TAP/CROWN JEWELS -- WEST WITHDRAWS FROM JURIS CONTRACT

["James P. Love" <love@essential.org>]

Taxpayer Assets Project
Essential Information
Information Policy Note
October 2, 1993

CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE JURIS SYSTEM


-    WEST PUBLISHING ANNOUNCES IT WILL END CONTROVERSIAL CONTRACT WITH
     THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WHICH LIMITED PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE JURIS
     DATABASE

-    DECISION APPEARS TO BE A VICTORY FOR DATA USERS WHO OPPOSED
     RESTRICTIONS ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO JURIS

          fmi:  james love    215/658-0880; love@essential.org

INTRODUCTION

     In a stunning development, on September 30, 1993, West Publishing
issued a press release announcing that it will not seek renewal of a
controversial contract with the Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning
the JURIS database.  The decision appears to clear the way for much
broader public access to vast amounts of federal legal information.

     On a closely related matter, the Government Printing Office (GPO)
and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) are investigating
ways of providing public access to federal legal information.

THE JURIS DATABASE

     JURIS is an online information system that was created by the
Department of Justice (DOJ) in the late 1970's.  The JURIS database is
the world's largest collection of federal legal information on a wide
range of topics.  In addition to extensive federal caselaw from the
Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and the Court of Claims, JURIS
contains information on such topics as Public Laws, statues, regulation,
federal executive orders, attorney general opinions, DOJ briefs,
monographs and manuals, foreign treaties, and vast amounts of
administrative law on diverse topics such as government ethics, equal
employment, federal taxes, labor law or environmental protection. (See
Appendix)

THE DOJ/WEST CONTRACT

     The JURIS online system is operated by DOJ on its own computers and
hardware.

     During the First Reagan term the Department of Justice entered into
the first of two long term contracts with West Publishing (WEST),
whereby WEST was paid to "license" federal caselaw and other items, plus
West's own value added products, such as annotated "headnotes" of cases,
to DOJ.  In these contracts, WEST was allowed to retain commercial
rights to all of the materials provide to DOJ, including both West's own
copyrighted valued added materials as well as all non-copyrighted public
documents.  As a consequence of these contracts, DOJ did not allow any
public access to the JURIS database.

     WEST is the largest publisher of legal information in the United
States, and has had a monopoly on the publication of many court
decisions for more than a century.  West also operates WESTLAW, a
service that sells online access to much of the same items as are in the
DOJ JURIS system.  For most users, the costs of using WESTLAW are in the
neighborhood of $4 to $6 per minute. WESTLAW and Mead Data Central's
LEXIS service are the only two commercial data vendors who current sell
online access to these types of legal information.

     (WEST is not the only supplier of data for JURIS.  DOJ obtains some
of its data directly from agencies and some from other value-added
information companies.)

DATA USERS PRESSURE DOJ TO PROVIDE PUBLIC ACCESS TO JURIS

     The WEST contracts with DOJ were controversial, because of the
restrictions on public access to the government's primary database of
legal information.  In April of 1991, the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP)
criticized the West/DOJ contract in testimony before the Joint Committee
on Printing (JCP).  The second WEST contract recently expired, and over
the past year DOJ has been attempting to negotiate a new contract.

     On Wednesday, July 7, 1993, 295 lawyers, computer professionals,
librarians, leaders of public interest groups and other citizens wrote
Attorney General Janet Reno, asking that she take steps to provide
citizen access to JURIS.  TAP asked several members of Congress in
investigate the WEST contract, and according to the DOJ, a large number
of individuals who had read about the JURIS controversy through messages
posted on tap-info and other Internet lists had asked their members of
congress to open JURIS up to public access.  TAP also wrote guest
editorials about the JURIS controversy in the Christian Science Monitor
and several regional newspapers, and a number computer magazines and
other trade press reported the controversy.

     On August 18, 1993, Stephen R. Colgate, the Assistant Attorney for
Administration, wrote TAP to indicate that DOJ had entered into
discussions with the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National
Technical Information Service (NTIS) to explore ways that the
non-proprietary sections of JURIS could be made available to the public.
Colgate also said that there were "serious issues" in providing public
access to JURIS, since "almost all of the services and information
provided under JURIS are available in the private sector."

