Law Commons^™

Muslims And Religious Liberty In The Era Of 9/11: Empirical Evidence From The Federal Courts, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

In our continuing empirical study of religious-liberty decisions in the federal courts, American Muslims were at a distinct and substantial disadvantage in raising free exercise or accommodation claims between 1996 and 2005. With other variables held constant, the likelihood of success for non-Muslim claimants in Religious Free Exercise claims was 38%, while the probability of success for Muslim claimants fell to 22% (with an even higher disparity among court of appeals judges). In sum, Muslim claimants enjoyed only about half the chance to receive accommodation of their religious beliefs and practices as did claimants from other religious communities.

Drawing on …

Equal Educational Opportunity By The Numbers: The Warren Court's Empirical Legacy, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

The Court Vs. Educational Standards, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

The Past, Present, And Future Of Empirical Legal Scholarship: Judicial Decision Making And The New Empiricism, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Over the last century, empirical legal scholarship has joined the ranks of the mainstream within the legal academy. In this article, Professor Heise traces the history of legal empiricism and discusses its growing role within the legal academy. First, the article traces legal empiricism through the twentieth century from the legal empiricism movement of the early twentieth century, to post-World War II efforts to revive legal empiricism, including the Chicago Jury Project and large-scale foundational support for empirical legal research, through current support for legal empirical research from both the law schools and other research centers. The article then discusses …

The 2006 Winthrop And Frances Lane Lecture: The Unintended Legal And Policy Consequences Of The No Child Left Behind Act, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Preliminary Thoughts On The Virtues Of Passive Dialogue, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

The judicial, legislative, and executive branches interact in many ways. These interactions fuel a constitutional dialogue that serves as a backdrop to myriad governmental activities, both large and small. The judiciary's participation is necessary, desirable, and, as a practical matter, inevitable. In my article I analyze two competing models that bear on the normative question: What form should the judiciary's participation take? Debates over the judiciary's appropriate role in the public constitutional dialogue have captured scholarly attention for decades. Recent attention has focused on a growing distinction between the active and passive models of judicial participation. My article approaches this …

Variability In Punitive Damages: Empirically Assessing Exxon Shipping Co. V. Baker, Theodore Eisenberg, Michael Heise, Martin T. Wells

Michael Heise

Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker acknowledged that empirical studies undercut criticism of punitive damages. Paradoxically, the Court simultaneously expressed concern about jury predictability based on a high and variable punitive–compensatory ratio published in an article by the present authors. The Court reduced the $2.5 billion Exxon Valdez punitive award to $500 million and stated: “the constitutional outer limit may well be 1:1.” Our empirical findings do not support the unpredictability concern or widely applying the limiting ratio. The high and variable ratio is an artifact of not accounting for the key variable that explains punitive awards – the compensatory award.

Closing One Gap But Opening Another?: A Response To Dean Perritt And Comments On The Internet, Law Schools, And Legal Education, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Why Adr Programs Aren’T More Appealing: An Empirical Perspective, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Standard law and economic theory suggests that litigating parties seeking to maximize welfare will participate in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) programs if they generate a surplus. ADR programs claim to generate social surplus partly through promoting settlements and reducing case disposition time. Although most associate ADR programs with trial courts, a relatively recent trend involves appellate court use of ADR programs. The emergence of court-annexed ADR programs raises a question. Specifically, if ADR programs achieve their goals of promoting settlements and reducing disposition time, why do some courts find it necessary to impose ADR participation? Attention to ADR’s ability to …

Judges And Ideology: Public And Academic Debates About Statistical Measures, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Scholars who use empirical methods to study the behavior of judges long have labored in relative obscurity, unknown outside of academic circles (and indeed they only recently have emerged into the mainstream of the legal academy). However, the seclusion of the ivory tower has been breached as public attention has become increasingly focused upon studies that suggest the influence of ideological or partisan variables upon the outcomes of court cases. Over the last few years, the statistical work of scholars on judicial decisionmaking has provoked controversy in the wider legal community and has been enlisted by one side of the …

Judge-Jury Difference In Punitive Damages Awards: Who Listens To The Supreme Court?, Theodore Eisenberg, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

