UHLC Nota Bene

In our last entry, we discussed the current legal battle between the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the State of Texas over the materials archived in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library. As mentioned in the previous post, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas served as the custodial stewards of the Alamo complex from 1905 to 2011. The uneasy relationship between the State of Texas and the DRT began long ago, at the dawn of the 20th century. The San Antonio de Valero mission was founded in 1718 and the construction of its famous chapel (what most people think of as “The Alamo”) was completed in 1744. After its abandonment in 1794, Spanish soldiers occupied the mission during Mexico’s war for independence. The mission was occupied by Mexican soldiers in 1803 until December 1835, when the company surrendered to Texan forces. The siege of the Alamo began on February 23, 1836 and continued until all Texan combatants had been lost, on March 6, 1836. For the next forty y...

This week the Daughters of the Republic of Texas  (DRT) filed a lawsuit against the General Land Office of Texas. The petition , filed in the 407th Bexar County District Court, alleges that the General Land Office and the State of Texas have illegally claimed ownership of the DRT’s library collection as an unconstitutional  taking of private property.  The dispute arose after the Texas Legislature, in 2011, turned over responsibility for the “preservation, maintenance, and restoration of the Alamo complex,” (Act of May 30, 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., ch. 1046, § 2, 2011 Tex. Gen. Laws 2676 ) from the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to the state’s General Land Office (GLO). In June 2010, the Office of the Attorney General began an investigation of the DRT’s management of the Alamo. Once the investigation began, public scrutiny and highly publicized structural problems at the Alamo prompted the Texas legislature to act and end the DRT’s stewardship of the Alamo before th...

Given that March is Women’s History Month, I thought that some of you may be interested in finding data regarding issues that impact women.   One such resource for this is the Status of Women in the States 2015 from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research .   This new website provides information regarding the progress of women in the United States, the 50 states, and the District of Columbia.   The first set of data regarding Employment & Earnings has been released.   Forthcoming data releases will focus on topics including Poverty & Opportunity, Work & Family, Violence & Safety, Reproductive Rights, Health & Well-Being, and Political Participation.   If you need data before the remainder of the 2015 information is released, check the archive for information from previous years.     

Legal professionals handle a great deal of confidential information.   As more and more people have transitioned to using mobile devices for work-related tasks, the issue of mobile security has become more important as well.   There are several ways you can help protect sensitive data on mobile devices.   One way to help secure your device is to install an antivirus app.   For instance, try the AvastMobile , McAfee , or Norton security apps . In addition to scanning for and removing viruses, mobile security apps like these may also allow you locate your device if it is lost as well as remotely lock it or wipe its memory.   There are some other ways to protect information on your mobile devices.   If you store confidential files on your device, you might try an encryption app such as the SSE Universal Encryption App , which will allow you to select specific files you want to encrypt so that they cannot be read by others. If you work in public places...

Good news for number crunchers: the Administrative Office of the United States Courts recently released its annual report on the business of the federal judiciary. The report presents data and statistics for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, with separate sections for district courts, bankruptcy courts, courts of appeals, and so on. Here are some of the highlights: Defendant filings for drug crimes declined 14 percent from the previous year, while those for firearms and explosives crimes declined 10 percent. The number of defendants prosecuted for immigration crimes fell by 8 percent. Five southwestern border districts accounted for 77 percent of immigration defendant filings. Bankruptcy filings fell by 13 percent.  You can read the full report here . You can also compare this year’s numbers to those of previous reports, which can be found in the Judicial Business Archive .

The recent controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account during her tenure as Secretary of State is the latest in a series of high-profile stories that have focused attention on the issue of government transparency. The United States Congress is currently considering two bills ( S. 337 and H.R. 653 ) that would have a significant effect in this area. Both of these bills propose changes to a number of provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the interest of greater public access to government information. FOIA was enacted in 1966 and created a presumptive right of public access to government documents, with limited exceptions. The law was last amended in 2009. For those interested in learning more about the proposed legislation, a recent report of the Congressional Research Service provides background information and a side-by-side analysis of the two bills.        

The Senate Committee on Finance has announced that it will hold hearings on Thursday, March 12 at 10:00 .am. EST on tax scams. The hearings official titled, "Protecting Taxpayers from Schemes and Scams During the 2015 Tax Filing Season" will explore how to protect taxpayers from scams ranging from refund scams to identity theft. The following witnesses are scheduled to testify: Caroline D Ciraolo , Acting Asst. Attorney General, Tax Division, U.S. Dept. of Justice Timothy P. Camus , Deputy Inspector General for Investigations, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, U.S. Department of the Treasury Mike Alley , Commissioner, Indiana Dept. of Revenue John L. Valentine , Commissioner Chair, Utah State Tax Commission The IRS focused on different "Dirty Dozen" tax scams in information releases (I.R.) issued each business day from January 22-February 6, this year to help taxpayers avoid falling victim to these scams.

Immigration law is a very important field and whether you have an interest or plan to practice in this area, the law library has access to several sources in its print and online collections such as the following titles: Statutes: See Title 8 of the United States Code (U.S.C.) ( KF62.A2 ) (available on GPO's FDsys ); United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.) ( KF62.U5 ) (available on Westlaw Next ); United States Code Service (U.S.C.S.) ( KF62.U6 ) (available on Lexis Advance ) Regulations: See Title 8 of the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) ( KF70.A3 ) (available on GPO's FDsys ) Case Law: Federal Practice Digest 5th ( KF127.M63 5th ) (this source is an index to court cases and will provide listing and summary of cases) (this same is used on Westlaw Next and can be accessed by clicking "Key Numbers" from the main search page. Secondary Sources: The Immigration Law Sourcebook (ABA)( KF4819.85I46 2015 ) Kurzban's Immigration Law Sourcebook,...