Spotlight on Legal Blogs
From time to time we like to check out the legal blog scene to see what’s new and to see if long-time bloggers are still in the blogging game. Finding legal blogs can sometimes be as simple as doing a Google search, but there are also finding aids on the internet that can give you a hand. Justia BlawgSearch, ABA Journal Blawg Directory, and AALL Computing Services SIS are three such finding aids. LexBlog also aggregates legal blogs and organizes them by publisher and topic.
Some law libraries have blog research guides. Case Western Reserve University’s law library has a list of U.S. law library and law school blogs at their site. University of Washington’s Gallagher Law Library provides a list of law-related blogs in Washington State too. We have chosen a few blogs to highlight here and hope you find them useful in your research!
Internet & Social Media Law Blog
One of several blogs by international law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Internet & Social Media Law Blog “addresses legal issues surrounding the latest technological developments and social media trends.” Recently on the blog are posts about NFT (non-fungible token) sales contracts and regulation of financial services companies’ use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in credit decision making.
Legal History Blog is a blog about “scholarship, news and new ideas in legal history.” Recent posts authored by legal history professors Dan Ernst of Georgetown Law and Karen Tani of Penn Law, include short summaries of the books Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America and Separating Church and State: A History. The blog’s weekly Weekend Roundup is a great way to keep up on legal history stories and scholarship around the web.
This blog’s full title is High School SCOTUS: Teenagers Writing About the U.S. Supreme Court. Founded in 2018 by teen journalist Anna Salvatore, this blog continues to thrive despite Salvatore’s placing it in “hibernation” after high school graduation. Contributors continue to be high school students. One recent post provides an overview of the federal elections case, Moore v. Harper, that will be heard in the Court’s upcoming term. June decisions in Vega v. Tekoh and Torres v. Texas Dept. of Safety are covered as well. Follow Anna Salvatore on Twitter (@hischoolscotus).
You may already know about this blog. But if you haven’t looked at it in a while, it’s always worth a subscribe. Receiving nearly 100,000 page views per month, Sentencing Law and Policy blog has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, appellate and district courts, and law reviews. Douglas A. Berman, Newton D. Baker-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law at The Ohio State University, has been running it since 2004. His self-described “scholarship in action” includes July posts reporting on a resource on long prison sentences and highlighting a recent report on restitution and juvenile justice.
Employment Law in Motion is a legal blog for employers. A fairly new blog, the attorneys at Miller Nash LLP, a law firm with offices in Washington, Oregon, California, and Alaska, provide legal updates on issues of national interest and specific to Washington and the other states where they operate. Recent posts provide guidance on accommodating religious beliefs in the workplace and give an overview of Washington’s new excessive heat and wildfire smoke rules.
Edited by professor Tracy A. Thomas, Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law and Director of the Center for Constitutional Law at The University of Akron, Gender and the Law Prof Blog reports on legal issues surrounding women, gender, and gender identity. These bloggers have been busy of late blogging about the recent U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. One such post is titled A Resource List of the New Legal, Political, and Practical Issues of Abortion Post-Roe. While there is plenty covered here on current issues in the courts and legislatures, there are also interesting posts on issues of interest to women in the legal field such as this post on the forthcoming law review article, Ms. Attribution: How Authorship Credit Contributes to the Gender Gap.
In Custodia Legis is the blog of the Law Librarians of Congress. There’s nothing better than getting your information from the law library with the world’s largest collection of law books. With regular updates on what’s new at Congress.gov and spotlights on library research guides, such as their new Title IX guide, this blog is a great tool for sharpening your research skills. There are fun posts too, like this post on Punk Rock and the Law.
We are always happy to provide blog recommendations. If you need to find a blog on your research topic call us at 360–357–2136 or email us at library.requests@courts.wa.gov. Check out our previous blog spotlights here and here. (SC)
