UHLC Nota Bene

The ABA has recently published Hydraulic Fracturing: A Guide to Environmental and Real Property Issue s ( KF1849.H35 2017 ) by Keith B. Hall and Hannah J. Wiseman . The first chapter provides a background on hydraulic fracturing or fracking and covers the different types. The property rights of lessors and lessees versus the owners originating from common law are also discussed. Environmental issues such as water quality, air and climate, and federal, state, and local regulation and exemptions are covered. Information regarding the composition of fracking fluids and data on groundwater quality, matters related to subsurface trespass, and induced earthquakes are among the other issues explored by the authors. This source is now available on the law library's new titles shelf (across from the reference desk).  

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia recently granted summary judgment to plaintiffs in a copyright and trademark infringement case involving technical standards that were incorporated by reference into law.  The case,  American Society for Testing and Materials, d/b/a ASTM International v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc . , is of possible interest to legal researchers given its implications for the accessibility of legal documents. In this case, the defendant was a website dedicated to providing the public with access to free copies of federal, state and local government codes.  Some of the federal codes hosted by the defendant incorporated voluntary industry standards and best practices into federal law by reference, as is permitted under 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(1)(E) .   The defendant hosted free copies of these standards on its website along with the federal codes, and was sued by the organizations that drafted and publis...

President Trump recently nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. For those interested in learning more about the appointment process, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) has published a new report, Supreme Court Appointment Process: President’s Selection of a Nominee . It includes information on the criteria for selecting a nominee, the advice and consent role of the Senate, the political aspects of the process, and the use of recess appointments to temporarily bypass Senate confirmation. For a more detailed account of the Senate’s role, the following CRS reports may also be of interest: Supreme Court Appointment Process: Consideration by the Senate Judiciary Committee Supreme Court Appointment Process: Senate Debate and Confirmation Vote For more information on finding CRS reports online, see our blog post on the subject.

On January 27 President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order, Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States . Four days earlier, on January 24, the Congressional Research Service released its own report:   Executive Authority to Exclude Aliens: In Brief. To those unfamiliar, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a federal legislative branch agency, housed inside the Library of Congress, charged with providing the United States Congress non-partisan advice on issues that may come before Congress, including immigration. Included in the report are in-depth discussions on the operation of sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) in the context of the executive power . Discussions of sections 212(f),  214(a)(1) and 215(a)(1) report on how the sections have been used by Presidents, along with relevant case law and precedents. Most interesting is the list of executive orders excluding some groups of aliens during past presid...