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Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Complete Issue
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Complete Issue
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
No abstract provided.
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Table Of Contents
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Table Of Contents
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
No abstract provided.
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Editor's Note
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Editor's Note
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
This issue presents four viewpoints on current issues involving judicial elections, politics, and the effect of public opinion on the courts. In our lead article, Shira Goodman and Lynn Marks of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts tell the story of Pennsylvania’s 2005 retention election for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. With very little warning, public opposition developed to the retention of two justices: one was retained with 54% of the vote and one was thrown out of office with only 49% voting to retain him. The election was unusual because it did not relate to opinions issued by either justice. Rather, the …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3-4 - Cover
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3-4 - Cover
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
No abstract provided.
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Book Review: A Judge's Role In The Rule Of Law, William F. Hurst Iv
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Book Review: A Judge's Role In The Rule Of Law, William F. Hurst Iv
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Two recently published books, On the Rule of Law: History, Politics, Theory by Brian Z. Tamanaha, and The Rule of Law in America by Ronald A. Cass, provide an in-depth analysis into what the rule of law means today, its history, and what impact its meaning has on the current American judiciary.
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Lessons From An Unusual Retention Election, Shira J. Goodman, Lynn A. Marks
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Lessons From An Unusual Retention Election, Shira J. Goodman, Lynn A. Marks
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
On November 8, 2005, something happened in Pennsylvania that has never happened before: an appellate judge, a supreme court justice no less, lost an uncontested retention election. Not only was the loss unprecedented, but with the exception of one retention election in 1993, appellate justices and judges in Pennsylvania routinely have won retention by margins of 70% to 30%. This year, one justice lost his retention election and another barely won with just 54% of the vote. Retention elections have been a feature of judicial elections in Pennsylvania since the state constitution was amended in 1969. Following election to an …
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Judicial Elections: Changes And Challenges, Jan Witold Baran
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Judicial Elections: Changes And Challenges, Jan Witold Baran
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Today, myriad approaches for selecting judges exist and few states—if any at all—use identical schemes. In many states, the selection methods vary depending on whether the judge is a trial or appellate judge, or an initial selection or an incumbent. As will be seen, the vast majority of state judges are elected. Recently, judicial campaigns have become increasingly controversial while traditional restraints have fallen to the wayside. This article will address the variety of election methods, the challenges that recent constitutional decisions have presented to the ABA Code of Judicial Conduct, and whether innovations, such as public financing, offer a …
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Judges, Law, Politics & Strategy, Frank B. Cross
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Judges, Law, Politics & Strategy, Frank B. Cross
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
In law, we commonly presume that judges reach decisions based on legal materials, such as precedents. In political science, researchers typically presume that judges do not reach decisions based on such legal materials. They maintain that the apparent reliance on precedent to reach decisions is simply a hoax designed to provide cover for a particular outcome. These researchers traditionally argued that judges reach their personally preferred outcome in the case and then rationalize it after the fact with references to precedent, conveniently supplied them by the attorneys for their preferred side. Much of the empirical research on judicial decision making …
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - A Profile Of Settlement, John Barkai, Elizabeth Kent, Pamela Martin
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - A Profile Of Settlement, John Barkai, Elizabeth Kent, Pamela Martin
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Ninety-eight percent of civil cases settle,1 right? Well, not exactly. Although claims of settlement rates of 90% and above are cited frequently, settlement rates really are not that high. Many commentators start with an accurate picture of low, single-digit trial rates (typically 2%-3%), but then they inappropriately assume the inverse—namely, that all the remaining cases are settled. Commentators ignore the fact that a significant proportion of cases are terminated for reasons other than trial or settlement, and their mistake goes undetected because most state judicial systems do not collect any information about settlements. On the other hand, other people, speaking …
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - E-Courts: The Times They Are A-Changin’, James E. Mcmillan
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - E-Courts: The Times They Are A-Changin’, James E. Mcmillan
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
The title obviously comes from Bob Dylan’s classic song from 1964. That song captured the spirit of the times and again, in a small way, captures ours as well. This year’s upcoming E-Courts Conference (www.e-courts.org) in December will highlight both the changes that computers have brought to court operations and where things are going in the future. Court operations have been impacted over the past decade with the implementation of electronic court document filing (aka E-filing). This year the U.S. federal courts will have electronic filing available in nearly all district and bankruptcy courts. We have seen that not as …
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Seizing The Accountability Moment: Enlisting Americans In The Fight To Keep Courts Fair, Impartial, And Independent, Bert Brandenberg
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Seizing The Accountability Moment: Enlisting Americans In The Fight To Keep Courts Fair, Impartial, And Independent, Bert Brandenberg
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Did the 2005 uproar over Terri Schiavo’s end-of-life case mark a peak in the recent surge of attacks on the independence of America’s courts? When the case generated threats to impeach and even murder the presiding judge, and Congress passed a bill seeking to manipulate the case, broad public disapproval helped end the political crisis.1 The President backpedaled—“I believe in an independent judiciary. I believe in checks and balances”2—and dispatched the Vice President and Attorney General to add their reassurances. Just a few months later, Supreme Court nomination hearings offered little hint of the rising tide of fury that courts …
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Directory Of Officers And Board Of Governors, 2005-2006
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - Directory Of Officers And Board Of Governors, 2005-2006
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Directory of Officers and Board of Governors of American Judges Association
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - President’S Column, Michael Cicconetti
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - President’S Column, Michael Cicconetti
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Living in Northeastern Ohio, we are constantly promoting this part of the state as an area virtually free of natural disasters. Oh sure, we have our lake-effect snow, which we have learned to treat as more of an inconvenience and annoyance than a danger. Hurricanes? Those are reserved for the coastal states. Tornadoes? Hello, Kansas! Northeastern Ohio hasn’t experienced one in 35 years. Droughts? We may have an occasional dry spell during the summer but we always have the Great Lakes as a plentiful water source. Mudslides? Never. Forest fires? Doesn’t happen. Earthquakes? Minor blips on the Richter Scale.
