Boing Boing reports that the situation regarding the contested copyright claim for Oregon Revised Statutes has reached an impasse. Oregon says they are copyright-able; Justia and Public.Resource.Org, who plan to post them online, say they aren't.

From the attorney representing Justia and Public.Resource.Org:

My clients respectfully cannot agree to the Public License. First, and most fundamentally, it would require them to acknowledge that portions of the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) are protected by copyright, and they respectfully but vigorously disagree that portions of the ORS are protected by copyright.

Both organizations plan to go ahead with the release of the full text of the 2005 and 2007 statutes as of June 2nd.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The State of Oregon has declared that the Oregon Revised Statutes are copyrighted material and has sent cease and desist letters to sites like Justia and Public.Resource.Org that have been posting copies of the laws.

Carl Malamud has issued a response which he has posted on Scribd, along with related documents.

Source: BoingBoing

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to the Law Revision Counsel, by way of the GovDocs-l listserv, titles 1-9 of the 2006 edition of the official U.S. Code are now available on the House of Representatives U.S. Code Search site. See the about page for more information.

The first four volumes (titles 1 to 10, §§ 101-1805) have also been released to GPO for printing. LRC will continue to add updated titles on the Code website and to release additional volumes to GPO as fast as they can complete the editorial work.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm pleased to report that the 2005/2006 Wisconsin Legislative Drafting Records are now available on the UW Law Library Web site. Records from previous sessions back to 1999/2000 are also available.

The 2005/2006 records have actually been up for a few weeks, but Google has only just indexed them, thus enabling our search engine.

You may know that drafting records from the 1999-2005 sessions are also available from the Wisconsin Legislature. In doing some comparative searching, however, I found some significant differences. Terms which produced results in our search engine did not produce results in the Legislature's search engine. So I asked them why.

Here's what Lauren Jackson, Legislative Analyst at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau told me:

I have been working with LTSB (Legislative Technology Services Bureau) in creating the online instructions to finding information on that site. We understand your concerns about the site not being "word searchable", and we hope the following explanation helps.

The drafting file site is meant to be used in conjunction with the NXT Searchable Infobases provided on the main legislative Web page. The public can use this site to search legislative bills, resolutions, acts, statutes, etc. back to the 1995 legislative session. This site is word searchable and has several subject indexes, as well as an author index to legislation.

Once you have determined on the NXT site what act or bill you want to research further, you would then go to the drafting file web site, and using the search instructions we have provided, find and examine the drafting file. For example, if you have determined that you are seeking the drafting file for 2005 Wisconsin Act 100, you would click on "2005-06" folder, and once there, you can use the search bar to search for "Act 100" or you can follow the steps of opening the "Wisconsin Acts" folder, then scrolling down to 2005 Act 100 and opening that file.

While we understand that this may not be the most user-friendly configuration of the site, there are reasons for this... One of the LRB's main concerns is to make sure that the public is finding the right documents when searching for legislative history. This involves first finding the statute you are concerned about, the specific language in that statute you are interested in, then finding the correct session law (act) which created that language, and finally examining the drafting file for that act. Making the drafting file site word searchable is not necessarily helpful to this methodic process, and can, in fact, make things more confusing at times...

When we host the Drafting Records on our site, they are being organized based on their attributes (special field indexes), mainly the actual bill number, or amendment etc. and displayed right from our Document management system. Unfortunately that system has never supported word searching internally, and the licensure costs to add that utility for web browsing was extremely prohibitive.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

C-SPAN has created a video archive House and Senate floor proceedings. The new C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle is produced through a automated matching of the video recordings with the Congressional Record soon after the Record is available in the day following the session. Browse by date, bill number, or person's name. Looks like there is even a RSS feed for each representative.

Each appearance has both the text from the Congressional Record as well as a video link where users can watch and listen to the actual remarks. Only actual appearances by Representatives and Senators on the floor are included.

Currently the 108th (2003-2004), 109th (2005-2006), and 110th (2007-present) Congresses are available. The 107th (2001-2002) will be available soon and the 106 (1999-2000) in late 2007. Previous Congresses back to 1988 will be added as the video is digitized and indexed at the rate of two Congresses per year.

