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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Word Is "Humility": Why The Supreme Court Needed To Adopt A Code Of Judicial Ethics, Laurie L. Levenson Apr 2024

The Word Is "Humility": Why The Supreme Court Needed To Adopt A Code Of Judicial Ethics, Laurie L. Levenson

Pepperdine Law Review

The Supreme Court is one of our most precious institutions. However, for the last few years, American confidence in the Court has dropped to a new low. Less than 40% of Americans have confidence in the Court and its decisions. Recent revelations regarding luxury trips, gifts, and exclusive access for certain individuals to the Justices have raised questions about whether the Justices understand their basic ethical duties and can act in a fair and impartial manner. As commentators have noted, the Supreme Court stood as the only court in America that was not governed by an ethical code. The question …


Partisanship "All The Way Down" On The U.S. Supreme Court, Lee Epstein Apr 2024

Partisanship "All The Way Down" On The U.S. Supreme Court, Lee Epstein

Pepperdine Law Review

Just as the American public is politically polarized, so too is the U.S. Supreme Court. More than ever before, a clear alignment exists between the Justices’ partisanship and their ideological leanings (known as “partisan sorting”). Disapproval of opposing-party identifiers also appears to have intensified (“partisan antipathy”). This Article offers evidence of both forms of polarization. It shows that partisan sorting has resulted in wide gaps in voting between Republican and Democratic appointees; and it supplies data on “us-against-them” judging in the form of increasing antipathy toward opposite-partisan presidents. Taken collectively, the data point not to law “all the way down,” …


The Play’S The Thing: A Response To Judge Benjamin Beaton, Aaron J. Walayat Mar 2024

The Play’S The Thing: A Response To Judge Benjamin Beaton, Aaron J. Walayat

Pepperdine Law Review

In a recent speech, later published as an essay, the Hon. Benjamin Beaton of the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky shared his critical suggestions against the use of the honorific “Your Honor,” preferring instead the more neutral title “judge.” Judge Beaton’s reason for this preference stems from a fear that the current practice of judicial titles emphasizes status over function, which may inflate the individual judge’s ego while miscommunicating to the public that judges make, rather than find, law. This position, however, is misguided. Judicial titles emphasize the authority of the law through the authority …


Judicial Fidelity, Caprice L. Roberts Jan 2024

Judicial Fidelity, Caprice L. Roberts

Pepperdine Law Review

Judicial critics abound. Some say the rule of law is dead across all three branches of government. Four are dead if you count the media as the fourth estate. All are in trouble, even if one approves of each branch’s headlines, but none of them are dead. Not yet. Pundits and scholars see the latest term of the Supreme Court as clear evidence of partisan politics and unbridled power. They decry an upheaval of laws and norms demonstrating the dire situation across the federal judiciary. Democracy is not dead even when the Court issues opinions that overturn precedent, upends long-standing …


Cover, Masthead And Table Of Contents, Ashley Antony Dec 2023

Cover, Masthead And Table Of Contents, Ashley Antony

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Unclear Guidelines From The Sentencing Commission And A Prejudiced Warden Result In (Un)Compassionate Release, Mary Trotter Dec 2023

Unclear Guidelines From The Sentencing Commission And A Prejudiced Warden Result In (Un)Compassionate Release, Mary Trotter

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Congress first developed compassionate release in 1984, granting federal courts the authority to reduce sentences for “extraordinary and compelling” reasons. Compassionate release allows the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and inmates to apply for immediate early release on grounds of “particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the court at the time of sentencing.” Questions remain about how the BOP and the courts grant compassionate release and whether the courts apply the compassionate release guidelines consistently. The uncertainty is due to the lack of clarity from the USSC to define “extraordinary or compelling circumstances,” …


Masthead And Table Of Contents, Deepika Chandrashekar Jul 2023

Masthead And Table Of Contents, Deepika Chandrashekar

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


All Cases Matter: Mitigating Bias In The Administrative Law Judiciary, Cherron Payne Jul 2023

All Cases Matter: Mitigating Bias In The Administrative Law Judiciary, Cherron Payne

