More on the debate over legal materials in the public domain.
John W. Bagby@Penn State
- - The original note follows - -
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 10:27:17 -0400
To:
From:
Subject: Clinton puts 7,000+ Supreme Court decisions on Web from FLITE
>Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 18:31:28 -0400 (EDT)
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>From: James Love <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Clinton puts 7,000+ Supreme Court decisions on Web from FLITE
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>INFO-POLICY-NOTES / newsletter available from [log in to unmask]
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>INFORMATION POLICY NOTES
>September 24, 1996
>
>- Today the Clinton Administration published 7,000+ Older U.S.
> Supreme Court Decisions on the Web, after a long dispute
> over public access to Air Force FLITE database of legal
> information. FLITE is the nation's oldest computer
> assisted legal research program, which began in 1963,
> and is still in operation. Until today, no court
> cases from FLITE had been available to the public.
>
>- The action places all U.S. Supreme Court Decisions from
> 1937 to 1975 on the Web. These include decisions from
> volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports (the Official
> federal government reporter of U.S. Supreme Court
> Decisions).
>
>- The cases are now available from Fedworld, at
> http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm,
> and can be searched by keyword or by names of parties.
> The Government Printing Office (GPO) will soon have the
> opinions available on GPO Access. We assume that
> anyone can obtain the entire database. (As is required
> under the Paperwork Reduction Act.)
>
>- The battle over public access to court opinions now
> shifts to newer opinions from the Supreme Court, and
> lower court opinions.
>
>- "Slip" opinions from the Supreme Court from 1990 are
> generally available on the Web. The Cornell site is:
> http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/
>
>- The U.S. Supreme Court has printing tapes of most U.S.
> Supreme Court opinions published since the late 1970s.
> These tapes could be converted into HTML documents for
> publishing on the Web, but the Supreme Court still
> refuses to release them to the public. This is a benefit
> mainly to West Publishing, the large legal
> publishing firm that asserts a monopoly on citations
> and the text of corrected court opinions from lower
> federal courts. West is an active supporter of many
> favorite court charities, and until recently, spent
> large sums on lavish vacations for several members of
> the Supreme Court.for background. See for example:
>
>http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0038.html
>http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0142.html
>http://www.startribune.com/westpub/
>
>- The Clinton Administration has yet to release a huge
> collection of lower court decisions and more recent
> Supreme Court decisions from Air Force FLITE database.
> The refusal is due in part to controversial assertions
> of copyright to the text of corrected court opinions by
> West. These copyright assertions did not come
> into play in the pre-1974 opinions, which were based
> upon the government's own reporter of court decisions.
>
>- White House Aide Tom Kalil, an active supporter of
> better public access to government information, played
> important role in persuading the Clinton Administration
> to release these important records. The press release
> announcing the release of the records was signed by
> Sally Katzen Administrator of OMB's Office of
> Information and Regulatory Affairs. We have been
> asking Katzen to do something about this for the past
> four years. The Air Force had been reluctant to release
> the opinions, for fear that West would cause the funding
> for FLITE to be eliminated, based upon West's impressive
> political influence. See West campagin contributions at:
> http://www.essential.org/cpt/legalinfo/westcontrib.html
>
> James Love, CPT & TAP
> 202-387-8030, [log in to unmask]
>
>
>The Katzen press release is attached.
>
>Background on the access dispute for FLITE is found in:
>
>http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0185.html
>http://www.essential.org/listproc/info-policy-notes/0221.html
>
>
>More general background on dispute over legal information is at:
>
>http://www.essential.org/cpt/legalinfo/legalinfo.html
>
>
>The OMB release follows:
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 16:09:52 -0400 (EDT)
>From: "Peter N. Weiss (202) 395-3630" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: FLITE materials now available on-line
>
> HISTORIC FILE OF SUPREME COURT DECISIONS AVAILABLE ON-LINE
>
> I am pleased to announce that the U.S. Air Force has agreed
>to release a historic file of Supreme Court decisions from its
>FLITE ("Federal Legal Information Through Electronics") system.
>The file consists of over 7000 Supreme Court opinions dating from
>1937 through 1975, from volumes 300 through 422 of U.S. Reports.
>
> The decisions can be accessed on the National Technical
>Information Service's FedWorld system (http://www.fedworld.gov)
>and will soon be available on the Government Printing Office's
>GPO Access system (http://www.access.gpo.gov).
>
> This file had previously been determined to be exempt from
>release under the Freedom of Information Act by the U.S. District
>Court for the Northern District of California. That decision was
>not appealed. Nonetheless, the Air Force has agreed as a matter
>of discretion to release these materials.
>
>
>Sally Katzen
>Administrator
>Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
>Office of Management and Budget
>
>September 25, 1996
>
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