Cornell law site now offers free, in-depth previews of issues in Supreme Court cases

By Linda Myers

The most popular Web site at Cornell just got even better.

The Legal Information Institute, which provides free public access to a vast collection of U.S. laws, court decisions and related legal materials, is now offering free details on high-profile cases before they are argued at the nation's highest court.

Written in an easily understandable style for everyone from journalists to teachers to bright high school students, the analyses of upcoming Supreme Court cases are put together by a team of Cornell Law School students. The goal is to help people who are neither lawyers nor legal scholars grasp the issues at stake and why they are important.

Thomas Bruce, 11th from left, standing, director of the Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute, flanked by most members of the team of law students involved in the LII's new Supreme Court awareness project. The project provides free online analyses of some of the key upcoming Supreme Court cases, written in a style understandable by journalists, teachers and the public. Robert Barker/University Photography

"We thought we could do a more in-depth technical analysis than conventional media but still keep it understandable to a general audience," said Thomas Bruce, co-director of the Legal Information Institute (LII). "We're hoping to benefit more-specialized groups, teachers doing lesson plans for civics classes, journalists and other information brokers, as well as our own student body."

Overviews of the upcoming Supreme Court case analyses are posted at http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/ and sent via e-mail regularly in small batches of five to the 16,000 subscribers of the LII's Supreme Court awareness service, including editorial board members of such major newspapers as the Boston Globe. Subscribers and other visitors to the Supreme Court awareness page can then click on the cases that interest them to get the constitutional issues involved, questions to be presented before the court, summaries of the cases and detailed analyses, with historical references and links to earlier, relevant cases.

"Our editorial team picks out the most significant cases, or the ones with the broadest appeal," explained Derek Schaffner, editor-in-chief of the new Supreme Court awareness project. The students review upcoming cases in a small office on the fifth floor of Myron Taylor Hall, assisted by Bruce and staff member Sara Frug. On the wall and online are color-coded charts showing what's on the docket for the high court and when hearings are scheduled. They assign the cases to a team of 20 law students, whose analyses they later review and edit.

"The experience gives law students a different opportunity to apply the skills they've learned here," says Schaffner, adding that the work "requires creativity, originality and teamwork." Potential employers are likely to be interested in students who have such skills, he said, "because the majority of law work is collaborative."

Students often turn to law school faculty for guidance when the issues in a particular case mesh with their expertise. Among those who have consulted recently on Supreme Court awareness cases are Professor Stephen Garvey (in a case involving criminal law); adjunct professor Stephen Yale-Loehr (in one involving immigration law); and adjunct professor Norm St. Landau (in one involving trademark law).

What prompts the student editors to pick certain cases? "We ask, 'Is this going to determine an issue that's going to affect broad segments of the public, or is it going to clarify an issue?'" said Schaffner. "And we look for hot-button issues, such as the death penalty or medical marijuana."

"Our readers thrive on controversy," interjected managing editor Jason Tompkins. "You get something like Roper v. Simmons, you're going to have strong opinions on both sides."

Under challenge in that case is the constitutionality of executing prisoners who were under 18 at the time they committed a capital crime. Anybody interested in learning more about the case before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments about it, Tompkins said, can go to the Supreme Court awareness Web page (see above) and click on Roper v. Simmons to discover that one issue at stake is whether executing minors violates the 14th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment. The LII analysis notes that an important factor in the high court's review is likely to be whether teenagers are fully capable of understanding the wrongfulness and consequences of their actions in light of new research on emotional development, and it contains information on how many states have executed juveniles lately (only seven since 1976).

Another case that caught the editorial team's attention concerns the constitutionality of medical marijuana (go to the Supreme Court awareness Web page and see Ashcroft v. Raich). Other cases that the students have analyzed for the awareness project are on states' rights to regulate the sale of alcoholic beverages and an economically distressed municipality's right to seize private property and sell it to developers.

The LII's overall aim is to promote worldwide, free public access to law via the Internet, said Bruce. The site was the first of its kind when it was founded in 1992 by Bruce and Peter Martin, Foster Professor of Law and LII co-director, and it remains a unique resource. The most linked-to law site on the Internet, with more than one million data requests daily from around the world, the LII connects people to all the current provisions of the U.S. Code, as well as to Supreme Court and New York Court of Appeals decisions. Indeed, if one "googles" such common words and phrases as "law," "legal information," "contract law," "bankruptcy law" or "child custody law," the LII is in the No. 1 slot. To access the LII Web site, go to http://www.law.cornell.edu.