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Articles 1 - 22 of 22
Full-Text Articles in Law and Politics
Politics, Identity, And Class Certification On The U.S. Courts Of Appeals, Stephen B. Burbank, Sean Farhang
Politics, Identity, And Class Certification On The U.S. Courts Of Appeals, Stephen B. Burbank, Sean Farhang
Michigan Law Review
This Article draws on novel data and presents the results of the first empirical analysis of how potentially salient characteristics of Court of Appeals judges influence class certification under Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. We find that the ideological composition of the panel (measured by the party of the appointing president) has a very strong association with certification outcomes, with all-Democratic panels having dramatically higher rates of procertification outcomes than all-Republican panels—nearly triple in about the past twenty years. We also find that the presence of one African American on a panel, and the presence of …
Ideology 'All The Way Down'? An Empirical Study Of Establishment Clause Decisions In The Federal Courts, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise
Ideology 'All The Way Down'? An Empirical Study Of Establishment Clause Decisions In The Federal Courts, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise
Michigan Law Review
As part of our ongoing empirical examination of religious liberty decisions in the lower federal courts, we studied Establishment Clause rulings by federal court of appeals and district court judges from 1996 through 2005. The powerful role of political factors in Establishment Clause decisions appears undeniable and substantial, whether celebrated as the proper integration of political and moral reasoning into constitutional judging, shrugged off as mere realism about judges being motivated to promote their political attitudes, or deprecated as a troubling departure from the aspirational ideal of neutral and impartial judging. In the context of Church and State cases in …
Fill The Bench And Empty The Docket: Filibuster Reform For District Court Nominations, Jeremy Garson
Fill The Bench And Empty The Docket: Filibuster Reform For District Court Nominations, Jeremy Garson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat
Judges are, without question, vital to our justice system. They interpret, adapt, and apply the law. They resolve disputes for the parties to the case at issue and provide guidance to others in analogous situations. They are the gears that keep the wheels of justice moving. Unfortunately, in the case of our federal courts, many of these gears are missing. Eighty-three of our 874 federal judgeships are vacant, including thirty-four that have been declared “judicial emergencies.” Our Constitution vests the President with the power to nominate federal judges and the Senate with the power to confirm or reject them, and …
Constitutional Expectations, Richard A. Primus
Constitutional Expectations, Richard A. Primus
Articles
The inauguration of Barack Obama was marred by one of the smallest constitutional crises in American history. As we all remember, the President did not quite recite his oath as it appears in the Constitution. The error bothered enough people that the White House redid the ceremony a day later, taking care to get the constitutional text exactly right. Or that, at least, is what everyone thinks happened. What actually happened is more interesting. The second time through, the President again departed from the Constitution's text. But the second time, nobody minded. Or even noticed. In that unremarked feature of …
From Laredo To Fort Worth: Race, Politics And The Texas Redistricting Case, Ellen D. Katz
From Laredo To Fort Worth: Race, Politics And The Texas Redistricting Case, Ellen D. Katz
Articles
LULAC v. Perry held that Texas violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act when it displaced nearly 100,000 Latino residents from a congressional district in Laredo to protect the Republican incumbent they refused to support. At the same time, the Justices let stand the dismantling of a so-called “coalition” district in Fort Worth where African-American voters comprising a minority of the district’s population allegedly enjoyed effective control in deciding the district’s representative. Only Justice Kennedy supported the outcome in both Laredo and Fort Worth. His opinion marks the first time that he, or indeed a majority of the Justices, …
To Elect Or Not To Elect: A Case Study Ofjudicial Selection In New York City 1977-2002, Steven Zeidman
To Elect Or Not To Elect: A Case Study Ofjudicial Selection In New York City 1977-2002, Steven Zeidman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article examines the process of judicial selection in New York State in light of the recent court decisions in White and Spargo, which have paved the way for increased campaign speech in judicial elections. Relying on empirical data to compare judicial elections and appointments in New York City between 1977 and 2002, the Article finds that elections produce a judiciary that is more beholden to interest groups than one generated through appointments. The consequence of this greater special interest involvement is an erosion of public trust and confidence in the judiciary. Moreover while elections arguably have increased diversity in …
