Court News: March Madness Research Guide, Promoting Successful Brackets for All

March Madness has struck, and the Harris County Law Library has a cure. If you are a Houston Bar Association member who is participating in the Bracket Challenge, or just a college basketball fan in need of some guidance in completing your bracket, the Harris County Law Library can help! We have assembled a March Madness Research Guide with information and links to insider data from sports experts at ESPN, SB Nation, Sports Illustrated, FoxSports, the Bleacher Report, and more. Get the inside scoop from experienced basketball pros, such as statisticians, researchers, and correspondents, as well as former players who know the game from the inside out. On the line-up are:

Chris Dobbertean: College basketball contributor and resident bracketologist at SBNation and editor of Blogging the Bracket

Reid Gettys: Part-time NCAA basketball analyst for ESPN, lead attorney for ExxonMobil, and part of the "Phi Slama Jama" era of the early 1980s, who participated in three Final Fours and had two national championship appearances. Follow him on Twitter @reidgettys.

Joe Lunardi: College basketball analyst for ESPN who is best known for creating Bracketology. He correctly predicted all 65 teams to appear in the 2008 NCAA Tournament and all 68 teams for the 2013 tournament. Wow!

Jerry Palm: Resident Sports Geek at CBS Sports and a pioneer in predicting the March Madness bracket and in understanding the tournament selection process. Follow him online at CBS Sports, NCAA Basketball.

John Rothstein: College Basketball Insider for CBS Sports and host of the College Hoops Today podcast, as well as a driving force behind Bleacher Report. Get the app here for Apple and Android.

Check out what these and other NCAA basketball experts have to offer in helping you build your bracket. Click on the image above to view the Harris County Law Library Research Guide for even more tips from the pros. Good luck, bracket hopefuls. May the best bracket win!

Equal Protection and Transgender Rights

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7369441@N08/8594644828

Throughout the month of May, we have highlighted civil rights law resources from the Law Library's print collection. Titles currently on display include Transgender Persons and the Law, Section 1983 Litigation in a Nutshell, Americans With Disabilities Practice and Compliance Manual, and Sexual Orientation and the Law. We have also been celebrating the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This cornerstone of landmark civil rights legislation has been a source of inspiration for equal justice advocates for nearly 150 years.

The 14th Amendment has been invoked in a great number of historic cases including the trial of Susan B. Anthony (1873), Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Loving v. Virginia (1967), Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), and as recently as yesterday, Whitaker v. Kenosha Unified School District, a case in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals with important implications for transgender rights.

In Whitaker, a three-judge panel cited the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, arguing that anti-discrimination laws apply to transgender students. They upheld the lower court's injunction, stating that sex discrimination based on gender identity is unconstitutional. This decision, the first ruling of its kind by a court at the federal level, will protect the individual student at the heart of the case and could extend to transgender students as a class. By invoking federal civil rights laws, this ruling has the potential to ensure equality for all transgender people and prohibit discrimination in education, housing, and employment. 

Visiting the U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit Library System - Houston Satellite

March is Federal Practice Resource Month at the Harris County Law Library. Throughout the month we are featuring some of the federal practice legal materials found in our collection. We are also calling attention to a select few online resources, including the Federal Practice Manual for Legal Aid Attorneys.  Law Library staff are always available at the reference desk to help in using any of these materials.

Another helpful resource is the satellite branch of the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit Library System, located right here in Houston at 515 Rusk.  This Satellite Library, open to the public, is a valuable resource for researching federal legal issues and it's well-worth a visit for those working in federal law.

You can learn about the Satellite Library's services and guidelines using the Visitors' Guide to the U.S. Courts Library in Houston, Texas.  Many of the sources available in the Harris County Law Library collection are also available at the Fifth Circuit Library, but the staff's knowledge and expertise regarding the federal judiciary may add even more value to your research. Federal law is their specialty, and they are happy to help you access the resources you need. The Houston Satellite is also a United States Federal Depository Library, where government publications, including a selection of official sources of our nation's primary legal documents, are housed.

Geography and the Law Exhibit at the Harris County Law Library

This month, the Law Library is exploring Geography and The Law, a new exhibit on display until February 28th. Learn how a treasure map and a Google Earth satellite image played a role in two recent court decisions and how a Story Map is impacting access to justice. 

The following cases are featured in the exhibit.

United States of America v. Paciano Lizarraga-Tirado, 789 F. 3d 1107 (2015)

After a Border Patrol agent recorded the GPS coordinates of a defendant’s arrest using a handheld device, the evidence was questioned as hearsay. The panel of judges in this case disagreed. Google Earth satellite images, like photographs, make no assertion, even when the software identifies a specific location on that image with a tack and GPS coordinates. Tack-coordinate pairs are auto-generated and require no human intervention. As such, images labeled in this way are not hearsay.

Smith v. The Abandoned Vessel, 610 F. Supp. 3d 868 (2009)

Plaintiff Nathan Smith, a self-described treasure hunter, sought title, under the law of finds, to a legendary sunken ship in Refugio County, Texas. To locate the ship, Smith consulted an 1851 county map along with GPS data and satellite images from Google Earth. He cobbled together his own sort of treasure map and felt certain that he had found the long-lost vessel. Unfortunately, his spurious claims and questionable geographic and scientific evidence failed to persuade the court. The case was dismissed.

Texas Supreme Court Commission to Expand Legal Services Releases Justice Gap Report

On December 6, 2016, the Commission to Expand Civil Legal Services released eight recommendations for increasing the public's access to justice in Texas. As part of these recommendations, the Commission presented innovative options for those of modest means to participate in the legal system and thereby narrow the justice gap in Texas. Two overarching goals guided the Commission in the drafting of its report: connecting lower and middle-income clients with affordable representation and helping pro se litigants navigate the court system.

According to the report, the success of current initiatives has been dependent upon the participation of public law libraries at the state and county levels. Recognizing the essential role that libraries play, the Commission's report encourages the court to promote adequate funding for public law libraries and for the placement of navigators in libraries, courthouses, and other public spaces. 

In addition to the Travis County Law Library and the Texas State Law Library, the Harris County Law Library was recognized by the Commission for taking steps to close the justice gap. We at the Harris County Law Library are very proud of this recognition, as well as our partnership with the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program in providing services to the populations targeted by the Commission’s recommendations and objectives. We look forward to continuing to provide assistance to our library clientele, helping them to navigate their way through the justice system.