>
>
>At 10:20 AM 11/2/1999 -0500, Kurt Metzmeier wrote:
>>As far as I understand from a scheduled tour I took during the AALL annual
>>meeting, access to the U.S. Supreme Court library is strictly restricted to
>>the the Court, staff of the Court and attorneys admitted to the U.S.
>>Supreme Court Bar, although I suspect some exceptions are made. However,
>>it is also true that the Library of Congress Law Library, not the smaller
>>Supreme Court library, is closer to being the national law library.
>>
>>I'd like to think that high court justices rise above personal comfort and
>>ease of mind, but it gives one pause to think that a constitutional
>>challenge to such a policy would be decided by two sets of state and
>>federal judges who would be surely cognizant that the result may be to open
>>their libraries up to unidentified members of the general public. In many
>>states, because of state constitutional balance of powers issues, any
>>lawsuit would, by necessity, name the court or a body it administers as
>>defendant. In many states the legislature or executive is powerless to
>>apply general public access laws to the judicial branch.
>>
>>I guess this raises one point for an elective rather than appointive court.
>>
>>Kurt Metzmeier,
>>University of Kentucky Law Library
............................rseponse......................................
You guys should get out in the real world more often, i.e., court.
As a practicing attorney with thirty years of litigation experience I
am here to tell you that it does not make a particle of difference
whether judges are elected or appointed. How do you think elected judges
GET nominated, anyway? Usually by party hacks. A screening committee
and independent citizens groups are a far better way of influencing
the appointment of federal judges, who, by and large are NOT superior
to State and local judges. I have found excellence and mendacity at all
levels. People are people.
As far as letting the public into Court libraries, most Federal Court
libraries, unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, have a paucity of staff. The
libraries are not considered " public" in the same sense as your local
Public Library System. Sometimes the staff consists of only one person,
part time.
When attorneys going to the court need a reference for an oral argument
or are looking up last minute shepardization, they do not need to be
confronted with people sitting around reading and not reshelving books.
( I ALWAYS reshelve my books, even though this seems to have gone out
of style at my law school library.)
I agree the public should have some right of access to Court
libraries, even the Supreme Court library, which is critical to the work
of the Court, the Justices, and their law clerks. But it is not an
unfettered unregulated right. It should be extended to pro se litigants.
But the concept that because you might have to show I.D. , that is somehow
a "national identity card " is ludicrous paranoia.
Try renting a video from Blockbuster without the proper id and see how
far you get. Try getting a driver's license or passport without proper i.d.
Why should we risk valuable Court library resources and documents to
a public known for theft of books, eating in libraries, and general
selfishness? Do you have any idea how long it takes to get a legal
publisher to replace a missing book or pocket part? Check your life
expectancy tables.
Once we revamp society perhaps we can trust all of it to
do the right thing, at all times. Until then, well......you tell me.
That is not to say that a PUBLIC library is not truly PUBLIC. However,
can the homeless sleep there when the library is closed? ( maybe they
should be permitted to do so. )
========================================
Hal Weiner, COLES & WEINER, P.C
Members of the National Employment
Lawyers Association / New York Chapter
342 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10173
(212)856-9530 vox (212)682-3770 fax
http://www.peconic.net/lawyers
E-mail: druidlaw@interport.net
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