CSU Law Library Blog

The private nonpartisan Joyce Foundation “invests in public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.”  One of the Foundation’s six Grants program areas is the Gun Violence Prevention & Justice Reform Program, which seeks to build safe and just communities, focusing on “reducing gun violence in the great Lakes region; reforming the justice system in the areas of policing, and alternatives to arrest and incarceration; and advancing violence intervention policy and practice as a gun violence prevention strategy, and an alternative to arrest and incarceration.”  The Foundation’s state and local work is concentrated in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, but it also funds national proposals likely to have an impact on the Great Lakes region.  The next grant proposal deadline is April 5, for consideration at the Board of Directors meeting in July 2023.  See the Foundation’s How to Apply page for more information on the application process.

West Academic Study Aids are available on the law library’s website under Law Databases. Hundreds of titles are available that cover most law school courses. Some of the popular study aid series include Nutshells, Acing Series, Concepts and Insights, Gilbert Summaries, and Sum and Substance Audio. There are also subject matter overviews, interactive questions, exam style questions, outlines, videos, and case briefs.

To access the study aids, log into the law school proxy server using your 7-digit CSU ID number and the password you use to log into the computer lab. You also have the option to create a personal account. Full instructions are here.

Access to the study aids is unlimited, so use it as much as you like.

We have just received 17 new titles under our West Academic study aids package, highlights include:

• Cybersecurity Law 
• Step-by-Step Guide to Criminal Law
• Step-by-Step Guide to Torts 
• Contracts Simulations

Science News recently reported that Justin Pickett, an Assistant Professor at the University of Albany School of Criminal Justice, and his co-authors announced the retraction of their article “Ethnic Threat and Social Control: Examining Public Support for Judicial Use of Ethnicity in Punishment,” published in the May 2011 issue of Criminology.  Four other articles published 2015-2019 in the journals Criminology, Social Problems and Law & Society Review are also in the process of being retracted.  Eric Stewart, a Professor of Criminology at the Florida State University (FSU) College of Criminology & Criminal Justice, is a co-author of all five articles.  As reported in Retraction Watch, Pickett and his co-authors received a May 2019 email from a “John Smith” who noted data irregularities in their May 2011 article and four other articles.  When he had trouble getting the full data set, Pickett re-examined his limited data files and found issues with the number of survey respondents and changing sample sizes.  Stewart eventually sent Pickett a copy of the full data set, and Pickett found overwhelming evidence of data duplication and alteration.  In July 2019, Pickett posted his findings to the SocArXiv preprint server on the Open Science Framework.  Stewart has not commented publicly on the issue.  Gary Ostrander, FSU Vice President of Research, stated the university completed an inquiry and “the committee felt that there was no need to move to the full investigation as the professor had already been working with the journal’s editors to address any questions they had about the work.”  Pickett says he has no regrets, and wished “the world of science was more receptive and more kind to people who speak out about problems in published research, whether those problems result from honest error or misconduct.”

 While it’s tempting to spend the entire break binge-watching Netflix and Amazon Prime (try The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for a good laugh), it may be beneficial to keep up with a few legal blogs and podcasts to help your brain maintain that keen lawyer edge you have been developing all semester. Check out the ABA’s list of Best Legal Blogs of 2018 and their list of Best Law Podcasts of 2018. Both lists feature blogs and podcasts written and produced by attorneys.

If you haven’t become addicted to Serial yet, that podcast is also worth checking out, especially since Season 3 focuses on cases and people at Cleveland’s Justice Center. C|M|Law’s Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich will be teaching a class this Spring titled “Understanding and Reforming the Criminal Justice Process,” in which he plans to use episodes from season 3 of the Serial podcast to explore issues in the criminal justice system.

Texas Congressman Michael McCaul, Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, will deliver a keynote address at the Republican National Convention Cybersecurity Forum co-hosted by Cleveland State University and Baldwin Wallace University July 19.  The RNC Cybersecurity Forum is the only officially sanctioned cybersecurity event during the convention and one of several nonpartisan educational events throughout the week that will highlight important policy issues in the upcoming presidential election.

The Forum will bring together technology and policy experts, lawmakers and delegates to discuss innovative ways that the private sector, educational institutions and the government can collaborate to address economic and national security challenges facing the nation and develop effective and fair policies that balance security and privacy. Registration is at 12:15 p.m. and the event runs from 1 to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 19 in the Cleveland-Marshall Moot Court Room. It is free and open to the public and preregistration is required.