     On August 30, 1993 the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)
wrote to DOJ urging that the current procurement allow the 1,400 member
federal depository library program and others to obtain access to the
non-copyrighted materials on Juris.  On September 27, 1993 TAP asked OMB
to facilitate meetings between DOJ and data users to investigate ways of
resolving the issue of public access to JURIS.

THE WEST WITHDRAWAL

     West's September 30, 1993 announcement that it will not renew its
DOJ contract appears to be a gracious acceptance that it would not
succeed in an extension of the current ban on public access to the JURIS
database.  In the press release titled "West won't seek renewal of JURIS
contract with Department of Justice," West gave two reasons for its
withdrawal.

     "First, West was founded on - and succeeded in the American
     marketplace in part because of - the especially American principle
     of public access to public information.  West supports full
     government dissemination of public information in a democratic
     society.  We agree with those who are committed to these
     principles."

The second reason given by West was that the company was motivated by
Vice-President Gore's re-invent government initiative to re-invent its
own relationship with the federal government (a comment that no one
seemed to understand).  West also made reference to the fact that the
original JURIS contracts were entered into at a time when "today's
incredible variety of private information services did not exist," and
that West never intended it relationship with DOJ to be "permanent."

The West announcement took almost everyone by surprise.  As early as
last week West was aggressively battling to retain its contract, which
benefited the firm tremendously by barring public access to JURIS, and
preventing rival data vendors from obtaining the JURIS records in order
to compete against West or LEXIS.

     CONCERN ABOUT HISTORICAL RECORDS

People who have followed the WEST/JURIS dispute were immediately
concerned about the status of the historical records which West had
provided to DOJ.  Under the previous contract, West appears to have the
right to force DOJ to erase all historical records, if the company did
not receive a contract renewal.  West told one reporter that DOJ would
be allowed to keep the non-copyrighted historical records for JURIS.
Today Dorthy Molstad of West (612/687-7617) told TAP that West claimed
copyrights on its "arrangments" of caselaw that it had provided DOJ
under the JURIS contract, and that it would now sell that information to
DOJ exclusively through its WESTLAW service.  No one at DOJ could
provide TAP with any information about the consequences of the West
announcement.


     GPO AND NTIS ROLE IN PUBLISHING FEDERAL LEGAL INFORMATION

As indicated above, in August DOJ told TAP that it was in contact with
GPO and NTIS to explore ways of disseminating JURIS records to the
public.  The West withdrawal appears to clear the way for an aggressive
federal effort to publish its legal information electronically.  In the
past year GPO published the entire US Code on CD-ROM for $30.  We have
also learned that GPO has entered into extensive negotiations with the
U.S. courts to publish circuit court opinions on the new GPO ACCESS
online program that will become operational next year.  A spokesman for
NTIS said he was not familiar with any efforts by NTIS to provide online
access to JURIS information, but that it was possible that some
discussions had taken place.

THANKS FOR THE HELP

We thank all individuals and organizations who joined in the TAP Crown
Jewels Campaign to open public access to JURIS.  DOJ officials were
clearly impressed by the amount of grass roots attention this issue
received.  Particularly useful were the inquiries by individual
congressman that were promoted by constituent mail.  JURIS was a very
tough case, and we are surprised and delighted by this development.
This would not have happened without the broadbased support of Internet
users.

     james love
     love@essential.org
     v. 215/658-0880; f. 215/649-4066 12
     Church Road, Ardmore, PA 19003

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Appendix
                                    
             SELECTED PORTIONS OF JURIS DATABASE (FALL 1992)

     CASELAW

U.S. Supreme Court; Federal Reporter, 2nd Series; Court of Appeals
Unpublished Decisions; Federal Supplement; Federal Rules Decisions;
Atlantic 2nd Reporter (DC only); Bankruptcy Reporter; Courts of Military
Review; Military Justice Reporter; Court of Claims.

