KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

Joseph Chester Self was the 73rd person to be executed in Washington and the last person to be executed in the state until Westley Allan Dodd’s execution on January 5, 1993. During the 30 year hiatus, Washington’s capital punishment statute was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972.

In Part Two of this episode of KCLL’s Sidebar, we talk to Jim Burns, who was among two men to prosecute Mr. Self.  For additional information about the case, you can go to the History Link website which we have linked to here.

On June 24, 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled by a broad 8-1 majority that signatories of referendum petitions generally do not have a constitutional right, in light of open government laws, to keep their identities private.  The case, Doe v. Reed, 09-559, questioned whether or not the State of Washington could release the names of individuals who had signed a petition to put Referendum 71 on the ballot.  The decision, which was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., contained several concurring opinions and one dissent. For the full text of the decision, you can go to the Supreme Court website, or click on this link.  For analysis of the case, as well as other cases which have been recently decided by the Court, you can click here.

Law-enforcement officers statewide can begin stopping and ticketing drivers this week for speaking on the phone while holding it to an ear or texting while driving.  Lawmakers modified the law to make talking on a cell-phone without a hands-free device  or texting a primary offense and a $124 fine.  For information on this change, you can go to the Washington State Department of Licensing site.

Due to illness, the How to Finish Your Divorce class has been cancelled for this evening, May 12th.  Just as a reminder, these classes are typically held on the second Wednesday of every month.  Please check our class schedule for upcoming dates.

Today, President Obama introduced Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens.  Ms. Kagan is the first woman to serve as solicitor general and as dean of the Harvard Law School.

For commentary about this nomination, as well as a profile of the nominee, you can click here.  Additional information, as well as the official White House Press Release can be viewed here.

Last week, we mentioned that the King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office now has a way for you to request court records online.  If you have not yet had a chance to look at this new application, we have put together a quick overview of the system and how it looks.  You can check it out by following this link and clicking on the Superior Court Online Records Requests guide.

The King County Superior Court Clerk’s Office recently introduced a new online application to request copies of court documents.  The system requires that you set up an account before you can begin requesting superior court filings and you can pay for your request via credit card or electronic check.

In addition to being able to request court records online, the system also allows you to request certified copies, exemplified copies and expedited service.  Users can request documents via case number from 1979 forward and it includes those cases that cannot be accessed using the Clerk’s Office ECR system.

 For more information, you can contact the Clerk’s Office at 206-296-9300, or go to their website.

On January 21, 2010, a divided United States Supreme Court ruled to overturn a century of legal precedent in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205.

Written by Justice Kennedy, the Court ruled that certain aspects of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) were unconstitutional.  At issue was whether or not the limiting of independent corporate spending on political speech during campaigns, as outlined in the provisions of the BCRA, was a violation of the First Amendment.  Up until now, corporations were allowed to spend money on campaigns via other avenues, such as Political Action Committees (PACs), but not from their own general treasury.  Reversing prior rulings, the court ruled that these limitations to speech were in fact a violation of the First Amendment.  Joining Justice Kennedy in the majority opinion were Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, Justice Scalia and Chief Justice John Roberts.  A ninety-page dissent was issued by Justice Stevens, who was joined by Justice Sotomayor, Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg.

 The Court’s ruling may not have that much effect here in Washington State, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.  Washington law does not prohibit contributions from corporations or unions from their general treasury as long as those expenditures are reported correctly.  However, the Commission is still reviewing the portion of the decision that affects ads that run in the closing days of elections.  For more information on how this ruling affects other states, the First Amendment Center has a breakdown on their website.

For full text of the decision, along with concurrence and dissents, you can go to the Supreme Court website and download a copy of the slip opinion.  For individual links to the majority opinion, as well as the individual concurrences and dissents, you can check out the Cornell Website.  Additional analysis has been provided by the folks over at SCOTUS blog.

In this episode of KCLL’s Sidebar, Rick talks about the process of e-filing in King County Superior Court and the most frequent questions the library receives regarding this new system.  Craig, in his “Reel Verdict” segment, reviews a documentary he recently watched called “The Trials of Law School”.  This movie follows the lives of law students as they negotiate the theories and practice of law in a school setting.

King County Elections has created a way for you to track your mail-in ballot and confirm that your vote counted.  By going to their website and clicking on the Mail Ballot Tracking link, you can enter your name and date of birth and see where your ballot is in the counting process.