Source: beSpacific

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 3:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From JS Online:

The state Senate unanimously voted Tuesday to add cell phones to the state's "do not call" list and raise the maximum fine for violating that law from $100 to $1,000.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On December 1, 2007, a revised and restyled Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (F.R.C.P.) became effective. The Style Project, as it is called, rewrote the rules using "plain language" with the purpose of making them easier to understand. This project, begun in 1992, resulted in the most extensive revision of the rules since their establishment in 1938.

The new rules may be viewed online at the Federal Judiciary's website for federal rules of practice, procedure, and evidence, as well as, at Cornell's Legal Information Institute website.

The Federal Judiciary's website also gives you considerable insight into the rulemaking process itself, and the changes that were made. For example, you will find links to the Current and Restyled Rules Comparison Chart, another chart outlining the Civil Rules Style Project Global Drafting Issues, as well as, excerpts from the Report of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules (Part 1 of this report presents action items and the second a side-by-side comparison of the old and amended rules).

It is important to remember, though, that these changes are merely stylistic in nature as an aid to their use and implementation. The amendments are not and should not be construed to affect the substantive meaning of the rules themselves. Rule 86 addresses this very point by including a provision that the restyled Rules are not to be treated as superseding existing laws. Likewise, the Rule's Advisory Committee Notes appending each of the restyled rules state the same, i.e. "These changes are intended to be stylistic only."

Among the recently updated print resources incorporating the 2007 style amendments to be found in the library include:

Federal Civil Rules Handbook. St. Paul, Minn. : West Pub. Co.
Location: Reserve Collection KF/8816/A195/2008 (24 hour loan)

Moore's Federal Rules Pamphlet in 4 parts (see Part 1 for F.R.C.P.). New York, NY : Matthew Bender, 1997-
Location: Reserve Collection KF/8840/M642/Rules/Pt.1-4/2008 (24 hour loan)

Moore's Federal Practice. 3rd ed. New York, NY : Matthew Bender, 1997-
Volumes 1-14 have been completed revised to reflect the new changes.
Location: Quarles & Brady Reading Room, 5th Floor East, section 57 (non-circulating)

[Originally posted in the UW Law School Newsletter. Written by my colleague, Eric Taylor.]

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an editorial yesterday, JS Online weighs in on another proposal to limit access to Wisconsin's online court records.

Companion proposals by Vos and Lassa would have state officials remove cases or charges involving a civil forfeiture or misdemeanor from the Web site within 90 days after being notified that the case or charge has been dismissed, the defendant has been found not guilty of all of the charges or the case or charge has been overturned on appeal and dismissed. In the case of felonies, the case or charge would be removed within 120 days after officials had been notified that one of the above had happened.

As Peter Fox of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association put it in an e-mail, the proposals are poor public policy. "For one thing, the WCCA site is intended to reflect the actual record of Wisconsin courts, not excerpts thereof," he wrote. "Essentially, this proposal would create two 'sets of books.' "

Source: Wheeler Report

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wisconsin Attorney General Van Hollen is backing a bill that would offer electronic access by law enforcement agencies to photographs on motor vehicle operators licenses and identification cards.

According to Proof and Hearsay:

The bill Van Hollen backs, which as he says "isn't costless," would sync up the police computers that already use this system with the DOT's and enable electronic signatures to be used to request pictures. The first-term AG says federal grant money is available to defray the costs, but he didn't give an estimate on the total tab.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 6:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Wisconsin Personnel Commission is yet another agency abolished by the state budget. Others include the Revisor of Statutes Bureau and the Sentencing Commission.

From their Web site:

Pursuant to the provisions of the State budget that was recently enacted into law, the Personnel Commission has been abolished and its authority has been distributed between two other state agencies: 1) the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) is now responsible for processing Appeals, and 2) the Equal Rights Division (ERD) of the Department of Workforce Development is responsible for processing Complaints.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In response to my post last week about Wisconsin passing the nation's first open records law in 1849, I received a request to post the full text of that law. So, I did a quick scan from our 1849 Wisconsin Revised Statutes print volume and here is Chapter 10, Section 137.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two news items involving historical Wisconsin statutes:

• A Capital Times writer authenticates Wikipedia claim that the nation's first open records law was passed in Wisconsin shortly after it became a state.

  WI Revised Statutes, 1849 - Chapter 10, Section 137 required every sheriff, circuit court clerk, county board clerk, register of deeds and county treasurer in the state to "open for the examination of any person" all of their books and papers. Any officer who neglected to comply "shall forfeit for each day he shall so neglect, the sum of five dollars."

