Law Commons^™

Certiorari, Universality, And A Patent Puzzle, Tejas N. Narechania

Michigan Law Review

The most important determinant of a case’s chances for Supreme Court review is a circuit split: If two courts of appeals have decided the same issue differently, review is substantially more likely. But practically every appeal in a patent case makes its way to a single court—the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. How, then, does the Supreme Court decide whether to grant certiorari in a patent case?

The petitions for certiorari in the Court’s patent docket suggest an answer: The Supreme Court looks for splits anyway. These splits, however, are of a different sort. Rather than consider whether …

The Lottery Docket, Daniel Epps, William Ortman

Michigan Law Review

We propose supplementing the Supreme Court’s caseload with a “lottery docket” of cases selected at random from final judgments of the circuit courts. The Court currently possesses almost unfettered authority to set its own agenda through its certiorari jurisdiction. By rule and custom, the Court exercises that discretion by selecting cases that it sees as important, in a narrow sense of that term. The Court’s free hand in agenda setting has obvious benefits, but it has drawbacks as well. It deprives the Court of critical information about how the law operates in ordinary cases. It signals to circuit courts that …

The Supreme Court's Controversial Gvrs - And An Alternative, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Michigan Law Review

This Article addresses a relatively neglected portion of the Supreme Court's docket: the "GVR"-that is, the Court's procedure for summarily granting certiorari, vacating the decision below without finding error, and remanding the case for further consideration by the lower court. The purpose of the GVR device is to give the lower court the initial opportunity to consider the possible impact of a new development (such as a recently issued Supreme Court decision) and, if necessary, to revise its ruling in light of the changed circumstances. The Court may issue scores or even hundreds of these orders every year. This Article …

Confession Of Error By The Solicitor General, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

It is the position of this Note that the Court should formulate a new policy to govern its review of confessed errors. Specifically, this Note proposes that in deciding whether to grant certiorari and whether to defer to the representations of the Solicitor General, the Supreme Court should distinguish between errors that are normally subject to judicial scrutiny (reviewable errors) and errors of prosecutorial discretion that belong to a category of executive conduct not usually reviewed by the courts. When reviewable errors are confessed, the Court should apply a standard more liberal than that of rule 19 in deciding whether …

Constitutional Law - Certiorari - Integrity Of The Rule Of Four, Robert L. Knauss S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

In four recent cases involving the Federal Employers Liability Act the Supreme Court of the United States, after granting certiorari, reviewed the facts of the cases to determine if there was sufficient evidence to allow the cases to be heard by a jury. Justice Frankfurter in a lengthy dissenting opinion refused to hear these cases on their merits. He would have dismissed them on the ground that certiorari was improvidently granted, although no new evidence warranted this conclusion. Justice Frankfurter maintained that any justice has a right to refuse to hear a case after certiorari has been granted, and that …

Recent Legal Literature, Henry H. Swan, James F. Tracey, Robert E. Bunker, Floyd R. Mechem, Bradley Thompson, James H. Brewster, Floyd R. Mechem, Horace Lafayette Wilgus

Michigan Law Review

Hughes: Handbook of Admiralty Law; Wilgus: Cases on the General Principles of the Law of Private Corporations; Spelling: A Treatise on Injunctions and Other Extraordinary Remedies; Brannon: A Treatise on the Rights and Privileges Guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; Boone: Real Property Law, 2nd ed.; Abbott and Abbott: The Clerks' and Conveyancers' Assistant; Rose: Notes on the United States Reports; Nichols: Britton: An English Translation and Notes