Spring Break – Hours of Operation

King v. Burwell Transcript

The transcript of the King v. Burwell arguments is now available; we will post a link to the audio as soon as it is ready.

Learn the Magic of PDFs with Legal Tech Instruction

Do you even wonder if there’s some “crystal ball” out there that will magically show you how to use technology in an easy and practical way? Georgia Law students, faculty and staff are in luck! This afternoon the law library continues the legal technology instructional series at 2:30 pm in Classroom B. Today’s session will focus on PDFs and how to use Adobe Acrobat X Pro’s tools to create and edit documents and fillable forms.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own computers with them and follow along with the exercises. This session is part of an ongoing semester-long instructional series led by IT Librarian Jason Tubinis and Web Coordinator Rachel Evans. The series discusses the Legal Tech Audit, breaking the software-based competency test down into easy to digest segments which home in on Excel, PDF, and Word specific skills. For those who attend each session, you have the opportunity to complete the law library’s own legal tech audit readiness assessment by demonstrating that you can apply the skills the series teaches. Successful passing of this assessment will earn you a legal tech audit readiness certificate giving you something technically impressive to add to your resume.

For those who missed the first round of legal tech sessions, you can review them in video form online and still complete the assessment by visiting http://www.law.uga.edu/legal-tech-audit.

Photo: CALI/Flickr/Creative Commons License

King v. Burwell

On March 4th, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on King v. Burwell which will presents the following question:

May the Internal Revenue Service permissibly promulgate regulations to extend tax-credit subsidies to coverage purchased through Exchanges established by the federal government under section 1321 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?

Both the ABA’s Supreme Court Preview and the SCOTUS Blog websites do a wonderful job of providing the merit and amicus briefs on this important case and provide some additional commentary.

FCC Votes on Net Neutrality

Yesterday, in a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed the 2015 Open Internet Order, a move that reclassifies the Internet under Title II of the Communications Act, treating Internet service providers as carriers and regulating services as public utilities. The order will apply regulatory control over how providers manage traffic and how they charge for it. According to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the new policy will “ban blocking, ban throttling, and ban paid-prioritization fast lanes,” and for the first time the open Internet rules will be “fully applicable to mobile.” The vote was both applauded as preserving the open Internet as a place for free expression and innovation and opposed as regulatory overreach that is interfering with commerce.

We will provide access to the full text of the official action when it becomes available.

Read the FCC’s news release.

Read the Summary of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s Oral Dissent on the decision.

Read the Fact Sheet circulated by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on February 4, 2015 outlining key details of the proposed order (PDF).

Learn more about the Net Neutrality debate from the Congressional Research Service Report Access to Broadband Networks: The Net Neutrality Debate, February 5, 2015.

Research institutions officially weighed in on the debate last summer with a set of  “Net Neutrality Principles” published on the Association of Research Libraries website.

Photo By: “Wordle of Kerry’s letter re: Net Neutrality” by believekevin under a Creative Commons attribution 2.0 license

Amnesty International Annual Report 2014/2015

Amnesty International has released its latest report  on the state human rights throughout the world.  “It represents Amnesty International’s key concerns throughout the world, and is essential reading for policymakers, activists and anyone with an interest in human rights.”

Early Closing Today – Inclement Weather

Due to inclement weather, the University of Georgia Athens campus will close at 1:30 p.m. today. Classes and activities after 1:30 p.m. today are cancelled. No decisions have been announced regarding Thursday operations for the Athens campus. Any changes to normal operations will be announced through an ArchNews e-mail, the UGA home page , and through local news media, per the UGA Inclement Weather Policy.