Delaware Campus Library Blogs

During exam period, November 30 through December 21, the law library will be open 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. everyday.

For more information on library hours see our webpage.

Welcome to Introduction to Law at Delaware Law School.  Below are the library’s hours during orientation week, August 10 – 18. Regular hours will resume on Wednesday, August 19.

This weekend the library will be open our usual summer hours. On Monday July 6th we will be open 9 a.m to 5 p.m.

Summer Hours

The law library is now on summer hours. From Tuesday, May 26 Through Sunday, July 26 we are open:

Monday-Thursday                     8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Friday                                           8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday                                      9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday                                        12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Please be sure to check our hours on holidays and after summer session.

The Widener Law Delaware Law Library will be closed this weekend for Memorial Day. We’ll reopen Tuesday May 26th. See our website for more information about library hours.

The number one question I’ve been getting since the website redesign is “where did the old exams go?” The exam archive couldn’t stay on the new website so we’ve moved it to TWEN. Once you’ve logged on to TWEN, go to “Add Course” and add yourself to the course called “Exam Archive – Delaware Law Library.”

Not all faculty member give us exams, so if you don’t see the exam you’re looking for check with your professor. Many of them are now posting old exams on their own course pages.

The Widener Law Delaware campus law library is now on exam hours. We will be open until 2:00 a.m. every night through May 13th. For a complete listing of hours see our webpage.

Celebrate National Library Week at the Law Library

April 13—April 17

With Free PB&J!
11:30am—3:30pm

You just have to make the sandwich yourself!

The law library will be on shorter hours this week for spring break. Our hours will be:

February 27        8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
February 28        9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
March 1               12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
March 2 – 5         8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
March 6               8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
March 7               9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
March 8              12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Access to the library catalog, some library databases (Lexis and Westlaw will not be affected) and ILLiad will be unavailable for 2-3 hours beginning at 11:00 A.M. on Monday, February 9th.  Partial service disruptions may occur afterwards for the remainder of the day.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Just a few of the nearly 500 people arrested on one Sunday in 1941 for breaking Delaware’s blue laws, pose for a photo at the Wilmington police station.

I’ve previously posted about the blue laws, or Sunday closing laws, of Delaware. Originally passed in 1795, Delaware’s strict blue laws, prohibiting “any worldly employment, labor or business” on Sunday were still in effect in the first half of the 20th century, although they were rarely enforced. In 1911, Delaware’s blue laws made the news when Arden residents, including the writer Sinclair Lewis, were arrested for playing baseball and tennis on Sunday. There were calls for reform of the blue laws, but the Delaware General Assembly couldn’t agree to pass a bill repealing them. In 1941, a crusading attorney general named James R. Morford declared war on the state’s blue laws.

James R. Morford, Attorney General of Delaware from 1938 to 1943

James R. Morford was elected Delaware’s attorney general in 1938, fresh from a stint as Wilmington’s city solicitor. While city solicitor, he was part of a successful campaign to clean up corruption in the Wilmington police department. Morford strongly felt that having laws on the books that were only occasionally enforced, caused disrespect for the law and contributed to corruption of public officials. Frustrated by the General Assembly’s failure to enact reforms, he threatened to begin enforcing the blue laws strictly. In 1939, he asked the State Police to conduct a survey of the number of people breaking the blue laws, but no actual arrests were made. In 1940 he made a speech strongly stating his opposition to any laws that were not uniformly enforced, including the blue laws.

We have thereby created uncertainty as to what an honest citizen may or may not do, but we have created a situation where he may do an act one day and be apparently a law abiding citizen while the same act next day may subject him to arrest… But the worse feature is that by substituting the discretion of a man for the mandate of the law we have gone far to destroy respect for all law and have opened a door for graft and corruption in public office.

In 1941, when the Delaware General Assembly once again failed to pass a proposed bill reforming the blue laws, Morford decided to force them into action. Delaware papers carried the news that starting on Sunday, March 2nd, the blue laws would be strictly enforced. State and local police forces received orders from the Attorney General to arrest everyone found violating the law. All over the state police arrested taxi drivers, bus drivers, newspaper vendors, restaurant workers, gas station attendants, even the general manager of WDEL radio. Around 500 arrests were made that Sunday, swamping police stations and the courts.

Lena Blatman, owner of a Wilmington bakery, at the police station after being arrested for violating the blue laws.

Morford’s ploy worked, as the General Assembly finally passed a reformed blue laws bill on Friday, March 7th (it was approved by the governor on the 14th), narrowly avoiding another Sunday crackdown. State prosecutors dropped all of the pending cases against blue law violators.

Photos from the Delaware Public Archives. There are more photos of people arrested on March 2nd at the Delaware Public Archives digital collections page.

The Widener Law Library on the Delaware campus will be open Sunday, January 18th from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. On Monday the 19th, we will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

For more library hours information see our webpage.

The Delaware campus law library will be closed for winter break from December 24th through January 4th. We will reopen Monday, January 5th. Enjoy the holidays!

For more information about library hours see our webpage.

The Delaware campus law library is now on exam hours. We will be open until 2 a.m. every night through December 18th. Good luck with your exams!

Thanksgiving is coming up. The Delaware campus Widener Law Library will be closed on Thanksgiving and on shorter hours Thanksgiving weekend.

• November 26               8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• November 27                CLOSED
• November 28 & 29      9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• November 30               12 p.m. to 11 p.m.

For more information on library hours see our webpage.