Judges Commons^™

Statistical Precedent: Allocating Judicial Attention, Ryan W. Copus

Vanderbilt Law Review

The U.S. Courts of Appeals were once admired for their wealth of judicial attention and for their generosity in distributing it. At least by legend, almost all cases were afforded what William Richman and William Reynolds have termed the “Learned Hand Treatment.” Guided by Judge Learned Hand’s commandment that “[t]hou shalt not ration justice,” a panel of three judges would read the briefs, hear oral argument, deliberate at length, and prepare multiple drafts of an opinion. Once finished, the judges would publish their opinion, binding themselves and their colleagues in accordance with the common-law tradition. The final opinion would be …

The Management Of Staff By Federal Court Of Appeals Judges, Mitu Gulati, Richard A. Posner

Vanderbilt Law Review

Federal court of appeals judges have staffs consisting usually of a secretary and four law clerks; some judges have externs as well (law students working part time without pay). These staffs are essential, given judicial workloads and judges'limitations. Yet not much is known about how the judges manage their staffs. Each judge knows, of course, but judges rarely exchange information about staff management. Nor is there, to our knowledge, a literature that attempts to compare and evaluate the varieties of staff management techniques employed by federal court of appeals judges. This Essay aims to fill that gap. It is based …

Neglected Justices: Discounting For History, G. Edward White

Vanderbilt Law Review

The category of "neglected Justices" presupposes meaningful baselines for evaluating judicial reputations. A Justice cannot be deemed "neglected" except against the backdrop of some purported consensus about that Justice's reputation and the reputations of other Justices. Moreover, when the category of "neglected Justices" encompasses the performance of Justices who served in different time periods, it also presupposes that evaluative baselines for Justices can retain their integrity in the face of historical change and historical contingency.

This Article argues that when one discounts for history in the process of evaluating judicial reputations, the effects of history are sufficiently powerful to throw …

The Competency Conundrum: Problems Courts Have Faced In Applying Different Standards For Competency To Be Executed, John L. Farringer, Iv

Vanderbilt Law Review

Throughout Anglo-American legal history, there has been a general agreement, based on numerous rationales, that mentally incompetent inmates should not be executed for their crimes. The recurring problem, however, is how to define "incompetence" or "insanity." Legislatures and courts have sought to provide a common- sense definition, but in practice judges must confront highly technical terminology from the ever evolving field of psychiatry. Additionally, the definition must be flexible enough to apply to a variety of cases, while being universal enough to assure that all defendants are treated fairly and equally.

At hearings to determine a prisoner's competency to be …

Issues And Outcomes, Guidance, And Indeterminacy: A Reply To Professor John Rogers And Others, David G. Post, Steven C. Salop

Vanderbilt Law Review

There is now a small but growing literature on the proper voting procedure for multijudge panels. Professor John Rogers began the most recent round of thinking about these vexing issues, arguing that a judge on a multimember panel should never "vote against the result of his or her own reasoning by deferring to a majority on a sub-issue on which the judge differs." We responded, arguing in favor of just such action, which we labeled "issue voting." We criticized Professor Rogers's preferred mode of multimember court adjudication, which we labeled "outcome voting," on the grounds that it provided limited guidance …

The Presumption Of Reviewability: A Study In Canonical Construction And Its Consequences, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Vanderbilt Law Review

The much-maligned canons of statutory construction stubbornly have survived, largely on the strength of the assertion that whatever the aim of the statute's interpretation, an interpretive canon will improve the chances that the statute's aim will be realized. Canonical construction serves two different functions. Some of the canons ostensibly are designed as short-cuts to the discovery of the legislature's "true" intent. Professor Geoffrey Miller has explained how the canons may reflect the judicial articulations of conversational conventions that help courts understand otherwise vexing statutory language.' Canons may also serve as surrogates for other, better evidence of legislators' intent. In this …

Crisis In The Courts: Proposals For Change, Griffin B. Bell

Vanderbilt Law Review

The popular conception of the crisis in the courts focuses upon the condition of the courts and particularly upon the increasing volume of disputes that are presented for resolution. For example,Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert of the Third Circuit, one of the busiest federal circuits, has observed: "The reality is that today there is a mad rush to the Federal courts." The available statistics reflect Judge Aldisert's observation. For instance, according to the most recent report of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, record numbers of cases have been filed in the circuit and district courts during the past …

Prehearing Research And Screening In The Michigan Court Of Appeals: One Court's Method For Increasing Judicial Productivity, T. John Lesinski, N. O. Stockmeyer, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

An overview of the organization and duties of the Michigan Court of Appeals may aid in understanding the function and operation of its prehearing system. The Michigan Court of Appeals is an intermediate appellate court of statewide jurisdiction.' It hears appeals taken as a matter of right from both civil and criminal judgments of inferior courts,' and has original jurisdiction in specified habeas corpus, superintending control, apportionment, quo warranto, and mandamus proceedings. The court also hears appeals by leave, including applications for delayed appeal not timely filed as of right, appeals from state administrative agencies (principally workmen's compensation awards), and …

Better Days In Court For A New Day's Problems, Roger I. Traynor Honorable

Vanderbilt Law Review

We do not lack first-rate proposals for court organization and administration and procedures that would befit a new day. Neither do we lack well-conceived plans for the selection and retention of judges that would attract able and independent men to the bench. Nevertheless, the few states that have undertaken substantial reforms are far outnumbered by those that have not. It is high time to inquire why there has been such a woeful lack of will in the legal profession throughout the country to have done with ways so antiquated as chronically to impede the just operation of the laws. It …

Book Reviews, Richard G. Singer, Alfred H. Knight, Iii

Vanderbilt Law Review

Counsel on Appeal Edited by Arthur A. Charpentier New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968. Pp. xi, 223.

reviewer: Richard G. Singer

===================================

Law Without Sanctions By Michael Barkun New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968. Pp. 175. $6.50

reviewer: Alfred H. Knight, III

Federal Right Jurisdiction And The Declaratory Remedy, Herman L. Trautman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Why should we have federal district courts? What should be their primary function? These questions are fundamental to the formulation of a rational basis for the distribution of judicial power between state courts and the trial courts of the federal government.

Our American federal system seeks as a constant objective an appropriate division of governmental power between a national unit, which deals with problems requiring uniform treatment, and state units, which have responsibility for problems depending more upon local conditions. Applying the principle to the federal district courts, it seems clear that their primary function should be to adjudicate federal …

Book Reviews, Ralph F. Fuchs, Will A. Wilkerson, Walter C. Lindley, Robert S. Lancaster, Vincent V. Thursby

Vanderbilt Law Review

Administrative Procedure Legislation in the State

By Ferrell Heady

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1952. Pp. 137. $1.00.

reviewer: Ralph F. Fuchs

=========================

Bar Examinations and Requirements for Admission to the Bar Prepared by Committee on Bar Examinations and Requirements for Admission to the Bar for the Survey of the Legal Profession

Colorado Springs: Shepard's Citations. 1952. Pp. xvii, 498. $5.00.

reviewer: Will Allen Wilkerson

========================

Trial Judge

By Bernard Botein

New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952.Pp. 337 $5.00.

reviewer: Walter C. Lindley

==========================

The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses of Learned Hand Collected and with Introduction and …