• JS Online reports that "state inmates are using - and many say abusing - an unusual, 168-year-old law to spark often meritless investigations of correctional officers, tying up courts and creating new headaches for officers.

  Under the state's John Doe law, citizens can force judges to hold hearings by sending them letters alleging a crime has been committed."
  

  Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Deputy Revisor of Statutes Bruce Hoesly dropped me a line today letting me know that he'll be transferring over to the Legislative Reference Bureau. He'll be in charge of statute and administrative code and register production as the responsibility for those functions is transferred there in January. [See my previous post about the change]

He also shared that after 35 years as editor of the Administrative Code, Gary Poulson is retiring. Therefore, Bruce invites anyone who has code or register questions, about which they would have contacted Gary about in the past, to contact him at bruce.hoesly@legis.wisconsin.gov.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you notice the announcement on the top of the Revisor of Statutes Bureau's pages:

On January 1, 2008 the Revisor of Statutes Bureau will cease to exist and the Legislative Reference Bureau will assume responsibility for the Revisor's duties. This web page will continue to exist after January 1, 2008.

See my earlier post for more information about the change. Thanks to Vicky Coulter for pointing out the announcement.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Weirdest Cases:

The Times (of London) Online is kicking off it's new column, Weird Cases, with a list of the columnist's top twenty "favourite bizarre disputes, prosecutions and lawsuits." Number one? Right here in Wisconsin, a Fond du Lac man "sued a television company for making his wife fat and transforming his children into 'lazy channel surfers'."

Dumbest Laws:

The Telegraph (also from Britain) reports on the results of a survey in which people were asked to rank the stupidest laws in Great Britain and internationally. Number one dumbest British law? "It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament"

Why would it be illegal to die there you ask? According to Nigel Cawthorne, author of The Strange Laws of Old England, "Anyone who dies there is technically entitled to a state funeral. If they see you looking a bit sick they carry you out quickly."

Thanks to Nancy Paul and Novalawcity for the tips.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"A pending bill in the Legislature could have a broad silencing effect on Wisconsin open records law," says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Assembly Bill 522 would shield from all open records requests certain law-enforcement records not "in the custody of an authority that performed the service or conducted the investigation" - wording that the head record-keeper in the state's busiest courthouse called "too broad and too vague" to be practically applied without severely limiting public access to court cases.

"I think it would place in doubt every criminal complaint," Milwaukee County Clerk of Courts John Barrett said, "as to whether or not that would be open or not."

In such cases, [bill sponsor Rep. Garey] Bies said, records that might be shielded from open-records requests because they're part of a pending police investigation could be unprotected because copies of them are in the county's computer system.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to a Wisconsin Department of Administration press release, WisconsinEye announced on Monday that it has reached agreement with the department to launch the WisconsinEye channel on the BadgerNet video network serving education and government sites throughout the state's 72 counties.

The partnership with BadgerNet will bring WisconsinEye into over 255 schools and 54 college campuses across the state...

"WisconsinEye has just the kind of public content that BadgerNet was created to provide for schools and public organizations," said state Chief Information Officer Oskar Anderson. "Bringing WisconsinEye to more classrooms will help students gain a better understanding of how state government works."

BadgerNet was created by the State of Wisconsin to provide next generation voice, data, and video services to state agencies, local governments, UW campuses, technical colleges, private colleges and universities, public and private K-12 schools, and libraries. A key goal of the BadgerNet project is to enhance statewide educational systems for both children and adults.

Source: Wheeler Report

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been given the green light to announce that Wisconsin Legislative Drafting Records are now available online at the Wisconsin State Legislature Web site. Records from the 1999 through 2005 sessions are available.

At this time, it seems that only the browsing function is working. My test keyword searches have produced no results. I'm told that they are looking into it.

As you may know, the UW Law Library also maintains a database of Wisconsin Legislative Drafting Records. Our site, however, only contain records from the 1999 through 2003 sessions. Our database is comprised of scans made available by the Legislative Reference Bureau, as is the new database from the Wisconsin Legislature.

Now that the Legislature is making this information available directly, it is likely that we at the UW Law Library will discontinue our database. However, we will leave it up for the time being, so that our search engine can still be used to search the 1999-2003 records.

