As an institution, the Supreme Court commands respect, legitimacy, and prestige both in the United States and abroad. The latest edition of eJournal USA describes many aspects of the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Solicitor General Elena Kagan present their introductions and contributions by legal scholars and journalists focus on the elements of judicial decision making and independence of the justices. Four Court officials and a former Supreme Court law clerk also describe their jobs.

President Obama has declared October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the United States.

In their latest Intelligence Note, the Internet Crime Complaint Center cautions that fraudsters continue to hijack accounts on social networking sites and spread malicious software by using various techniques. Read more: Techniques used by fraudsters on social networking sites

A partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) also accepts online Internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant.

Learn more:

• National Cybersecurity Awareness Month info from DHS
• Onguardonline.gov
• How to file a complaint with IC3

Did you know the U.S. Constitution makes no specific allowance for any one of the three branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial) to have access to information held by the others? A Congressional Research Service report, Access to Government Information in the United States, offers an overview of four information access laws and provides citations to additional resources related to these tools.

Anatomy of a Jury Trial is the latest e-journal produced by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs. This issue in a sense cross-examines the U.S. jury system, with eyewitness testimony from jurors themselves, judges, a prosecutor, a defense lawyer, a witness, and a reporter.

The Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate is holding a hearing on the nomination of  Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

President Obama nominated Sotomayor on 26 May.

Learn more:

• Senate Consideration of Presidential Nominations: Committee & Floor Procedures
• Scene setter prior to confirmation hearing
• The Criminal Justice Record
• Legal resources on Sotomayor
• Supreme Court Nominations, 1789-2009: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee & the President

Did you know the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world? One way to search the Library’s publicly available digital collections (whether digitized or born digital)  is to use the Browse by Topic pages.  Topics you can explore include American history, arts and culture, government, sports and much more.

CIA director Leon Panetta has issued new interrogation guidelines to agency employees. To learn more, check these links:

Interrogation Policy and Contracts
Comments on the policy by Senator Feinstein
U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

Complaints of online crime hit a record high in 2008, according to a report just released by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).

• Press release
• Internet crime prevention tips
• Internet crime schemes

The Federal Trade Commission has issued its annual report,  The FTC in 2009 (PDF). The report describes the agency’s competition and consumer protection accomplishments since March 2008. The online version of the report links readers to all source documents, such as press releases, reports, speeches, and educational materials.

We’ve just posted the latest issue of Web Alert, a list of freely-available internet resources on a wide range of topics. This edition has a special section on women’s history month and non-violent paths to social change.