Legal Topics in the News

Website of the Week Archive

The following links represent selected legal documents and issues featured in national and local news. To submit items for this page, contact Cheryl Nyberg at cnyberg@u.washington.edu. See also the Law Library News columns from the Condon Crier, the Website of the Week feature, and the Law School's Center for Law, Commerce & Technology's Technology Law Update for other timely links.

• Dec. 22, 2004: WA Supreme Court decision: WA State Republican Party v. King County Division of Records, 76399-2
  • opinion
  • cached copy
  • Seattle Times, Dec. 22
• Dec. 20, 2004: Katuria Smith v. University of Washington Law School, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
  • opinion (PDF)
  • Seattle Times, Dec. 21.
• June 23, 2003. U.S. Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action in education.
  • Grutter v. Bollinger, 02-241 (University of Michigan Law School), 95p. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-241.pdf.
    • Local copy of the PDF document.
  • Gratz v. Bollinger, 02-516 (University of Michigan), 68p. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/02pdf/02-516.pdf
    • Local copy of the PDF document.
• Illinois Governor George Ryan Clears Death Row
  • Speech at Northwestern University Law School, Jan. 11, 2003
    • NBC News, http://www.nbc5.com/news/1884130/detail.html
    • CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/01/11/ryan.text.one.ap/index.html
  • Speech at DePaul University College of Law, Jan. 10, 2003, http://sherman.depaul.edu/media/webapp/mrNews2.asp?NID=930.
  • Speech at the University of Illinois College of Law, Dec. 19, 2002, "The Role of the Executive in Administering the Death Penalty," http://www.law.uiuc.edu/i-auditorium/.
  • Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, http://www.icadp.org/.
  • Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment, http://www.idoc.state.il.us/ccp/. Includes the executive order establishing the Commission and the April 2002 report and recommendations. The Gallagher Law Library has a copy of the 3-volume report: Illinois. Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment. Report of the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment. [Springfield, Ill.]: Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment, 2002. KFI1765.C2 I44 2002 at Classified Stacks.
• Stephanie J. Burke, The Collapse of Enron: A Bibliography of Online, Legal, Government and Legislative Resources, http://www.llrx.com/features/enron.htm
• Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, see Sept. 11 Tragedy: News and Information.
• U.S. News & World Report America's Best Graduate Schools (including law schools)
  • April 2002, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/law/lawindex.htm
  • April 2, 2001, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/beyond/bcrank.htm
• Katuria Smith v. University of Washington Law School.
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, decision, June 5, 2002. No discrimination, no damages. Paper copy on file at the UW Gallagher Law Library Reference Office (206/543-6794).
    • Seattle Times, June 6, 2002.
    • Seattle PI, June 6, 2002.
  • 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Dec. 4, 2000, 233 F.3d 1188 (2000), local copy
  • Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Office of Circuit Executive website, including opinions, http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit website, including opinions, http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/
  • Center for Individual Rights, selected legal documents, http://www.cir-usa.org/recent_cases/smith_v_washington.html
• UW Teaching Assistants unionization and strike, Dec. 2000
  • The Graduate School, Communications Link for Information Regarding Unionization of Teaching Assistants at UW, http://www.grad.washington.edu/taunion.htm.
  • Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition, http://www.mindspring.com/~gseac/index.html.
  • For newspaper reports, consult The Daily, http://www.thedaily.washington.edu/; The Seattle Union Record, http://www.unionrecord.com/; The Seattle Times, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/; and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/.
• Presidential election, Nov. 2000
  • Archived video of oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court are available at Gavel to Gavel, http://wfsu.org/gavel2gavel/.
  • Election 2000, Robert Crown Law Library, Stanford Law School, http://www.law.stanford.edu/library/reserves/electionmain.html. Contains copies of complaints, motions, decisions, and orders concerning the Florida vote for the President.
  • 2000: The Vote, ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/, provides commentary, video, and full text documents.
  • Campaign 2000, CBS News, http://www.cbsnews.com/now/section/0,1636,250-412,00.shtml, also provides commentary, audio, video, and full text documents.
  • CNN, http://www.cnn.com/, offers news reports and links to full text court documents and video of press conferences.