What are drafting records? [from the WI Legislature Drafting Records page]

Drafting records are the official, administrative records of the bill drafting process, and are maintained by the Legislative Reference Bureau. Drafting records may or may not be useful in determining the intent of a legislator in introducing a bill.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wisconsin State Journal reports on Assembly Bill 418 which would stop ordinary citizens from viewing Wisconsin court records online (CCAP).

From the LRB Analysis:

This bill restricts public access to the CCAP system from the Internet while permitting unlimited access to information in the CCAP system to Wisconsin judges or other court officials, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and accredited journalists, as well as persons who regularly deal with court documents in the course of their job duties.

The bill allows limited access to CCAP information for other persons, who must submit to either the clerk of courts or district attorney in the county where the request for CCAP information is filed a written request for information that includes their full name and address, the full name and address of the person or entity subject to the request, the relationship, if any, between the requester and the subject of the request, and the purpose for the request.

You can monitor the status of this bill, or any other, with the Wisconsin Legislative Notification Service.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With their newly redesigned Web site, the Law Library of Congress is introducing several new products, including Congressional Hearings.

Here's a blub from their Web site:

As part of the Law Library's transition to the digital future, a collaborative pilot project was undertaken with Google, Inc. to digitize the entire collection and make it freely available to Congress and the world. Three collections have been selectively compiled to provide users with a test experience:

* Census: U.S.
* Freedom of Information/Privacy
* Immigration

These selected Hearings, presented as Adobe Acrobat PDF files, are samples of a larger group that will be digitized and made available as a result of this project. Ultimately, both the Library and Google will provide full-text access to the larger group of Hearings.

Although I love that the Google is working with libraries to make these collections available online, I'm baffled by the way that they are going about it. If the Law Library of Congress is working with them to digitize the entire collection of Congressional Hearings, why are they also digitizing copies from other library partners? See, for example Stanford and the University of MI.

Source: Lex Scripta

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Update: The corresponding Senate bill is 214.
---------------
My Wisconsin Legislative Notifications account picked up this bill, AB-433, relating to the disclosure of library records to law enforcement officers.

LRB synopsis:

Under current law, public library records may not be disclosed to any person except in certain specified circumstances. This bill requires a public library to disclose to a law enforcement officer, upon his or her request, all records produced by a surveillance device, if the officer is investigating criminal conduct alleged to have occurred at the public library.

See the history and current status of the bill.

Wisconsin Legislative Notifications is a state legislative bill tracking service available from the Wisconsin Legislature. Receive daily or weekly email notification of specified legislative activity including actions affecting a specific proposal, bills introduced by a particular legislator, activities of a specific committee, or introductions relating to a particular topic.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's one from Law Librarian Blog:

Check out twitter.com/HouseFloor which distributes live updates from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, updated every five minutes with any new information from The Office of the Clerk of the House. [What's Twitter?]

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reports on the project of "Internet gadfly" Carl Malamud, founder of Public.Resource.Org, to make more than 10 million pages of case law available free online.

According to the ReadMe file on Public.Resource.Org,

The short-term goal of the project is the creation of an unencumbered full-text repository of the Federal Reporter, the Federal Supplement, and the Federal Appendix. The medium-term goal is the creation of an unencumbered full-text repository of all state and federal cases and codes.

The entire Federal Reporter, Supplement and Appendix is a short-term goal? All federal and state cases and codes are medium-term? My goodness, what would be considered long-term?

In the ReadMe file dated Friday, August 17th, Malamud reports that he hopes to have the Federal Reporter, first series (300 volumes) scanned within the next few months. So far, he's got 1000 pages of court decisions from the 1880s (scanned from a West ultrafiche).

Malamud has written a letter to Thomson West stating his intent to create "an unencumbered public repository of all federal and state case law and codes. This goal is not meant to compete with commercial vendors such as yourself, who perform a worthy service for the large law firms and other well-funded institutions who practice the business of law." In the letter, Malamud asks Thomson to clarify their copyright claims on the reports; Thomson has yet to reply.

Thanks to my colleague, Bill Ebbott, for the tip.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LOUIS is a new mega search engine of U.S. executive and legislative documents. A project of the Sunlight Foundation, LOUIS offers a combined search of Congressional Reports, Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, Federal Register, Presidential Documents, Federal Register, GAO Reports, and Congressional Bills & Resolutions. The files themselves come from GPO Access.

