I’m trying to locate a couple of opinions for a research paper I’m doing. One is from the Minnesota Supreme Court 1971 (appeal to USSC denied 1972) and the other is from the DC Circuit Court 1995. I’ve checked out several sites including FindLaw (no record of the USSC action), the MNSC site (cases that far back aren’t online) and the DC Circuit Court site (no record of the case). Broader internet searches haven’t yielded them. I don’t have access to any commercial legal search engines or a law library; I haven’t checked with my local public library yet to see if the good people there can help me. Anyone either have the cases or able to access or find them? I would be very grateful for any assistance.
The cases are:
Baker v Nelson, 191 NW 2d 185 (Minnesota Supreme Court 1971), appeal denied USSC 409 US 810 (1972);
and Dean v District of Columbia 653 A 2d 307 (DC Court of Appeals 1995)
Can you tell me a little about these cases? I might be able to justify them in a future Westlaw search.
You can also try a fairly new site, www.jurisline.com, if you haven’t already.
Are you sure you don’t have access to a law library? You shouldn’t have much trouble finding these books at one, as they are from Northwest Reporter and Atlantic reporter, respectively. Can’t find a law library? Try the local law school. Whip out that 1988 student I.D. that shows you in a turquoise tank-top and look authoritative. Can’t sneak in? A great many libraries around the nation are Federal Repositories. You might be able to find a federal repository by checking www.nara.gov or www.loc.gov. Then walk in and say you are there to see the repository collection. They’re bound by law to let you in, although experience tells me that you sometimes have to remind them of that. You might also be breaking the law by wandering across the aisle to what you really need. Finally, your local government center likely has a law library tucked away somewhere. It may be in the mayor’s office, but if you ask nicely, who knows? Here in DC, I run down the street and peep into Thomas Jefferson’s former personal library practically every month.
I was able to get Dean from Jurisline, but both Baker searches timed out on me. I’ll try again tomorrow. Then if that doesn’t work I’ll see if I can’t a) find and b) trick my way into a law library somewhere.
To my anonymous benefactor: Thanks for sending the files. I’m on a Mac and unfortunately don’t have a translator program that wants to do anything with them. I appreciate your time and effort, though, and I won’t ask you to compromise yourself any further. I’m sure among all the leads here I’ll be able to get the last two.
“Baker v Nelson, 191 NW 2d 185 (Minnesota Supreme Court 1971), appeal denied USSC
409 US 810 (1972);
and Dean v District of Columbia 653 A 2d 307 (DC Court of Appeals 1995)”
If you know the exact syntax & wording & put that in a search engine box of your browser with quotes around it, it should show up.
ALl right, I got the first Baker cite but the second comes up not found on Jurisline. As far as I know it was nothing other than a denial of the plaintiff’s appeal so the document could be just “appeal denied” with nothing else issued in writing. I’m not gonna worry about it at this point. Thanks for your help again, everyone.