We analyze thousands of trials from a substantial fraction of the nation’s most populous counties as well as a smaller sample of less populous counties. Evidence from four major Civil Justice Survey data sets spanning more than a decade establishes that: (1) compensatory awards are strongly associated with punitive awards and (2) the punitive-compensatory relation has not materially changed over time. But (3) 2005 data suggest, for the first time, systematic differences between judges and juries in the punitive-compensatory relation. Despite claims that the Supreme Court’s State Farm decision changed the punitivecompensatory relation, we present evidence that the 2005 shift …

State Constitutions, School Finance Litigation, And The "Third Wave": From Equity To Adequacy, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Charting The Influences On The Judicial Mind: An Empirical Study Of Judicial Reasoning, Gregory Sisk, Michael Heise, Andrew Morriss

Michael Heise

In 1988, hundreds of federal district judges were suddenly confronted with the need to render a decision on the constitutionality of the Sentencing Reform Act and the newly promulgated criminal Sentencing Guidelines. Never before has a question of such importance and involving such significant issues of constitutional law mandated the immediate and simultaneous attention of such a large segment of the federal trial bench. Accordingly, this event provides an archetypal model for exploring the influence of social background, ideology, judicial role and institution, and other factors on judicial decisionmaking. Based upon a unique set of written decisions involving an identical …

Schoolhouses, Courthouses, And Statehouses: Educational Finance, Constitutional Structure, And The Separation Of Powers Doctrine, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Splitting Logs: An Empirical Perspective On Employment Discrimination Settlements, Stewart J. Schwab, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Goals 2000: Educate America Act: The Federalization And Legalization Of Educational Policy, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Don't Train Your Employees And Cancel Your "1-800" Harassment Hotline: An Empirical Examination And Correction Of The Flaws In The Affirmative Defense To Sexual Harassment Charges, David Sherwyn, Michael Heise, Zev J. Eigen

Michael Heise

The Supreme Court's two-pronged affirmative defense limiting employer liability for sexual harassment, articulated in the Faragher and Ellerth decisions, generated substantial scholarly commentary. Many scholars were quick to predict how lower courts would apply the affirmative defense. However, many predictions about the affirmative defense were advanced prior to the emergence of a sufficient number of judicial opinions applying it. In this article we report results of our empirical study of the first 72 post-Ellerth and Faragher opinions involving employers' summary judgment motions that include affirmative defenses in response to allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace. We find that employer-related …

An Empirical And Constitutional Analysis Of Racial Ceilings And Public Schools, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Quiet Rebellion? Explaining Nearly A Decade Of Declining Federal Drug Sentences, Frank O. Bowman Iii, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

This is the first of two articles, the second of which will appear in January 2002 edition of the Iowa Law Review, in which we seek an explanation for the little-noticed and hitherto unexamined fact that the average length of prison sentences imposed in federal court for narcotics violations has been declining steadily since 1991-92. According to figures maintained by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, in the eight years between 1991 and 1999, the average federal drug sentence decreased from 95.7 months to 75.2 months, a drop of 22%, or nearly two years, per defendant. United States …

Federal Criminal Appeals: A Brief Empirical Perspective, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

None

Courting Trouble: Litigation, High-Stakes Testing, And Education Policy, Michael R. Heise

Michael Heise

High-stakes testing policies did not emerge in an education policy vacuum. Part I of this Article includes a brief description of the major high-stakes tests and their policy rationales. Part II surveys recent litigation challenging one distinct genre of high-stakes testing-high school exit exams. Two cases illustrate courts' current posture toward legal challenges of exit exams. Part III reviews evidence of courts' increased sensitivity to the policy consequences attributable to court decisions that interfere with the implementation of exit exams. Part IV concludes and notes the important normative questions raised by judges' concerns with policy consequences flowing from their decisions.