Besides the ability to combine sources, another cool thing about LOUIS is the availability of RSS feeds. You can either get an RSS feed of all of the documents from each source, or you can get a customized feed based on your search.

Let's say, for example, you're interested in following the congressional hearings regarding the U.S. Attorneys' controversy. You might go to the Congressional Hearings tab and do a search for the keywords department, justice, attorneys and firing for the last year. In addition to viewing the current results of your search, you can be notified of any future related hearings by clicking on the RSS button at the top and and subscribing to it.

There are some things to be aware of when using LOUIS. According to the LLRX article, The Government Domain: 'Insanely Useful' Legislative Sites by Peggy Garvin,

If you are going to use LOUIS as single mass of searchable text, you should understand the coverage of each database first. The helpful explanations available on GPO Access (such as, "most Congressional hearings are published two months to two years after they are held") are missing from LOUIS. Familiarity with the GPO source files also helps. For example, it is good to know that the hearings database is a database of printed hearings.

In addition, remember that LOUIS is searching and displaying the ASCII text of documents, which often do not have the full contents of the printed documents. In the case of congressional hearings, this can include numerous documents submitted for the record, such as letters and GAO reports. This content is not searchable, but it can be displayed in the PDF version at GPO Access.

There is a five minute video tutorial for LOUIS which I recommend if you are planning to use the site.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has prepared a memorandum comparing 2007-09 budget recommendations of the Governor, Joint Committee on Finance, Senate, and Assembly. Comparisons are shown in the following areas:

• All funds appropriations
  
• General fund appropriations
  
• Tax and fee changes
  
• Bonding authorizations
  
• Structural deficits going into the 2009-11 biennium
  

Source: The Wheeler Report

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the JS Online Capitol Podcast:

In the coming weeks, a conference committee of state legislators will sit down at the bargaining table -- peace-treaty style -- in an attempt to develop a compromise version of the next two-year state budget. What does a conference committee look like and how will it work? Listen to the Journal Sentinel's Madison bureau podcast for a primer on the next step in the budget process.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Live WisconsinEye cable television coverage of the State Legislature begins at noon today.

From the press release posted on WisPolitics.com:

The WisconsinEye 24/7 cable channel will be available beginning tomorrow to Time Warner Cable Wisconsin digital subscribers on Channel 163 and to Charter digital customers in southern Wisconsin, including Madison, Janesville and Beloit, on Channel 200. Charter plans to expand the distribution of the service into additional Charter markets within the next few months. Together, Charter and Time Warner Cable serve about 75 percent of Wisconsin cable customers. Approximately half of each company's customers are digital subscribers.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

JS Online reports that:

A Dane County judge ruled Wednesday that drafts of what may become formal bills in the Legislature do not have to be made public under the open records law, even if legislators have shared them with individuals or special-interest groups outside the Capitol. . . .

In his ruling, [Circuit Judge David] Flanagan said collecting information about what may become bills, before they are formally introduced, has long been an "essential, core" part of the legislative process and does not violate the Open Records Law.

"It is not readily apparent that there is abuse or unfair exclusion necessarily inherent in a process whereby each legislator is free to seek whatever advice he or she believes may be useful," Flanagan ruled.

"The preliminary and tentative character of the draft document remains the same regardless of whether the persons selected by the legislator for advice are within or outside of the Legislature," the judge added.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WI Attorney General Van Hollen has recently issued several new opinions - two formal and one informal. They are available on the Attorney General's web site.

I created a crude RSS feed using Ponyfish. It's not pretty, but it will send notification when there is a new opinion posted on the web site.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to today's Wisconsin State Journal, WisconsinEye could start broadcasting gavel-to-gavel coverage from the state Capitol to cable-television viewers as early as next Tuesday. WisconsinEye began broadcasting from its web site about a month ago.

From the article:

[Chris] Long, president and chief executive officer of WisconsinEye, sees the network becoming a state-based C-SPAN by providing an unfiltered look at state government, and by producing original programming about Wisconsin life, culture and community.

"One of the primary contributions we can make is to be a statewide platform for the circulation of ideas," Long said. "It's a very old-school idea."

Lawmakers say they welcome the coverage because they expect it to spur more participation in government by state residents.