Trying To Make Peace With Bush V. Gore (Symposium: Bush V. Gore Issue 2001), Richard D. Friedman
Trying To Make Peace With Bush V. Gore (Symposium: Bush V. Gore Issue 2001), Richard D. Friedman
Articles
The Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, shutting down the recounts of Florida's vote in the 2000 presidential election and effectively awarding the election to George W. Bush, has struck many observers, including myself, as outrageous.' Decisions of the Supreme Court should be more than mere reflections of ideological or partisan preference thinly camouflaged behind legalistic language. It would therefore be pleasant to be able to believe that they are more than that. Accordingly, Judge Richard Posner's analysis,2 in which he defends the result reached by the Court-though not the path by which it got there-is particularly welcome. Though …
Taking Decisions Seriously, Richard D. Friedman
Taking Decisions Seriously, Richard D. Friedman
Reviews
The New Deal era is one of the great turning points of American constitutional history. The receptivity of the Supreme Court to regulation by state and federal governments increased dra- matically during that period. The constitutionalism that prevailed before Charles Evans Hughes became Chief Justice in 1930 was similar in most respects to that of the beginning of the twen- tieth century. The constitutionalism that prevailed by the time Hughes’ successor Harlan Fiske Stone died in 1946 is far more related to that of the end of the century. How this transformation occurred is a crucial and enduring issue in …
Review Of The Selling Of Supreme Court Nominees, By J. A. Maltese, Richard D. Friedman
Review Of The Selling Of Supreme Court Nominees, By J. A. Maltese, Richard D. Friedman
Reviews
John Anthony Maltese has written a genial book on a subject of enormous importance and enduring interest-presidential selection and senatorial consideration of Supreme Court nominees. Readers new to this field will find The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees a helpful introduction to it. Those more familiar with it will not find much that is surprising.
Chief Justice Hughes' Letter On Court-Packing, Richard D. Friedman
Chief Justice Hughes' Letter On Court-Packing, Richard D. Friedman
Articles
After one of the great landslides in American presidential history, Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath of office for the second time on January 20, 1937. As he had four years before, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, like Roosevelt a former governor of New York, administered the oath. Torrents of rain drenched the inauguration, and Hughes’ damp whiskers waved in the biting wind. When the skullcapped Chief Justice reached the promise to defend the Constitution, he “spoke slowly and with special emphasis.” The President responded in kind, though he felt like saying, as he later told his aide Sam Rosenman: …
Pragmatism And Parity In Appointments, Yxta Maya Murray
Pragmatism And Parity In Appointments, Yxta Maya Murray
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This review uses Carter's two foci as a springboard for analyzing the Article II, Section II appointment process. First, Carter's discussion of indecency in modern appointments may be a valuable theoretical insight into the process instead of a mere sociological observation. "Indecency" in appointments, or what is known as "borking" in Carter parlance, may also be a symptom of race and gender bias in the administration of the Article II, Section II power. To ameliorate the effects of this bias, I suggest the incorporation of pragmatism (a thread of philosophical and legal thought) and parity concepts into the existing appointments …
The Supreme Court In Politics., Terrance Sandalow
The Supreme Court In Politics., Terrance Sandalow
Reviews
Despite all that has been written about the bitter struggle initiated by President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to a seat on the Supreme Court, its most remarkable feature, that it was waged over a judicial appointment, has drawn relatively little comment. Two hundred years after the Philadelphia Convention, Hamilton's "least dangerous" branch - least dangerous because it would have "no influence over either the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever"'-had come to occupy so important a place in the nation's political life …
Judge Picking, Abner J. Mikva
Judge Picking, Abner J. Mikva
Michigan Law Review
A Review of God Save This Honorable Court: How the Choice of Supreme Court Justices Shapes Our History by Laurence H. Tribe
