SCOTUS Nomination Debate

The current vacancy on the United States Supreme Court has sparked a heated controversy between Republican Senators and the President. The President and Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa have each written blog posts on SCOTUSblog making their respective arguments. They make a concise and informative introduction to the controversy.

A Responsibility I Take Seriously

President Barack Obama, President of the United States

Coequal Branches of Government

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Chairman, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Bob and SCOTUS

Based on a poll of State of Oregon Law Library employees 100% of Oregonians love Bob Dylan! 

If this is true then we're in august company! A recent article in the New York Times notes that The Supreme Court of the United States regularly quotes and misquotes a certain Robert Zimmerman.

If you'd like to read more about the connection between America's bard and SCOTUS check out Alex Long's law review article The Freewheeling Judiciary: A Bob Dylan Anthology.

So how much influence does Bob have over our judiciary? As always the answer is blowing in the wind.

Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of February 22nd

The Oregon Supreme Court is not hearing any oral arguments this week.

The Oregon Court of Appeals is hearing arguments on the 23rd and 24th of this week in the Supreme Court Courtroom.

Presidential Document Sources

The President of the United States produces a large amount of papers and public documents. Finding these documents can sometimes be difficult. They are collected by organizations as varied as the National Archives, the Office of the Federal Register, and various presidential libraries.

A great place to start when looking for these documents is The American Presidency Project. This University of California hosted site has a wealth of presidential documents. The site archives includes the following collections:

• Messages and Papers of the Presidents(Washington 1789 through Taft 1913)
• Public Papers of the Presidents(Hoover 1929-1933; Truman through G.W. Bush 1945-2007; & Obama 2009-2011)
• Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt(F. Roosevelt 1933-1945)
• Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents(Carter 1977 through G.W. Bush 2009)
• Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents(Obama 2009-2016)
• Annual Messages to Congress on the State of the Union(Washington 1790 - Obama 2016)
• Inaugural Addresses(Washington 1789 - Obama 2013)
• Saturday Addresses (Radio from Reagan through G.W. Bush)(Reagan 1982 - Obama 2016)
• Fireside Chats(F. Roosevelt)
• News Conferences(Hoover 1929 - Obama 2015)
• Executive Orders(J.Q. Adams 1826 - Obama 2016)
• Proclamations(Washington 1789 - Obama 2016)
• Presidential Signing Statements(Hoover 1929 - Obama 2015)
• The Economic Report of the President(Truman 1947 - Obama 2015)
• Statements of Administration Policy(Clinton 1997 - Obama 2016) - (105th-114th Congress)
• Presidential Nomination Acceptance Addresses (1928-2012)
• Presidential Candidates Debates (1960-2016)
• Documents Related to Presidential Elections
  • 1960 Election
  • 1996 Election
  • 2004 Election
  • 2008 Election
  • 2012 Election
  • 2016 Election
• Documents Related to the 2000 Election Dispute
• Documents Related to Presidential Transitions
  • 2009 Presidential Transition
    (G.W. Bush - Obama)
  • 2001 Presidential Transition
    (Clinton - G.W. Bush)
• National Political Party Platforms
  (of parties receiving electoral votes, 1840 - 2012)

If you are interested in the more ephemeral information contained in the presidential web page you may be interested in the following pages:

• http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/ - A archived copy of the G.W. Bush Web Page as it existed on the last day of his presidency.
• https://web.archive.org/web/20000303223458/http://www.whitehouse.gov/ - Bill Clinton's web page from March 3, 2000. The Internet Archive is a fantastic resource for old websites. 

Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of February 8th

The Oregon Supreme Court is not hearing any oral arguments this week.

The Oregon Court of Appeals is hearing arguments on the 8th, 9th and 10th of this week in the Supreme Court Courtroom.

GovInfo Beta - FDsys' next generation replacement

The U.S. Government Publishing Office has long made a huge amount of government publications available online through it's FDsys database.

The GPO has just released their new website GovInfo to the public. GovInfo will eventually replace FDsys but for now it's still in beta.

All the documents available on FDsys are available right now through GovInfo's search interface. However they are still working on adding sources to the category and alphabetical indexes.

The site provides links to various other government resources as well. You may be familiar with government documents like the United States Code and the Federal Register. There are also links to less well known and useful sources like FRASER, The Federal Reserve's database of economic research; and PubMed, the National Institutes of Health's index of medical publications.

Oregon Appellate Court Oral Arguments -- Week of February 1st

The Supreme Court will not hear any oral arguments this week.

The Oregon Court of Appeals will not hear any oral arguments this week.

Have a happy argument free week Oregonians!