CALI Radio Podcasts

Driving to law school can take a lot of time, especially for weekend students; but everyone is spending more time on the road with highway congestion at all-time record levels. Now, law students can put that drive time to good use by downloading CALI's radio podcasts onto their MP3 or iPod.

Israel-Hezbollah Conflict: The Legalities. Questions and Answers

Human Rights Watch has an interesting page of Questions and Answers surrounding the legalities of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

Congressional Research Service has issued a report on the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah Current Conflict.

Sources: Law Librarian Blog; beSpacific

ABA Speaks on Bush's Use of Signing Statements

A panel formed by the American Bar Association in June has registered its objections to President Bush's use of signing statements to claim the power to disregard those parts of the laws he's signed that he disagrees with. This action by the ABA is reported on in a New York Times article written by Robert Pear. Next month, at its annual meeting, the association will consider a proposal requiring judicial review of signing statements.

Mideast Crisis Tracking Site

The Wall Street Journal is offering a free site that updates the ongoing crisis taking place in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. Updates are posted hourly or even more frequently.

Source: beSpacific

Foreign Surveillance Wiretap Legislation

Congress is considering legislation that would "update" FISA, which requires the Executive branch to go through a judicial process to obtain foreign surveillance wiretaps.

Edward Lazarus has written a column about the new legislation.

Source: beSpacific

New Research Tool Available at Hamline Law Library

The law library has acquired access to The Making of Modern Law, a database of Anglo-American legal treatises written during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The database is full text searchable, which makes it extremely accessible to users. For more information, check out the law library's website homepage. If you need assistance using this resource, one of the reference librarians will be happy to help you.

Howard Dean Comments on Presidential Signing Statements

Howard Dean has written a column on presidential signing statements and their use by George W. Bush. Dean was Counsel to President Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

RSS Feed Added to Blog

I have added an RSS Feed to the Blog -- this will make it easier for you to access Material Information at Hamline.

On the right hand side of the blog page, under links, click on MultiRSS. Choose your feed reader from the list (My Yahoo, Google Reader/Homepage, etc.) Click on "continue" at the bottom of the page and follow the prompts. Voila! Material Information At Hamline will now appear on your selected reader!

Presidential Signing Statements

Signing statements are statements made by the President when signing (or vetoing) a new law passed by Congress. Although signing statements have been issued by presidents since the earliest days of the republic, the use (or overuse, as some allege) of presidential signing statements by the Bush administration has brought these heretofore little thought about documents to the forefront of the U.S. political arena. The Senate Judiciary Committee is now holding hearings into what Chairman Arlen Specter says could amount to abuses of executive power.

Presidential signing statements can be found in a number of places, including the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents at GPO Access.gov. The Hamline community also has access to the presidential signing statements at the HeinOnline library.

Freedom of Information Act Celebrates 40 years

The Freedom of Information Act has been around for 40 years. Its enactment was controversial; it was signed grudgingly by President Johnson, and his signing of it included a signing statement. You can read the complete legislative history of the FOIA here.