And after several years of strained relations between Democrats and Republicans -- evidenced by occasional shouting matches, name calling and even the yanking of a microphone to end debate -- they hope it's a catalyst to improve lawmakers' manners.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More news from the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau: According to Allan Marty, the LRB and LTSB (Legislative Technology Services Bureau) are in the process of putting the 2005 Legislative Drafting Records on the LRB website. Allan also noted that "if everything goes as planned we would probably put all sessions that we have in electronic format up also and then continue to add new sessions as they become available. We might even be able to add the current acts as they are completed."

In the meantime, if you need a record, you can call the LRB Reference Section at (608)266-0341 and one of the Research Analysts will help you get the record by email or CD.

Drafting Records from the 1999/2000 through 2003/2004 legislative sessions are currently available on the UW Law Library web site.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I spoke with LRB Chief Steve Miller this afternoon and he informed me that there has been some changes regarding the Revisor of Statutes move. As I posted earlier, in an amendment to the proposed 2007 state budget (Senate Bill 40), the Wisconsin Revisor of Statutes Bureau is slated to be eliminated as an agency.

As reported last week by the Wisconsin Law Journal, if passed, the workload would be split amongst the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) and the Joint Legislative Council (JLC) - with no additional personnel to handle the increased workload.

I've since learned from Steve that per a recent Joint Finance Committee motion, all RSB duties are now to be transferred to the LRB. Additionally, three RSB staff members will transfer to the LRB (of seven employees total, three more will retire and the other will take a position elsewhere).

Steve sounded very positive about the transfer of duties and staff. When I asked him about the RSB's project to digitize the back issues of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, he felt optimistic that it would continue. He was committed to furthering projects that would benefit users. And given LRB's progressive nature on other technology projects, such as podcasting, I'm inclined to feel optimistic, too.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is an article in the May 28th edition of the Wisconsin Law Journal on the proposed elimination of the Revisor of Statutes Bureau. If passed, the workload would be split amongst the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) and the Joint Legislative Council (JLC) - with no additional personnel to handle the increased workload.

According to LRB Chief, Stephen R. Miller, his department would assume the bulk of the revisor's responsibilities. He also expected the transition to be relatively smooth given the LRB's current obligations, which include the drafting of bills, amendments and resolutions.

"It's seems a logical fit which makes a lot of sense," said Miller, who noted that many states have combined drafting and revision departments. "This isn't something to be taken lightly, but I'm confident we can keep the level of service just as high, and maybe even improve on it."...

While both Miller and [JLC staff director Terry C.] Anderson appear receptive to the merger, [Deputy Revisor Bruce] Hoesly and [Revisor of Statutes Bruce] Munson have reservations, which extend beyond the potential elimination of their jobs.

"I haven't seen a mass movement in opposition of the proposal, but there are questions as to how seamlessly the transition will be made, especially with no revisor personnel expected to transfer into either department," said Hoesly.

I'm concerned about this transition as are many other law librarians. While I expect that publication of the statutes, administrative code and register will be managed elsewhere, it's the extra stuff about which I'm concerned. I'm talking about the expert research assistance that the RSB staff offers.

Take superseded admin code sections. Short of doing a legislative history, researching superseded WI admin code sections is one of the most difficult types of legal research imaginable. And, yes, we do get these questions with some regularity. When the admin code gets updated, old pages are pulled from the binders. Most libraries toss them, but a few, like ours, do keep them. We put them into folders based on the date they were removed. To reconstruct an old code section, then, you have to know the exact date that the language in question was changed. Trying to figure this out can be mind-boggling - BUT - luckily, the friendly staff at the RSB are usually willing to lend a hand.

In fact, to the delight of the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin, the RSB has been digitizing the back issues of the admin code which will make the process much easier for the researcher. Or should I say, would have made the process much easier - who knows where this project will end up - if anywhere. Who will be available to answer our questions now?

----
Update: The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has posted a memo to the Joint Committee on Finance summarizing the financial implications of eliminating the RSB. The last line of the summary reads:

Adoption of provision LRBb004/2, modified as indicated above, would result in a reduction to SB 40 of $925,400 GPR in 2008-09 and 10.0 GPR positions annually.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

GPO has announced that authenticated Public and Private Laws for the 110th Congress are now available on GPO Access as a searchable and browseable application in beta form.

