Law X.0

For Business Trial Law, Check Out Blawgletter

Blawgletter, "Business Trial Law with a Sense of Humor" started publishing on January 1, 2007. Barry Barnett, a partner in the Dallas office of Susman Godfrey L.L.P. is the editor. Check it out. [JH]

Appealing in Nevada

Appealing in Nevada discusses the law of Nevada and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The blog is written by Tami D. Cowden, Of Counsel with Kummer Kaempfer Bonner Renshaw & Ferrario, Las Vegas. Cowden also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Clark County Bar Association’s publication, The Communiqué. Check it out! [JH]

Shucha's State of the Law Library Blogosphere Wins Award

The AALL-SIS Outstanding Article Award winner is Bonnie Shucha, Head of Reference, University of Wisconsin Law Library, for her excellent article, The State of the Law Library Blogosphere. Congratuations Bonnie! [JH]

E-Everything for Bankruptcy Lawyers...

E-Everything for Bankruptcy Lawyers... is "the bankruptcy lawyer's source for education, entertainment, edification and enhancment involving all things electronic... E-Everything!" Humor aside, this is a very useful blog. It is written by Lee Barrett, a litigation and bankruptcy associate with the bankruptcy firm of Forshey & Prostok, LLP. [JH]

Pajama-clad Bloggers and the Reporter’s Privilege

Of interest to "pajama-clad bloggers" everywhere. See Mary-Rose Papandrea, Citizen Journalism and the Reporter’s Privilege, 91 Minnesota Law Review 515-591 (2007). Here's the abstract:

The reporter’s privilege is under attack, and “pajama-clad bloggers” are largely to blame. Courts and commentators have argued that because the rise of bloggers and other “citizen journalists” renders it difficult to define who counts as a reporter entitled to invoke the privilege, its continued existence is in grave doubt.

The accompanying Article argues that this hysteria is misplaced. The development of the internet as a new medium of communication in many ways poses the same kinds of challenges to the reporter’s privilege that courts and state legislatures have faced for decades as television reporters, radio commentators, book authors, documentary filmmakers, and scholars seek to invoke its protections. After exploring the history and purpose of the reporter’s privilege, and the increasingly significant contributions of citizen journalists to the public debate, this Article makes a radical proposal: everyone who disseminates information to the public should be presumptively entitled to invoke the reporter’s privilege, whether based on the First Amendment, federal common law, or a state shield law. Rather than attempting to limit the category of individuals who are entitled to the privilege by focusing on the medium of publication, the “newsworthy” nature of the desired information, or a “functional” approach that unconstitutionally requires judicial scrutiny of the editorial process, the focus should instead be on limiting the scope of the privilege itself. This Article offers several exceptions to a presumptive privilege that appropriately balance the public’s fundamental interest in a vigorous and informed debate against its equally important interests in fairness and justice.