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Appellate Review Of Social Facts In Constitutional Rights Cases, Caitlin E. Borgmann

Publications and Research

There is great confusion among scholars and courts about whether and when appellate courts may, or must, defer to trial courts' findings of social fact in constitutional rights cases. The Supreme Court has never directly decided the question and indeed has addressed it only once, in passing. A common assumption, promoted by scholars and adopted as binding by some circuits, is that the deferential, "clearly erroneous" standard of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a)(6) does not apply to social facts. This Article challenges that assumption. There is nothing in the text of the rule that supports this conclusion. Moreover, except …