GPO's Authentication initiative focuses on the primary objective of assuring users that the information made available by GPO is official and authentic...

The Public and Private Laws beta application provides authenticated Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files for the 110th Congress only. Public and private laws within this application contain digitally signed and certified PDF files that contain GPO's Seal of Authenticity. These files have been digitally signed and certified using Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Although the site still says it's under construction, WisconsinEye is scheduled to broadcast its first live gavel-to-gavel Internet coverage of the state Assembly and Senate at 11 a.m. today. According to JSOnline PoliticsWatch: WisconsinEye has also finalized agreements for digital channels to be available on the Charter and TimeWarner cable system in Wisconsin, said WisconsinEye president Chris Long. Some of the transmission equipment still needs to be installed, however, so it could be a few months before cable broadcasts will be available, he said. "We're very excited to be at the beginning of a new chapter in Wisconsin's progressive history and to be available on the Web and soon on cable," Long said in a statement.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In an amendment to the proposed 2007 state budget (Senate Bill 40), it appears that the Wisconsin Revisor of Statutes Bureau may be eliminated as an agency. The amendment (LRB b 0074/2) transfers most of the statutory functions to Legislative Reference Bureau except for the Administrative Register which will go to the Legislative Council. The bill makes no provision for RSB employees.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to JS Online, the Wisconsin Legislature is considering a bill (AB 217) which would allow cell phone users and small businesses to add their phone numbers to the state's do-not-call list.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From JS Online: Stay up to speed on what's going on in the state Capitol with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Capitol bureau's weekly podcast. Steve Walters, Stacy Forster and Patrick Marley discuss the top issues of the week and talk to the lawmakers, government officials and others making and shaping public policy.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Library Boy:

LEGISinfo, the Library of Parliament's legislative research website, has started offering RSS feeds since the beginning of this parliamentary session to help people track bills before the House of Commons and the Senate.

In the lefthand column on the LEGISinfo home page, simply click on any of the links to Senate or House of Commons bills from the 39th Parliament.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AALL has conducted a State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources. The report presents the results of a survey of primary online legal resources and whether these resources are official and capable of being authenticated. In short, "How trustworthy are state-level primary legal resources on the Web?"

The answer (from the executive summary):

A significant number of the state online legal resources are official but none are authenticated or afford ready authentication by standard methods. State online primary legal resources are therefore not sufficiently trustworthy. Citizens and law researchers may reasonably doubt their authority and should approach such resources critically.

According to AALL President, Sally Holterhoff, the report is the focus of a National Summit on Authentication of Digital Information, which AALL will hold April 20-21 in Chicago. The 50 delegates to the summit are judges, state government officials, attorneys, and leaders of AALL and of other organizations, such as the American Bar Association. All of them were invited to participate because of their interest in exploring legal and technological solutions to the issues raised in the report.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Justia just keeps getting better and better. The latest addition, Regulation Tracker allows you to search, browse, and track Federal Register documents.

Not only is there a RSS feed for every agency, but you can customize them by type of document or keyword. I just had someone ask me whether a product like this existed - and at the time it didn't. Very cool.

Source: Law Dawg Blawg

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago, I reported that the UW Law Library will be hosting on our web site Wisconsin Legislative Council documents back to 1996. According to our Head of Cataloging, Cindy May, these documents are now available via the MadCat Library Catalog.

They can be searched in MadCat by author, title, subject, series, or keyword. From the MadCat record you can link directly to the full text.

To browse a list of all of the WLC titles hosted by the UW Law Library, click on the "guided search" tab in MadCat. Enter "libcd.law.wisc.edu/~wilc" in the search box and in the "search by" pull-down on the right, choose "Internet links."

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In response to the Wisconsin Legislative Council's decision to remove publications more than five years old from their Web site, the UW Law Library contacted the WLC and offered to host the documents on our Web site. WLC has accepted our offer and has provided us with the electronic publications back to 1996. We are currently processing the files and will make them accessible via the MadCat Library Catalog soon.

As our Assistant Director, Bill Ebbott said, "The Wisconsin Idea at work!"