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - The Resource Page
Court Review: Volume 42, Issue 3-4 - The Resource Page
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
No abstract provided.
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Editor’S Note, Steve Leben
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Editor’S Note, Steve Leben
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
We welcomed Alan Tomkins as coeditor of Court Review in the last issue. This issue marks my return to Court Review from the overall leadership of the American Judges Association (see page 111 for the new president’s opening remarks). I certainly enjoyed my year as AJA president, but it will be great to be able to refocus on Court Review and its role as an aid to judges both in doing their daily work and in protecting the role of independent judges in our society.
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Complete Issue
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Complete Issue
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Table of Contents:
Remarks on Judicial Independence by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Recent Civil Decisions of the United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term by Charles H. Whitebread
Recent Criminal Decisions of the United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term by Charles H. Whitebread
Jailing Ourselves: Standards Used for Declaring United States Citizens to Be Enemy Combatants by Joseph Carl Storch
Editor’s Note
President’s Column
The Resource Page
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Cover
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Cover
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
No abstract provided.
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Recent Criminal Decisions Of The United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term, Charles H. Whitebread
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Recent Criminal Decisions Of The United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term, Charles H. Whitebread
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
The past Term of the Court was one in which it swung to the right. A single justice, Justice Anthony Kennedy, made all the difference—being in the majority in every five-to-four decision that split along ideological lines. Cases of particular interest to state-court judges held that a passenger in a routine traffic stop is seized for Fourth Amendment purposes, that California’s determinative sentencing law was unconstitutional, and that the Court’s decision on Crawford v. Washington would not be applied retroactively on collateral review.
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Recent Civil Decisions Of The United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term, Charles Whitebread
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Recent Civil Decisions Of The United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term, Charles Whitebread
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
The past Term of the Court was one in which it swung to the right. A single justice, Justice Anthony Kennedy, made all the difference—being in the majority in every five-to-four decision that split along ideological lines. Significant 5-4 civil decisions included ones upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, limiting Title VII pay discrimination suits by strictly interpreting the date the statute of limitations begins to run, limiting the ability of school districts to consider race in assigning students to schools, and further limiting punitive-damage claims.
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Table Of Contents
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Table Of Contents
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Remarks on Judicial Independence by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Recent Civil Decisions of the United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term by Charles H. Whitebread
Recent Criminal Decisions of the United States Supreme Court: The 2006-2007 Term by Charles H. Whitebread
Jailing Ourselves: Standards Used for Declaring United States Citizens to Be Enemy Combatants by Joseph Carl Storch
Editor’s Note
President’s Column
The Resource Page
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – The Resource Page
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – The Resource Page
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Websites:
Center for Court Innovation www.problemsolvingjustice.org
National Center for State Courts www.ncsconline.org/PSC
The Polling Report www.pollingreport.com
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Remarks On Judicial Independence, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Remarks On Judicial Independence, Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
Essential to the rule of law in any land is an independent judiciary, judges not under the thumb of other branches of Government, and therefore equipped to administer the law impartially. As experience in the United States and elsewhere confirms, however, judicial independence is vulnerable to assault; it can be shattered if the society law exists to serve does not take care to assure its preservation.
