Legal Research News and Information with an Emphasis on Wisconsin
Over $52 million was spent on lobbying in Wisconsin in 2021. Nationally, total lobbying spending amounted to a whopping $3.73 billion. You can follow the money with these tools. Lobbying in Wisconsin from the Wisconsin Ethics Commission allows anyone to search and view public lobbying information. See who is lobbying, what they are lobbying about, …
Yesterday, I blogged about new scholarship by Rob Willey, Melanie Knapp, and Ashley Matthews at George Mason University Law Library that explores how and why women are frequently underrepresented in law scholarly impact rankings and suggests alternative metrics to mitigate the imbalance. Toward the end of the paper, the authors consider the merits of a …
Several studies have found that women tend to publish less frequently than men. However, research also shows that, per publication, women tend to be cited at the same or higher rates than men. New scholarship by Rob Willey, Melanie Knapp, and Ashley Matthews of George Mason University Law Library explores how and why women are frequently …
On the latest episode of the WI Law in Action podcast from the UW Law Library, host Kris Turner interviews UW Law School Associate Professor of Law and Co-Director of the State Democracy Research Initiative, Rob Yablon. Yablon introduces the concept of “gerrylaundering,” a strategy used by voting district mapmakers to hold on to power …
In a surprise announcement yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released new guidance that starting in 2026, any publications and supporting data resulting from federally funded research must be openly accessible on the day it’s published. Here’s more from Ars Technica: The US government is likely to be the world’s …
Today, in the United States, there are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes. These sovereign Nations produce thousands of statutes, regulations, and judicial opinions each year. However, there is a lot of uncertainty and misunderstanding regarding the respect for and availability of tribal law. I recently encountered three resources that offer some insight. Matthew Fletcher, …
If you routinely access federal dockets and court documents, you may already know that you can get some documents free from the RECAP Archive, a database of millions of PACER documents and dockets maintained by the Free Law Project. These documents are “donated” by users who purchase them on PACER, then automatically send them to the …
Unlike federal and state law which is widely available, municipal law can be difficult to track down. In Wisconsin alone, there are 585 municipal (city and village) governments and 1,265 town governments and the availability and amount of information available from each varies greatly. Fortunately, there is a guide to searching municipal law in the …
Those of you who follow federal legislation may be familiar with CRS Reports. The Congressional Research Service is a non-partisan legislative branch agency, housed inside the Library of Congress, that provides comprehensive analysis on issues that may come before Congress. Although created for Congress, these reports can be tremendously insightful on matters of federal policy …
Last month, the University of WI Law School hosted a weeklong legal boot camp culminating the National Tribal Trial College’s Certificate in Tribal Court Legal Advocacy. This free, 6-month, skill-building course empowers laypersons to practice law in Tribal Courts across the United States. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The National Trial Tribal College condenses three …