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau publishes Governing Wisconsin, a series of brief discussions of how government works in Wisconsin. The guides explain such things as legislative rules, the Wisconsin Idea, forms of local government, open meeting law, redistricting, due process and more.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The library recently received a letter from the Wisconsin Legislative Council regarding their newly redesigned web site. It states:

Due to fiscal and resource constraints, it is not feasible for this office to keep more than five years of publications on the site. All publications are kept permanently at the Wisconsin Legislative Council offices and are available upon request at any time.

As you are probably aware, because of the redesign, current links and bookmarks to our publications will no longer function.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've just received word that as of the next update in March, the RSB is removing "that troubling 'u' word" from the online Wisconsin Statutes. Instead of noting that the text is unofficial, the PDF version will state that the text is not certified.

The new footer will read as follows:

Text from the 2005-06 Wis. Stats. database updated by the Revisor of Statutes. Only printed statutes are certifed under s. 35.18(2), stats. Statutory changes effective prior to 1-2-07 are printed as if currently in effect. Statutory changes effective on or after 1-2-07 are designated by NOTES. Report errors at (608) 266-2011, FAX 264-6978, http://www.legis.state.wi.us/rsb/

According to Bruce Hoesly, Deputy Revisor of Statutes, "the underlying law remains the same, and these disclaimers, I believe, actually more accurately reflect the legal status of the on-line statutes."

See earlier WisBlawg post with Hoesly's explanation of what "unofficial" really means.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, I received this notice from the Wisconsin Legislative Notification Service:

The Wisconsin Legislative Notification Service will be temporarily unavailable until January 4th, 2007. During this time the 2005-2006 legislative session data will be removed from the system. This includes proposals, committees, author information, etc, as well as your subscriptions for notifications to these items. All of your account information will remain intact, however, you will need to resubscribe to items again if you wish to receive notifications.

Looks like it's time to resubscribe to your legislative alerts.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are two new Wisconsin Briefs available from the Legislative Reference Bureau.

• Brief 06-16, Wisconsin State Officers (November 2006)
• Brief 06-15, Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (October 2006)

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to Bruce Hoesly at the Revisor of Statutes Bureau, the print sets of the 2005-06 Wisconsin Statutes are scheduled to arrive at Document Sales in mid December. Prices have not been set yet.

Write or call:
Wisconsin Department of Administration
Document Sales & Distribution
Section 202 South Thornton Avenue
P.O. Box 7840
Madison, WI 53707-7840
(608) 266-3358

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Wednesday evening, WI Deputy Revisor of Statutes, Bruce Hoesly gave an interesting presentation to the Law Librarians Association of Wisconsin on the new RSB web site.

Besides guiding us through the ins and outs of the new NXT interface for the Statutes and Administrative Code, he shared some other interesting information.

Did you know?:

• WI Statutes on the web are updated quarterly or more and are more current than the print or other electronic versions. Note the "updated through" note at the top of the web page.
  
• The WI Administrative Code and Register on the web are updated monthly and are always concurrent with the print versions.
  
• After March 2001, history links in the Admin. Code take you to the filing instructions for the date of the change. The filing instructions then take you to the Register pages which were removed. [Note: Researching Admin. Code history is not for the faint of heart!]
  
• In the "Go to" citation search box on the left for both the Statutes and Admin Code, spacing and punctuation matters. It's easy to see how a search for WI Stat "13.93 (2m) (b) 2" could be tricky. Try using the "less is more" approach and just search for "13.93" and then browse your way to the specific subsection.
  
• The web version of the Statutes is labeled as "unofficial" - what does this really mean? Bruce explained that the print Statutes are "certified" by the RSB through a rigorous examination process before they are sent to the printer. This certification process is simply not feasable in an electronic environment. However, he did say that both the print and electronic version are created from the same source. So although they aren't officially "official", users shouldn't be scared off by the term "unofficial."
  

Planned Improvements:

• RSB is working on scanning previous versions of the WI Administrative Code back to 1956. They hope to have code from the 1990s available soon.
  
• RSB is investigating having live links to the CFR and US Code when they are cited in the Statutes and Admin Code.
  

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Section 29.503(1)(d) of the Wisconsin statutes says quite clearly that many things, including crab, lobster, shrimp and a host of other delicacies, are in fact "seafood" under the law, "but not any canned fish or fish known as lutefisk."

From an interesting article in the Capital Times about how this law came to be. Nothing starts your day like a little legislative history about dried cod soaked in lye.

Posted by Bonnie Shucha at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)