Mercy By The Numbers: An Empirical Analysis Of Clemency And Its Structure, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Clemency is an extrajudicial measure intended both to enhance fairness in the administration of justice, and allow for the correction of mistakes. Perhaps nowhere are these goals more important than in the death penalty context. The recent increased use of the death penalty and concurrent decline in the number of defendants removed from death row through clemency call for a better and deeper understanding of clemency authority and its application. Questions about whether clemency decisions are consistently and fairly distributed are particularly apt. This study uses 27 years of death penalty and clemency data to explore the influence of defendant …

The Courts, Educational Policy, And Unintended Consequences, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Recent school finance litigation illustrates yet again how law can generate unintended policy consequences. Seeking to improve student achievement and school accountability, more states now turn to educational standards and assessments. At the same time, a multi-decade school finance litigation effort develops and changes its theoretical base. Recently, educational standards and school finance litigation converged in a way that enables school districts to gain financially from their inability to meet desired achievement levels. Specifically, courts increasingly allow litigants and lawsuits to transform standards and assessments into constitutional entitlements to additional resources. As a consequence, increased legal and financial exposure for …

Public Funds, Private Schools, And The Court: Legal Issues And Policy Consequences, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Quiet Rebellion Ii: An Empirical Analysis Of Declining Federal Drug Sentences Including Data From The District Level, Frank O. Bowman, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

This is the second of two articles in which we seek an explanation for the hitherto unexamined fact that the average length of prison sentences imposed in federal court for narcotics violations declined by more than 15% between 1991-92 and 2000. Our first article, Quiet Rebellion? Explaining Nearly a Decade of Declining Federal Drug Sentences, 86 Iowa Law Review 1043 (May 2001) ( "Rebellion I" ), examined national sentencing data in an effort to determine whether the decline in federal drug sentences is real (rather than a statistical anomaly), and to identify and analyze possible causes of the decline. We …

Judicial Decision-Making, Social Science Evidence, And Equal Educational Opportunity: Uneasy Relations And Uncertain Futures, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.

Free Exercise Of Religion Before The Bench: Empirical Evidence From The Federal Courts, Michael Heise, Gregory C. Sisk

Michael Heise

We analyze various factors that influence judicial decisions in cases involving Free Exercise Clause or religious accommodation claims and decided by lower federal courts. Religious liberty claims, including those moored in the Free Exercise Clause, typically generate particularly difficult questions about how best to structure the sometimes contentious relation between the religious faithful and the sovereign government. Such difficult questions arise frequently in and are often framed by litigation. Our analyses include all digested Free Exercise and religious accommodation claim decisions by federal court of appeals and district court judges from 1996 through 2005. As it relates to one key …

Equal Educational Opportunity, Hollow Victories, And The Demise Of School Finance Equity Theory: An Empirical Perspective And Alternative Explanation, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

Professor Heise reports findings from his on-going empirical study of judicial impact in the school finance context. The study employs interrupted time series analyses to explore the independent effect of successful school finance equity court decisions on two key outcome variables, centralization and total educational spending levels. The results cast some doubt about long-held assumptions regarding the efficacy of court decisions. The author argues that the results also uncover important clues that help explain the recent fundamental shift in school finance litigation theory from equity to adequacy.

Amicus Brief, Lebron V. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, Neil Vidmar, Tom Baker, Ralph L. Brill, Martha Chamallas, Stephen Daniels, Thomas A. Eaton, Theodore Eisenberg, Neal R. Feigenson, Lucinda M. Finley, Marc Galanter, Valerie P. Hans, Michael Heise, Edward J. Kionka, Thomas H. Koenig, Herbert M. Kritzer, David I. Levine, Nancy S. Marder, Joanne Martin, Frank M. Mcclellan, Deborah Jones Merritt, Philip G. Peters, Jr., James T. Richardson, Charles Silver, Richard W. Wright

Michael Heise

Illinois Public Act 82-280, § 2-1706.5, as amended by P.A. 94-677, § 330 (eff. Aug. 25, 2005), and as codified as 735 ILCS 5/2-1706.5(a), imposes a $500,000 “cap” on the noneconomic damages that may be awarded in a medical malpractice suit against a physician or other health care professional, and a $1 million “cap” on the noneconomic damages that may be awarded against a hospital, its affiliates, or their employees. This brief will address two of the questions presented for review by the parties: 1. Does the cap violate the Illinois Constitution’s prohibition on “special legislation,” Art. IV, § 3, …

Educational Jujitsu: How School Finance Lawyers Learned To Turn Standards And Accountability Into Dollars, Michael Heise

Michael Heise

No abstract provided.