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

After an introduction and explanation of bias in Part I, Part II of this article explores the issue of bias and the underlying factors that configure bias, such as attitude, stereotype, and prejudice. Part II also examines the two principal types of bias, explicit bias and implicit bias, and defines common subsets of bias, such as gender bias. Part III presents implicit bias as an unconscious, utilitarian, and neuroscientific mechanism. Part III examines the neuroscience of decision-making and the neural structures that influence and regulate decision-making processes. Part III also discusses emotion as an underpinning to decision-making and the role …


Masthead And Table Of Contents, Deepika Chandrashekar Feb 2023

Masthead And Table Of Contents, Deepika Chandrashekar

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Table Of Contents & Masthead, Cara M. Macdonald May 2022

Table Of Contents & Masthead, Cara M. Macdonald

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Table Of Contents & Masthead, Cara M. Macdonald Jan 2022

Table Of Contents & Masthead, Cara M. Macdonald

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary, NAALJ, Contents, editorial board, Pepperdine University, Caruso School of Law


Masthead & Table Of Contents, Zachary T. Remijas Sep 2021

Masthead & Table Of Contents, Zachary T. Remijas

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


No Amendment? No Problem: Judges, “Informal Amendment,” And The Evolution Of Constitutional Meaning In The Federal Democracies Of Australia, Canada, India, And The United States, John V. Orth, John Gava, Arvind P. Bhanu, Paul T. Babie Mar 2021

No Amendment? No Problem: Judges, “Informal Amendment,” And The Evolution Of Constitutional Meaning In The Federal Democracies Of Australia, Canada, India, And The United States, John V. Orth, John Gava, Arvind P. Bhanu, Paul T. Babie

Pepperdine Law Review

This article considers the way in which judges play a significant role in developing the meaning of a constitution through the exercise of interpretive choices that have the effect of “informally amending” the text. We demonstrate this by examining four written federal democratic constitutions: those of the United States, the first written federal democratic constitution; India, the federal constitution of the largest democracy on earth; and the constitutions of Canada and Australia, both federal and democratic, but emerging from the English unwritten tradition. We divide our consideration of these constitutions into two ideal types, identified by Bruce Ackerman: the “revolutionary” …


Table Of Contents And Masthead, Zachary T. Remijas Mar 2021

Table Of Contents And Masthead, Zachary T. Remijas

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Jewish Law Perspectives On Judicial Settlement Practice, Shlomo Pill Jul 2020

Jewish Law Perspectives On Judicial Settlement Practice, Shlomo Pill

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The classic adjudicatory paradigm of opposing attorneys facing off at trial before a judge and jury in order to receive a favorable judgment is an image long past. Increased litigation volume, and the added time and expense of modern litigation has resulted in a rich practice of judges working to broker settlements between litigants in lieu of formal adjudication. Judicial settlement is the subject of much debate, however, and the diverse range of judicial practice in this area reflects the institutional, ethical, and jurisprudential uncertainties we still have regarding the propriety of judges facilitating settlements. This paper offers a new …


Court Expansion And The Restoration Of Democracy: The Case For Constitutional Hardball, Aaron Belkin Jul 2020

Court Expansion And The Restoration Of Democracy: The Case For Constitutional Hardball, Aaron Belkin

Pepperdine Law Review

Neither electoral politics, norms preservation, nor modest good government reform can restore the political system because they cannot mitigate the primary threat to the American democracy, Republican radicalism. Those who believe otherwise fail to appreciate how and why radicalism will continue to impede democratic restoration regardless of what happens at the ballot box, misdiagnose the underlying factors that produce and sustain GOP radicalism, and under-estimate the degree of democratic deterioration that has already taken place. Republicans do not need to prevail in every election to forestall the restoration of democracy or to prevent Democrats from governing. The only viable path …


A Call For America's Law Professors To Oppose Court-Packing, Bruce Ledewitz Jul 2020

A Call For America's Law Professors To Oppose Court-Packing, Bruce Ledewitz

Pepperdine Law Review

A Court-packing proposal is imminent. Mainstream Democratic Party Presidential Candidates are already supporting it. The number of Justices on the Supreme Court has been set at nine since 1869, but this is merely a statutory requirement. As soon as Democrats regain control of the Presidency and the Congress, Court-packing will be on the agenda, either expressly or under the guise of Court-reform. Now is the time for the American legal academy to join together to oppose this threat. Court-packing would threaten democracy, destroy the rule of law and undermine judicial independence. It is a pointless and unnecessary reaction born of …


