Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Yahweh’S Benevolence Vs. Anat’S Malevolence: A Comparative Analysis Of Judges 4–5 And Col Ii 1–Col Iii 2, Michaela Misantone

Senior Honors Theses

The actions of ancient Near Eastern warrior gods are often depicted as acts of vengeance, greed, and brutality, serving selfish ambition and never-ending power struggles. These gods and their warfare ethic dominated the worldview of the ancient world in which the events of the Old Testament took place. The actions of the Hebrew God are often included, even emphasized, in discussions of ancient divine warfare today. There are supposed similarities between the actions of war gods like Anat from the Ugaritic pantheon and those of Yahweh from ancient Israel. Unfortunately, this has led to the present-day belief that the God …

Shinall, David L. (Sc 3572), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3572. Taped interviews by David Shinall, a reporter for WKU’s College Heights Herald, with justices of the Kentucky Supreme Court, made prior to a session of the court held on WKU’s campus on 18 April 2002.

Fuqua, William G., B. 1930 (Sc 3507), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3507. “A Judge’s Retirement Reflections,” by William G. Fuqua, Judge, Logan (County, Kentucky) Circuit Court, inscribed 14 July 1995; and a letter to Fuqua, 6 September 1990, from Bowling Green, Kentucky attorney Philip Huddleston soliciting contribution of an article for the newsletter of the local bar.

Notoriously Ruthless: The Idolization Of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Lucille Moran

Political Science Honors Projects

It is now a fixture of mainstream commentary in the United States that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become a popular idol on the political left. Yet, while Justice Ginsburg’s image and story has reached an unprecedented level of valorization and even commercialization, scholars have yet to give sustained attention to the phenomenon and to contextualize it: why has this idolization emerged within this context, and what is its impact? This paper situates her portrayal in the cultural imagination as the product of two political forces, namely partisanship and identity politics. Considering parallel scholarly discourses of reputation, celebrity, …

Law Library Blog (July 2019): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Reconsidering Judicial Independence: Forty-Five Years In The Trenches And In The Tower, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

Trusting in the integrity of our institutions when they are not under stress, we focus attention on them both when they are under stress or when we need them to protect us against other institutions. In the case of the federal judiciary, the two conditions often coincide. In this essay, I use personal experience to provide practical context for some of the important lessons about judicial independence to be learned from the periods of stress for the federal judiciary I have observed as a lawyer and concerned citizen, and to provide theoretical context for lessons I have deemed significant as …

The Subversions And Perversions Of Shadow Vigilantism, Paul H. Robinson, Sarah M. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

This excerpt from the recently published Shadow Vigilantes book argues that, while vigilantism, even moral vigilantism, can be dangerous to a society, the real danger is not of hordes of citizens, frustrated by the system’s doctrines of disillusionment, rising up to take the law into their own hands. Frustration can spark a vigilante impulse, but such classic aggressive vigilantism is not the typical response. More common is the expression of disillusionment in less brazen ways by a more surreptitious undermining and distortion of the operation of the criminal justice system.

Shadow vigilantes, as they might be called, can affect the …

Arguing With Friends, William Baude, Ryan D. Doerfler

All Faculty Scholarship

It is a fact of life that judges sometimes disagree about the best outcome in appealed cases. The question is what they should make of this. The two purest possibilities are to shut out all other views, or else to let them all in, leading one to concede ambiguity and uncertainty in most if not all contested cases.

Drawing on the philosophical concepts of “peer disagreement” and “epistemic peerhood,” we argue that there is a better way. Judges ought to give significant weight to the views of others, but only when those others share the judge’s basic methodology or interpretive …

Doctrinal Reasoning As A Disruptive Practice, Jessie Allen

Articles

Legal doctrine is generally thought to contribute to legal decision making only to the extent it determines substantive results. Yet in many cases, the available authorities are indeterminate. I propose a different model for how doctrinal reasoning might contribute to judicial decisions. Drawing on performance theory and psychological studies of readers, I argue that judges’ engagement with formal legal doctrine might have self-disrupting effects like those performers experience when they adopt uncharacteristic behaviors. Such disruptive effects would not explain how judges ultimately select, or should select, legal results. But they might help legal decision makers to set aside subjective biases.