Toward Increased Judicial Activism: The Political Role Of The Supreme Court, Michigan Law Review
Toward Increased Judicial Activism: The Political Role Of The Supreme Court, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Toward Increased Judicial Activism: The Political Role of the Supreme Court by Arthur Selwyn Miller
The Politics Of Judicial Reform, Michigan Law Review
The Politics Of Judicial Reform, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of The Politics of Judicial Reform edited by Philip L. Dubois
Mr. Justice Powell And The Emerging Nixon Majority, A.E. Dick Howard
Mr. Justice Powell And The Emerging Nixon Majority, A.E. Dick Howard
Michigan Law Review
In recent years, we have come to expect the debate over Supreme Court nominations to reflect ideological passions in the Government and the country at large; the Fortas, Haynsworth, and Carswell cases remain fresh in memory. In the hearings on the nominations of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist to the Court, Senate Democratic liberals made clear their intention to probe not only the nominees' integrity and legal qualifications, but also their judicial philosophies. It was ironic, therefore, to watch as liberal members of the Judiciary Committee, through their questions and comments at the confirmation hearings, made Powell, …
Review Of Concerning Dissent And Civil Disobedience, By A. Fortas, Terrance Sandalow
Review Of Concerning Dissent And Civil Disobedience, By A. Fortas, Terrance Sandalow
Reviews
Noah Chomsky has written of Justice Fortas' essay that it "is not serious enough for extended discussion." It would be a mistake to dismiss the essay so lightly. The prestige of Justice Fortas' office almost inevitably will gain for the essay an audience it would not otherwise have had, among whom will be those who will confuse the office with the argument. For some this confusion will insulate the argument from criticism. For others it will tarnish the office.
Constitutional Law - Judicial Power - Power To Compel Fair Apportionment By The Legislature, Walter L. Adams S.Ed.
Constitutional Law - Judicial Power - Power To Compel Fair Apportionment By The Legislature, Walter L. Adams S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
At a general election on November 6, 1956, voters of the state of Washington approved by popular initiative a reapportionment of the legislature based upon political sub-divisions as described in the federal census of 1950. On December 6, 1956, the governor proclaimed the measure to be law and it was enrolled as chapter 5, Laws of 1957. At the regular 1957 session of the state legislature, chapter 289, revoking the initiative and calling for the use of the election precinct as the unit · of population for forming legislative districts, was passed by a vote of more than a two-thirds …
Recent Books, Michigan Law Review
Recent Books, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This department undertakes to note or review briefly current books on law and matters closely related thereto.
Judges In The British Cabinet And The Struggle Which Led To Their Exclusion After 1806, Arthur Lyon Cross
Judges In The British Cabinet And The Struggle Which Led To Their Exclusion After 1806, Arthur Lyon Cross
Michigan Law Review
Among the anomalies in the queer and devious course of Eng- £ lish constitutional progress few have been more striking than the number of reforms which have been due to the Conservatives.. One of no little significance was brought about during that period of political stagnation-the era of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. This was the exclusion of judges from the Cabinet, as the result of a political struggle in which the forces of opposition, though temporarily defeated, formulated a policy which was destined henceforth to prevail.
The Recall And The Political Responsibility Of Judges, W. F. Dodd
The Recall And The Political Responsibility Of Judges, W. F. Dodd
Michigan Law Review
The movement for the recall of State officers is one which has became important only within the past three or four years. The first application of the recall as a modem institution in the United States appears to have been in Los Angeles in 19o3, where the institution was adopted in the amendment of the charter framed by that city. From Los Angeles the recall as applicable only to municipal officers spread to other California cities, and has now been rather widely adopted in other States. The first State constitutional amendment with respect to the recall, that of California in …
Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review
Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Law School; The New Schools of Healing; When the Exercise of Judicial Discretion is not Due Process of Law; Mandamus to Compel the Installation of a Telephone in a Bawdy House Denied; The Division in the Republican Party in Wisconsin; A Novel Extension of Federal Jurisdiction; The Session Laws of Porto Rico