Table Of Contents And Masthead, Lauren Jacobs May 2020

Table Of Contents And Masthead, Lauren Jacobs

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Table Of Contents And Masthead, Lauren Jacobs Mar 2020

Table Of Contents And Masthead, Lauren Jacobs

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Filling The Illinois Federal District Court Vacancies, Carl Tobias Jan 2020

Filling The Illinois Federal District Court Vacancies, Carl Tobias

Pepperdine Law Review

President Donald Trump repeatedly argues that appellate court appointments constitute his major success. The President and the United States Senate Republican Party majority have established records by approving fifty very conservative, young, and capable appellate court jurists. However, their confirmations have exacted a toll, particularly from the many federal district courts which address seventy-nine unfilled positions in 677 judicial posts. One constructive illustration has been the three Illinois tribunals which confront five pressing openings. The Administrative Office of the United States Courts classifies three as “emergencies,” because the vacant seats have been protracted and involve substantial caseloads. Despite this circumstance, …


2020 Fellowship Topic Announcement, National Association Of Administrative Law Judiciary Dec 2019

2020 Fellowship Topic Announcement, National Association Of Administrative Law Judiciary

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Table Of Contents And Editorial Board, Yoori Chung Nov 2019

Table Of Contents And Editorial Board, Yoori Chung

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


The Need For A Central Panel Approach To Administrative Adjudication: Pros, Cons, And Selected Practices, Malcolm C. Rich, Alison C. Goldstein Nov 2019

The Need For A Central Panel Approach To Administrative Adjudication: Pros, Cons, And Selected Practices, Malcolm C. Rich, Alison C. Goldstein

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

The goal of this report is to document the growth of the central panel movement that has now emerged in a majority of states. This research is designed to provide data-informed recommendations to states and municipalities considering the adoption of a central panel system or the enlargement of the jurisdiction encompassed by an existing central panel as well as to states considering the adoption of a more final decision-making authority for their central panel ALJs. The work is also intended to inform the debate over whether the central panel approach is something that the federal government should consider. This research …


Digital Realty, Legislative History, And Textualism After Scalia, Michael Francus Jun 2019

Digital Realty, Legislative History, And Textualism After Scalia, Michael Francus

Pepperdine Law Review

There is a shift afoot in textualism. The New Textualism of Justice Scalia is evolving in response to a new wave of criticism. That criticism presses on the tension between Justice Scalia’s commitment to faithful agency (effecting the legislature’s will) and his rejection of legislative history in the name of ordinary meaning (which ignores legislative will). And it has caused some textualists to shift away from faithful agency, even to the point of abandoning it as textualism’s grounding principle. But this shift has gone unnoticed. It has yet to be identified or described, let alone defended, even as academic and …


Table Of Contents And Editorial Board, Yoori Chung Jun 2019

Table Of Contents And Editorial Board, Yoori Chung

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Slip Slidin' Away: The Erosion Of Apa Adjudication, William Funk Jun 2019

Slip Slidin' Away: The Erosion Of Apa Adjudication, William Funk

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Although the enactment of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) was intended to establish a uniform set of procedures applicable to adjudications "required by statute to be determined on the record after opportunity for an agency hearing," agencies have long sought to avoid those procedures, and, in particular, Administrative Law Judges, by substituting informal, non-APA adjudications. Over time, the courts have accelerated this substitution through a misapplication of three Supreme Court opinions. This article describes the original understanding of the APA and how that original understanding has been eroded over the years. The article then asks whether this is a problem …


Table Of Contents And Editorial Board, Michelle Wellnitz Sep 2018

Table Of Contents And Editorial Board, Michelle Wellnitz

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Sec Disgorgement Actions: Equitable Remedy Or Penalty?, Armando Lopez Sep 2018

Sec Disgorgement Actions: Equitable Remedy Or Penalty?, Armando Lopez

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Mining For Children’S Data In Today’S Digital World, Damin Park Sep 2018

Mining For Children’S Data In Today’S Digital World, Damin Park

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Keeping The Healthcare Industry Accountable, Yoori Chung Sep 2018

Keeping The Healthcare Industry Accountable, Yoori Chung

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.