Video-sharing Web site YouTube agreed July 14 to substitute non-identifying values for information intended for release to Viacom International Inc., such as how many times each video has been viewed and the user name and Internet Protocol address of every viewer, in a stipulation signed by the parties and handed up July 15 to Judge Louis L. Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
(Viacom International Inc. v. YouTube Inc., S.D.N.Y., No. 07-cv-2103, stipulation agreed to by parties 7/14/08).

Read more through the Law Library's BNA subscription.

50 state surveys have long been a staple of summer work for associates, research assistants, and librarians.  Before you start searching every state code, be sure to check out compilations of 50-state surveys such as the ones listed below.  It's far easier to update someone else's survey than do one from scratch.

• National Survey of State Laws
• Subject Compilations of State Laws is a listing of published 50-state surveys.  It's arranged by subject. 
  
• The National Conference of State Legislatures keeps track of online compilations of websites that track laws and regulations across the 50 states. 
  
• Lexis: CODES;SURVEY
• Westlaw
• Statutes: SURVEYS
• Regs: REG-SURVEYS

If you can't find a survey on your topic, check out the guide to doing a 50-state survey in  Subject Compilations of State Laws.

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's 100th birthday is today, July 2, 2008.

These books are available (some electronically) to help you celebrate:

• Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1936-1961 (1994)
• Making Constitutional Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1961-1991 (1997)
• Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African Journey (2008)
• Against the Death Penalty: The Relentless Dissents of Justice Brennan and Marshall (1996)
• Thurgood Marshall: Champion of Civil Rights (1993)
• Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall (1993)
• Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall on Capital Punishment: Its Constitutionality, Morality, Deterrent Effect, and Interpretation by the Court (1997)
  

NPR is looking for suggestions for its upcoming living legends series.  Submit a name at the  News & Views web site if there is someone you would like to see interviewed or profiled.

According to the SCOTUSblog:

The Court has released the opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), on whether the District's firearms regulations  which bar the possession of handguns and require shotguns and rifles to be kept disassembled or under trigger lock  violate the Second Amendment. The ruling below, which struck down the provisions in question, is affirmed...Quoting the syllabus: The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditional lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.

Justice Scalia authored the majority opinion, available via the SCOTUSblog here, and two dissenting opinions were filed, one authored by Justice Stevens (joined by Justices Souter, Ginsberg and Breyer) and one authored by Justice Breyer (joined by Justices Stevens, Souter and Ginsberg).

FictionDB, formerly available as a subscription but now free, offers easy access to concise information about works of fiction and their authors. You can search this database to find authors and lists of their titles. You will also find reviews, synopses, other works in the same series, news of upcoming releases, and ways to buy books from booksellers. Create an account and you can track your own collection and wish list.

June 19th is celebrated as Black Independence Day--the day that Black residents of Galveston, Texas learned of their freedom in 1865.  The day has come to be known as Juneteenth, and is celebrated throughout the United States.

The Root, Henry Louis Gates' web site, has a good Primer on Black Independence Day.  You can also come to the library and check out and read Ralph Ellison's novel, Juneteenth.

You might also find the following titles interesting--they approach the issues of slavery and freedom from unique perspectives: Rebels, Reformers, & Revolutionaries: Collected Essays and Second Thoughts;  Wounds of Returning: Race, Memory, and Property on the Postslavery Plantation; and Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America.  These are just some of the many resources our library offers on slavery and emancipation.  Find more using GULLiver.

Early this morning an NPR commentator marked today as the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S.Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010
(U.S.Va. Jun 12, 1967), reversing convictions for violating a state ban on interracial marriage. We are a freer people.
Likewise today the historic ruling in Boumediene v. Bush.
"that the petitioners at GTMO have a constitutional right to petition for habeas corpus and that the DTA/MCA process of D.C. Circuit review from CSRT decisions is not an adequate alternative to habeas."
In addition to this ruling in Boumediene, which is filled with the results of some clarified British legal history research that warms the heart of any curator of historical materials, the court also handed down The Republic of the Philippines v. Pimentel (re to determine ownership of funds allegedly misappropriated by Ferdinand Marcos
during his reign as Philippine president) and Munaf (US Citizens can challenge their detentions in Iraq).
Mark Wojcik called it a "trifecta" on the International Law Prof Blog, but his links go via Cornell and are interposed with a plea for a donation to LII. Most worthwhile, but unless you are a son or daughter of Cornell, today may not be the day you want to pause. All are posted at ScotusBlog, nudge-free.


and there will be an "Insta-Symposium" on Boumediene, as annouced at Opinio Juris.

The University of Georgia's new Civil Rights Digital Library provides organized access to the resources of nearly 100 digital collections to provide a single source for online civil rights research.

The excellent interface allows browsing (Events, People, Places, Topics, Collections) and searching of the collections. There are articles, photographs, legal and government documents, moving images, posters, broadsides and other sources (see the complete list of media types).  The collections of the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland, the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas, Yale Law School, and the Virginia Center for Digital History Information at U.Va. are just a few of those included (click here to see more).

The New York Times recently featured an article on the new web-based Civics lesson being prepared by the Law Center, in conjunction with former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Arizona State University.

The "Our Courts" Project was created to help those seeking to address the evident crisis in civics education. It will be an interactive,  problem-based Civics curriculum designed for the middle school environment. While not completely interactive as yet, it currently contains numerous links offering key definitions, discussion on the branches of government and structure of the courts.

In the article, Justice O'Connor said that most citizens know very little about their government. "Two-thirds of Americans know at least one of the judges on the Fox TV show American Idol, but less than 1 in 10 can name the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, she said."