News

The website of the Program in Public Law was revamped during this past summer. Under the direction of Professors Chris Schroeder and Sarah Ludington '92, the site has begun to cover the Supreme Court and other public law issues online.

The new Supreme Court feature, called Supreme Court On Line, has its own front page on the Web, http://law.duke.edu/publiclaw/supremecourtonline/. It also can be accessed through the Program in Public Law's Web page, http://law.duke.edu/publiclaw/. Viewers can find summaries of cases that the Court has accepted for argument, with links provided to the relevant lower court decisions, as well as to other sources of information about the case where available. When the Court renders a decision on a significant case, the site will post commentary on the implications of the decision, an edited version of the decision, and a link to the official text of the opinion on the Supreme Court's own Web page.

Schroeder

In explaining the function of these new web features, the Program's director, Chris Schroeder, said "public education about significant issues affecting public officials and the authority of government is one of the central missions of the Program in Public Law. While there are already a number of websites devoted to information concerning Supreme Court decisions, we concluded that Supreme Court On Line could serve as a valuable educational tool. The commentary feature enables faculty from Duke as well as other institutions to convey useful information and analysis concerning the implications of important Supreme Court cases. It gives our faculty an immediate outlet for their opinions on cases within their area of expertise."

The edited cases feature of Supreme Court On Line is geared to assist classroom instructors who wish to assign recent decisions. "This feature should be useful for law students and law professors around the country," Schroeder said. I'm also particularly excited about making edited cases quickly available to instructors outside of law schools, such as political science professors teaching civil rights or constitutional law classes to undergraduates, or instructors teaching courses on American government to high school juniors and seniors. There is a real need outside of the law curriculum for an up-to-date source of edited cases."

Ludington

Schroeder and Ludington have more content features planned for the public law website. "Maintaining Supreme Court On Line is a major commitment of the Program now," Schroeder said. "We also are committed to expanding the page into the coverage of other prominent issues, such as civil liberties and the war on terrorism. Within the Law School, we and other organizations sponsor many extracurricular activities on important public law topics. We are going to be developing means to translate what happens inside the Law School into an informative web site."

Schroeder also hopes that the new features will provide a means for Duke alums to gain information about important cases and public law issues of interest to them, as well as to keep current on activities at Duke Law. "The new Web features will provide another window into the life of the Law School for our alumni," Schroeder concluded. "We are very much open to suggestions from them about how to make the site more useful from their perspective."