchable, user-friendly platform. Released in October 2016, this database includes complete archives as well as the most current material.

In addition, the database version of this title features a case locator tool, access to exact replicas of original case briefs, full print transcripts of cases, links to audio transcripts via Oyez, and citation and summary information for each case. Learn more from this detailed blog post about this database!

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