Blackstone, Expositor And Censor Of Law Both Made And Found, Jessie Allen

Book Chapters

Jeremy Bentham famously insisted on the separation of law as it is and law as it should be, and criticized his contemporary William Blackstone for mixing up the two. According to Bentham, Blackstone costumes judicial invention as discovery, obscuring the way judges make new law while pretending to uncover preexisting legal meaning. Bentham’s critique of judicial phoniness persists to this day in claims that judges are “politicians in robes” who pick the outcome they desire and rationalize it with doctrinal sophistry. Such skeptical attacks are usually met with attempts to defend doctrinal interpretation as a partial or occasional limit on …

The Fourth Chief Justice Of The United States, John Marshall, Meagan Schantz

Writing Across the Curriculum

The fourth Chief Justice of the United States, John Marshall (1755-1835), served thirty-four years (1801-1835) in the United States Supreme Court. During his term, Marshall established a stable foundation for the United States Judiciary, which in turn increased the role and scope of the federal government. Marshall’s life and achievements are documented in the biography, The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law by Charles F. Hobson, the editor of The Papers of John Marshall.

Helm, John Blakey, 1899-1979 (Sc 572), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 572. Typescript of a speech, [April, 1949], entitled “Memo on Second Appellate District Judges” by John Blakey Helm, which contains a history of the district and biographical information about the judges who had served that district until 1949.

Constitution Day 2012: The American Judiciary, Robert Berry

Librarian Publications

Robert Berry, research librarian for the social sciences at the Sacred Heart University Library, has written an essay about the role of the American Judiciary in interpreting laws of the United States government. The essay was written for the occasion of Constitution Day 2012 at Sacred Heart University.

Comments On [Israeli] Proposal For Structuring Judicial Discretion In Sentencing, Paul H. Robinson

All Faculty Scholarship

In this essay, Professor Robinson supports the current Israeli proposal for structuring judicial discretion in sentencing, in particular its reliance upon desert as the guiding principle for the distribution of punishment, its reliance upon benchmarks, or “starting-points,” to be adjusted in individual cases by reference to articulated mitigating and aggravating circumstances, and the proposal’s suggestion to use of an expert committee to draft the original guidelines.

Bush, Ann Patricia (Mcreynolds), 1922-2022 (Mss 328), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 328. Proof copy of "Executive Disorder: The Subversion of the United States Supreme Court, 1914-1940," written by Ann (McReynolds) Bush. The book follows the career of U.S. Attorney General (1913-1914) and Associate Supreme Court Justice (1914-1941) James Clark McReynolds, a native of Todd County, Kentucky.

Evans, Walter, 1842-1923 (Sc 2018), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2018. Letters of Walter Evans, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, to Robert Ludlow Fowler, a New York jurist and author.

Reynolds, Charles H., 1924-1996 (Sc 1778), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1778. Tributes to Charles H. Reynolds, justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, on his death. Includes eulogy by Chief Justice Robert F. Stevens, funeral homily by his son Rev. James Patrick Reynolds, and a resolution adjourning the Kentucky State Senate in his memory. Also includes a subsequent tribute by his son Mike Reynolds at the unveiling of his portrait at the Warren County Justice Center.

Morningstar, Jane (Hines), 1904-1989 (Mss 201), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 201. Correspondence and research notes relating to biographical information compiled for labels attached to portraits of Warren County, Kentucky Circuit Court judges. Copies of the labels and photos of five of the portraits are included. Detailed information about Judge John B. Rodes is included.

Boone, George Street, 1918-2004 (Sc 1530), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1530. Letter, 18 September 1987, from George Street Boone, an attorney In Elkton, Kentucky, to Senator Wendell H. Ford, Washington, D.C., discussing the candidacy of Robert H. Bork, Jr. as a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Swinford, Mac, 1899-1975 (Sc 1449), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1449. Letter, 21 April 1970, of U.S. District Court Judge Mac Swinford, Lexington, Kentucky, to Crawford Crowe, Bowling Green, Kentucky, fulfilling a request for a copy of his book Kentucky Lawyer. He declines to vouch for the accuracy of the book's historical facts "other than as legend."

Open Texture And The Possibility Of Legal Interpretation, David B. Lyons

Faculty Scholarship

This essay concerns the possibility of interpreting law. It is always possible to interpret law in the weak sense, which assigns meaning it is not assumed the law previously possessed. My concern here is interpretation in the strong sense, which, if successful, reveals meaning that lies hidden in the law. Theories of legal interpretation have recently received much theoretical attention. The received theory of law's open texture suggests that this interest is misplaced.

Alternative Career Resolution: An Essay On The Removal Of Federal Judges, Stephen B. Burbank

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.