Law Commons^™

This Isn't A Reality Show: How Social Media Livestreams Of High-Profile Criminal Trials May Violate One's Right To A Fair Trial, Ryan Fenn

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Since the invention of television in 1927, the American legal system faced drastic changes. In 1935, the first trial was broadcast to the public in the case of Bruno Hauptmann. During the trial, “[e]laborate telegraph equipment” was installed in the courtroom, with “sound and motion picture equipment . . . plainly visible in the [courtroom] balcony.” From 1935 on, broadcasting technology has been utilized in the courtroom to convey the inner workings of certain courts to the public, which has stimulated debate over whether the use of this technology is conducive to a fair trial under the Sixth and …

As Pertains To The Criminal Justice System, Is Hindsight 20/20?, Syndie G. E. Molina, Cristina Negrillo

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Sticks, Stones, And So-Called Judges: Why The Era Of Trump Necessitates Revisiting Presidential Influence On The Courts, Quinn W. Crowley

Indiana Law Journal

This Note will be primarily divided into three main sections. Part I of this Note will begin by discussing the importance of judicial independence in modern society and the role of elected officials in shaping the public perception of the courts. Additionally, as problems of judicial legitimacy are age-old and date back to America’s founding, Part I will include a brief discussion of an early clash between President Thomas Jefferson and the courts.

Parts II and III of this Note will seek to place President Trump’s conduct towards the judicial branch within the proper historical context. Part II examines the …

Surveying The Landscape As Technology Revolutionizes Media Coverage Of Appellate Courts, Howard J. Bashman

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

References To Television Programming In Judicial Opinions And Lawyers’ Advocacy, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

"Think of the poor judge who is reading ... hundreds and hundreds of these briefs," says Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. "Liven their life up just a little bit. . . with something interesting." Lawyers can "liven up" their briefs with references to television shows generally known to Americans who have grown up watching the small screen. After discussing television's pervasive effect on American culture since the early 1950s, this Article surveys the array of television references that appear in federal and state judicial opinions. In cases with no claims or defenses concerning the television industry, judges often help …

Declining Controversial Cases: How Marriage Equality Changed The Paradigm, Elena Baylis

Articles

Until recently, state attorneys general defended their states’ laws as a matter of course. However, one attorney general’s decision not to defend his state’s law in a prominent marriage equality case sparked a cascade of attorney general declinations in other marriage equality cases. Declinations have also increased across a range of states and with respect to several other contentious subjects, including abortion and gun control. This Essay evaluates the causes and implications of this recent trend of state attorneys general abstaining from defending controversial laws on the grounds that those laws are unconstitutional, focusing on the marriage equality cases as …

Law Library Blog (October 2015): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Judicial Activism’S Effect On Judicial Elections, Nick Fernandes

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

High profile Supreme Court cases have become increasingly commonplace, particularly with the Citizens United court decision granting unprecedented rights to corporations. Many in the media have decried these as examples of increasing “judicial activism”. This trend has trickled down to the state supreme courts as justices have increasingly played a more active role in developing policy. Gay marriage has become legalized in numerous states due to this trend. While public sentiment is unlikely to affect the appointed Supreme Court, it could have a substantial impact on state judicial elections.

This paper will specifically be looking at judicial elections in Kentucky. …

Court Of Appeals Of New York, Courtroom Television Network, Llc V. New York, Courtney Weinberger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Death Penalty’S “Finely Tuned Depravity Calibrators” Fairness Follies Of Fairness Phonies Fixated On Criminals Instead Of Crimes, Lester Jackson

LESTER JACKSON

It has been loudly and repeatedly proclaimed by opponents that capital punishment is “unfair.” In their view, it is unfair because (1) only some murderers receive the ultimate sentence and (2) they are not the most deserving. Underlying this view is the remarkable assumption that fairness is subject to “fine tuning” and “moral accuracy.” It is argued here that this assumption is indefensible both in theory and in practice. As a theoretical matter, it is insupportable to suggest that matters of conscience, right and wrong, are subject to calibration or “accuracy.” Right and wrong are not determined in the same …

Balancing The Scales: Adhuc Sub Judice Li Est Or Trial By Media, Casey J. Cooper

Casey J Cooper

The right to freedom of expression and free press is recognized under almost all major human rights instruments and domestic legal systems—common and civil—in the world. However, what do you do when a fundamental right conflicts with another equally fundamental right, like the right to a fair trial? In the United States, the freedom of speech, encompassing the freedom of the press, goes nearly unfettered: the case is not the same for other common law countries. In light of cultural and historic facts, institutional factors, modern realities, and case-law, this Article contends that current American jurisprudence does not take into …

A Comment On "No Comment": The Sub Judice Rule And The Accountability Of Public Officials Inthe 21st Century, Lorne Sossin, Valerie Crystal

Dalhousie Law Journal

The sub judice rule is a rule of court, a statutory rule, a Parliamentary convention and a practice that has developed in the interaction between media and public officials. At its most basic, the sub judice rule prohibits the publication of statements which may prejudice court proceedings. This study examines the nature, rationale and scope ofthe sub judice rule. The authors provide an account of the current state of the rule, and highlight areas where more clarity would be desirable. The authors propose a more coherent approach to the sub jud ice rule, more clearly rooted in the concern over …