On the essence of independent, impartial judging, a comment by former U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist seems to me right on target. Using a metaphor from his favorite sport, he compared the role …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – President’S Column, Eileen Olds
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – President’S Column, Eileen Olds
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
I can never say enough what an honor and a privilege it is to have been elected to serve as your 46th president of the American Judges Association. I have used that time since our annual conference in Vancouver to crystallize my vision of what I would like to accomplish during my tenure and of what I believe we can accomplish together. The potential to see dreams realized is what keeps us going! Like many of you, I have concluded that judges in general—and the members of AJA in particular—must seize the opportunity to improve our delivery of services within …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Jailing Ourselves: Standards Used For Declaring United States Citizens To Be Enemy Combatants, Joseph Carl Storch
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 3 – Jailing Ourselves: Standards Used For Declaring United States Citizens To Be Enemy Combatants, Joseph Carl Storch
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
On a clear, blue September morning in 2001, nineteen men hijacked four commercial airplanes headed toward the West Coast. They crashed two into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Northern Virginia, and one into a Pennsylvania field. In the wake of the shocking attack, Congress authorized President Bush to use military force against those who committed the attack, commencing a “war on terror” that still rages today.
The government has fought the “war on terror” on many fronts. The military is engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq; diplomatic overtures have been made to Libya …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – The Legislatures, The Ballot Boxes, And The Courts, William Raftery
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – The Legislatures, The Ballot Boxes, And The Courts, William Raftery
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
As a separation-of-powers matter, the nation’s framers and their state counterparts placed some distance between the legislative and judiciary branches so that each might better serve the people. Of course, the separation between the two branches has not prevented legislation impacting the courts year in and year out, much of which could reasonably be described as changes that potentially infringe on the independence, fairness, and impartiality of the courts. (I term these “attacks on the courts.”) Moreover, the issue has been compounded lately by a series of efforts in initiative and referendum states to achieve by the ballot box what …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – President’S Column, Steve Leben
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – President’S Column, Steve Leben
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
By the time you read this, Eileen Olds will have been busy working as the American Judges Association's president for some time. That means two things for me. First, I’ll no longer be on the treadmill-like travel schedule that accompanies that office. Second, I’ll be back at work as the editor of Court Review, getting its publication schedule back on track.
But before relinquishing this space, allow me a few moments to talk about the AJA and its work over the past year.
Like most professional associations, our potential is hindered a bit by the one-year term of our …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – Judicial Reform In Texas: A Look Back After Two Decades, Anthony Champagne
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – Judicial Reform In Texas: A Look Back After Two Decades, Anthony Champagne
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
One of the most frequently quoted comments on judicial reform is the late New Jersey Chief Justice Arthur T. Vanderbilt’s remark, “Judicial reform is not for the short-winded.” Vanderbilt’s remark illustrates a key point about judicial selection reform. Reforms do not occur simply because someone or some group in a state decides that change in the system of selection is desirable; rather, it is necessary for key interest groups in the judicial politics of a state to reach a sufficient political consensus that change can occur. A variety of factors may lead to such a consensus on the need for …
Thoughts About Enriching Judicial Independence By Improving The Retention Vote Phase Of Appointive Selection Systems, Jon F. Irwin, Daniel Real
Thoughts About Enriching Judicial Independence By Improving The Retention Vote Phase Of Appointive Selection Systems, Jon F. Irwin, Daniel Real
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
In August 1979, Time magazine featured an article titled, “Judging the Judges.” In that article, nearly 30 years ago, was a discussion about a number of problems facing the judiciary as well as a discussion about potential reforms to address the problems. One of the problems discussed at some length was public perception that the judiciary lacked sufficient impartiality. While recognizing the emergence of judicial discipline systems to address partiality problems of sitting judges, the article also noted “a convincing argument for getting better judges to begin with.” The article also recognized that, at that time, “half the states [had] …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – Editor’S Note, Alan J. Tomkins
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – Editor’S Note, Alan J. Tomkins
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
My inaugural issue of Court Review contains articles examining judicial selection, retention, and independence. Public scrutiny of the courts is especially complicated. On the one hand, democratic theory supports a role for the citizenry in judging judges: Governmental transparency, accountability, and public input into governmental policy-making are important principles for strong, democratic public institutions. On the other hand, it seems counterproductive to have the third branch undergo the same kinds of inspections that officials elected to the executive and legislative branches of government undergo. Judges are supposed to operate independently and impartially, not looking over their shoulder when they rule …
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – Judges Vs. Juries, Brian H. Bornstein
Court Review: Volume 43, Issue 2 – Judges Vs. Juries, Brian H. Bornstein
Court Review: The Journal of the American Judges Association
This article introduces a new feature for Court Review, “Social Science Research for (and in) the Courts,” the purpose of which is to summarize recent research on social science topics that judges might encounter. Social science research has a long-standing, and sometimes tense, relationship with the law. Nonetheless, there are signs that the courts’ receptivity to social science research is growing. The fields of psychology and the law and economics and the law have expanded considerably in the last 20 or so years. Because judges are increasingly likely to encounter social science issues, the goal of these columns is to …