  • Decision 2000, MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.com/news/politics_front.asp?0cc=NO1, provides analysis, commentary, and video.
  • Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/, has photo essays, videos, and an FAQ on the Florida recount process.
  • Election 2000: The Florida Recount, on Findlaw Legal News, http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/election/election2000.html, contains the text of complaints, motions, decisions, orders, statutes, ballots, statements, and related material.
  • Documents in the Presidential Election Case, Supreme Court of Florida, http://www.flcourts.org/pubinfo/election/index.html, includes motions, petitions, appendices, and press advisories. Use the mirror site, http://www.firn.edu/supct/pubinfo/election/index.html, if you have problems accessing the Court site directly.
  • Division of Elections, Florida Secretary of State, http://election.dos.state.fl.us/, includes the Secretary of State's statements and links to election laws, handbooks, rules, and forms.
  • Selected Materials in Federal and Florida Election Law, Shepard Broad Law Center, Nova Southeastern University, http://www.nsulaw.nova.edu/library/publications/bibliography/, offers a list of sources and links to selected full text documents.
  • Electoral College information is available in the Law Library News column for Nov. 13, 2000.
  • Michael J. Glennon, When No Majority Rules: The Electoral College and Presidential Succession, is available in full-text from CQ Press, http://books.cqpress.com/nomajority/read.html.
• Washington Supreme Court ruling on Initiative 695 (Oct. 26, 2000).
• U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children: A Review of Self-Regulation and Industry Practices in the Motion Picture, Music Recording & Electronic Game Industries, Sept. 2000, http://www.ftc.gov/reports/violence/vioreport.pdf.
  • Prepared statement of FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Sept. 13, 2000, http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/09/violencerpttest.htm
  • News release, Sept. 11, 2000, http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2000/09/youthviol.htm
• Firestone tire recall
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Firestone Tire Recall, August 2000, http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/hot/Firestone/ (includes consumer advisory and complaints).
  • Bridgestone Firestone Voluntary Safety Recall Information Center, http://mirror.bridgestone-firestone.com/news/atx/newsmain_ATX.html
  • Ford Motor Company, Firestone Tire Recall Information Center, http://www.ford.com/default.asp?pageid=106&storyid=935
• Napster decisions
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Judge Patel's oral decision granting injunction against Napster, July 26, 2000, http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-2426706-0.html?st.ne.1002.ots.ni
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Judge Patel's denial of summary judgment, http://www.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/tentrule.nsf/4f9d4c4a03b0cf70882567980073b2e4/9379871378883e0b882568d9005fd108?OpenDocument
• ACLU's report on Seattle's handling of WTO protests, July 5, 2000.
• Lowell Halverson, WA Supreme Court decision on WSBA sanctions, April 27, 2000 (local copy)
  • Justice Johnson's concurrence/dissent (local copy)
  • Justice Sanders' concurrence/dissent (local copy)
  • Seattle P-I article, "Lawyer suspended a year for misconduct, April 28, 2000
  • Seattle P-I article, "Supreme Court doubles punishment for divorce lawyer who had sex with client," April 27, 2000
  • Seattle Times article, "Supreme Court gets philandering case," Oct. 15, 1999
  • Seattle P-I article, "Lawyers' bar wants rule banning sex with clients," Jan. 22, 1999
  • Seattle Times article, "State bar backs suspension for lawyer who had affair with client," Oct. 6, 1998
  • Seattle Times article, "Divorce lawyer says he regrets affairs," Dec. 13, 1997
  • Seattle Times article, "Divorce lawyers says affair didn't affect ex-client," Dec. 12, 1997
• Initiative 695 (from the Washington Attorney General; includes the King County Superior Court decision and appendices, complaints, answers, and an AG memo)
• Microsoft antitrust case
  • May 2, 2002. Public Comments on the United States v. Microsoft Corporation Settlement.
  • Feb. 26, 2001. Briefs filed in the Court of Appeals case.
  • June 7, 2000. Final Judgment (order to breakup Microsoft into two companies)
  • April 28, 2000. Plaintiffs' Proposed Final Judgment (breakup of Microsoft)
  • April 3, 2000. Conclusions of Law and Order, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
  • U.S. v. Microsoft (from the U.S. Dep't of Justice, Antitrust Division; decisions, testimony, deposition transcripts, memoranda, briefs, and other documents)
  • Trial Update (from Microsoft's Freedom to Innovate Network; documents and press releases from Microsoft in response to federal and state lawsuits)
  • CPT's Microsoft Antitrust Page (from the Consumer Project on Technology, a Ralph Nader organization; articles, commentary, letters, and legal documents)
  • Microsoft Antitrust Decision (from Yahoo; links to commentary, news stories, and legal documents)