Chandler V. Florida: Cameras, Courts, And The Constitution, Allen F. Camp

Pepperdine Law Review

The rising importance of television journalism in the 1960's has resulted in the Supreme Court deciding whether a criminal defendant's due process rights are violated by camera coverage of the courtroom proceeding. The decision of Chandler v. Florida clearly provides the answer; for unless a defendant proves prejudice with specificity, the Constitution does not ban televised criminal trials. The author examines the issues with a revealing historical perspective. He then traces the Court's factual and legal analysis and concludes that the decision will serve to offer the states guidance in deciding whether to implement a program allowing television coverage of …

Juror Journalism: Are Profit Motives Replacing Civic Duty?, Brent K. Ashby

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fact Suppression And The Subversion Of Capital Punishment: What Death Penalty Foes On The Supreme Court And In The Media Do Not Want The Public To Know, Lester --- Jackson

LESTER JACKSON

The U.S. Supreme Court and other courts, aided by the media in suppressing critical information about case facts and case law, have all but abolished capital punishment, turning what's left into a costly and agonizing farce. While pretending to superlative morality, dishonesty, especially half-truth, is central to their cause. An egregious example was Roger Coleman, widely but with knowing falsity portrayed as a choir boy executed because heartless judges impatiently refused to hear evidence of his innocence. Going further, in myriad cases, death sentences are reversed or banned when guilt is not even disputed. This is achieved by focusing upon …

Covering Women And Violence: Media Treatment Of Vawa's Civil Rights Remedy, Sarah F. Russell

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This Article analyzes how newspapers described and characterized the civil rights provision over the past decade and shaped the public discourse about the law. The author examines how lower federal courts, and eventually the Supreme Court, categorized the VAWA remedy when deciding whether Congress had acted within its commerce powers. After considering why there may have been resistance in the press and in the courts to VAWA's categorization of violence against women as a civil rights issue, the author concludes by examining the remedies that have been introduced at the state and local level for victims of gender-motivated violence, and …

Sovereign Indignity? Values, Borders And The Internet: A Case Study, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

This article focuses on the publication ban issued by a Canadian court in a notorious murder trial, and the popular reaction to the publication ban, as a case study of the new global communications environment. Part I reconstructs the factual circumstances that provoked the ban, as well as the responses of the media, the legal establishment, and the public. Part II examines the ban itself, the constitutional challenge mounted by the media, and the landmark Dagenais decision. Part III reflects on the meaning of the entire episode for law, journalism, and national sovereignty.

The Dagenais decision demonstrates the continued independence …

Closing The Barn Door After The Genie Is Out Of The Bag: Recognizing A "Futility Principle" In First Amendment Jurisprudence, Eric Easton

All Faculty Scholarship

This article argues for a simple proposition: the First Amendment imposes a presumption against the suppression of speech when suppression would be futile. Suppression is futile when the speech is available to the same audience through some other medium or at some other place. The government can overcome this presumption of futility only when it asserts an important interest that is unrelated to the content of the speech in question, and only when the suppression directly advances that interest.

In Part I, the article explores the role that this unarticulated "futility principle" has played in Supreme Court and other decisions …

The Road Not Taken: Criminal Contempt Sanctions And Grand Jury Press Leaks, James W. Fox Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the appropriate judicial responses to such news stories, focusing on the options available to counsel for the target of a grand jury investigation who is affected by the leaked information. Part I explains why dismissal and quashing are extremely difficult remedies to obtain, why internal investigations by the government are inadequate, and why, therefore, contempt sanctions are presently the most viable legal response to such leaks. Part II describes the general contours of both criminal and civil contempt actions and reviews specific applications of civil contempt actions in grand jury leak cases. Part III questions the functional …

Electronic Media Access To Federal Courtrooms: A Judicial Response, Laralyn M. Sasaki

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines the ongoing electronic media access dispute and suggests methods to establish access. Because reform of current law would be implemented largely at the judicial "front lines"-the 700-plus U.S. district judges' courtrooms ---the concerns and desires of district judges are of primary importance to any proposed change. The survey documented an institutional resistance to an expanded media presence in federal courtrooms; this institutional inertia may be the strongest single reason that change has not occurred. Part I of this Note presents the federal rules, canons, and resolutions comprising the current prohibition against video and audio-equipment access, as well …

News Of Crime: Courts And Press In Conflict, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of News of Crime: Courts and Press in Conflict by J. Edward Gerald

The Media In The Courtroom: Attending, Reporting, Televising Criminal Cases, Paul Marcus

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Advisory Committee On Fair Trial And Free Press: American Bar Association Project On Minimum Standards For Criminal Justice: Standards Relating To Fair Trial And Free Press (Tentative Draft), George Edwards, Robert M. Cipes

Michigan Law Review

A Review of American Bar Association Project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice: Standards Relating to Fair Trial and Free Press (Tentative Draft) Recommended by the Advisory Committee on Fair Trial and Free Press