     STATUTORY LAW

Public Laws; United States Code; Executive Orders; Anti-Drug Abuse Act
of 1988; Section-by-section analysis of anti-drug abuse act of 1988;
Criminal Division Handbook on CCCA; The Organic Laws of the United
States

     FEDERAL REGULATIONS

Code of Federal Regulations; Unified Agenda of Federal Regulations;
Defense Acquisition Regulations

     DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE BRIEFS

Office of the Solicitor General; Civil Division; Civil Division Trial;
Environmental and Natural Resources Division; Tax Division Criminal
Appellate; U.S. Attorney's Offices; U.S. Trustees' Offices.

     ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

Published Comptroller General Decisions; Unpublished Comptroller General
Decisions; Opinions of the Attorney General; Office of Legal Counsel
(U.S. Dept. of Justice Board of Contract Appeals; ADP Protest Report
(Summary of ADP Procurement Protests before the GSBCA); Federal Labor
Relations Authority Case Decisions; FLRA Administrative Law Judge
Decisions; Federal Service Impasses Decisions; Decisions and Reports on
Rulings of the Assistant Sec. of Labor for Labor Management Relations;
Federal Labor Relations Council Rulings on Requests of the Asst. Sec. of
Labor for Labor Management Relations; HUD Administrative Law Decisions;
Merit System Protection Board Decisions; Decisions under Immigration and
Nationality Laws; Environmental Protection Agency General Counsel
Opinions; Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Decisions; Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission Policy Statements; U.S. Office of
Government Ethics Decisions; HHS Department Appeals Board Decisions.

     MANUALS

United States Attorney's Manual; United States Trustees' Manual; Federal
Personnel Manual; Federal Acquisition Regulations; Federal Acquisition
Circulars; Federal Travel Regulation; Federal Information Resources
Management Regulation; Federal Property Management Regulations;
Principles of Federal Appropriations Law; Justice Department Acquisition
Regulation; Justice Property Management Regulations.

     TREATIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

United States Treaties and Other International Agreements; Department of
Defense Unpublished International Agreements.

     FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

FOIA Update Newsletter; DOJ Guide to the FOIA Case List Publications.

     IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION LAW

Decisions Under Immigration and Nationality Law; Title 8 - Code of
Federal Regulations; Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1988,
Legislative History; Equal Access to Justice Act, Legislative History;

     TAX MATERIALS

US Tax Court Decisions; US Board of Tax Appeals Decisions; Tax
Division's Summons Enforcement Decisions; Tax Division's Tax Protester
Case List; Tax Division's Criminal Tax Manual; Tax Division's Criminal
Tax Indictment/Information Forms; Tax Division's Standardized Criminal
Tax Jury Instructions; Tax Division's Criminal Section Newsletter; Tax
Court Memorandum Decisions; IRS Cumulative Bulletin; Tax International
Acts; IRS News Releases; IRS General Counsel Memoranda; IRS Actions on
Decisions; IRS Technical Memoranda.

     INDIAN LAW

Opinions of the Solicitor (Dept. of Interior); Ratified Treaties;
Unratified Treaties; Presidential Proclamations; Executive Orders and
Other Orders Pertaining to Indians.

     DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WORKPRODUCTS

Civil Division Monographs; Civil Division Torts Branch Handbook on
damages under FTCA; Criminal Division Monographs; Criminal Division
Forms; Criminal Division Guidelines for Drafting Indictments; Criminal
Division Narcotics, Forfeiture, Prosecution Manual; Criminal Division
Directory of Services;  Asset Forfeiture Manuals; Obscenity Enforcement
Reporter; Environmental and Natural Resources Division Monographs; US
Sentencing Commission's Guidelines Manual; Sentencing Guidelines
Updates.

     LEGISLATIVE HISTORIES OF FEDERAL LAWS

Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA); Immigration Reform and Control Act
of 1986; Sentencing Reform Sections of the Senate Report of the CCCA of
1984.

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James Love, Taxpayer Assets Project
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036; v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176
12 Church Road, Ardmore, PA 19003; v. 215/658-0880; f. 215/649-4066
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