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Full-Text Articles in Law

Certiorari, Universality, And A Patent Puzzle, Tejas N. Narechania Dec 2017

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

Tejas N. Narechania

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 …


Look Back At The Rehnquist Era And An Overview Of The 2004 Supreme Court Term, Erwin Chemerinsky Jun 2017

Look Back At The Rehnquist Era And An Overview Of The 2004 Supreme Court Term, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.


Law Enforcement And Criminal Law Decisions, Erwin Chemerinsky Jun 2017

Law Enforcement And Criminal Law Decisions, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.


The Court-Packing Plan As Symptom, Casualty, And Cause Of Gridlock, Barry Cushman Oct 2016

The Court-Packing Plan As Symptom, Casualty, And Cause Of Gridlock, Barry Cushman

Barry Cushman

This essay, prepared for the Notre Dame Law Review's Symposium, “The American Congress: Legal Implications of Gridlock,” considers three ways in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1937 Court-packing bill was related to the phenomenon of gridlock in the 1930s. First, as FDR's public remarks on the subject demonstrate, he believed that the early New Deal was a victim of partisan gridlock between the Democrat-controlled political branches and the Republican-controlled judiciary. Moreover, he did not believe that the impasse could be overcome through an amendment to the Constitution, for he regarded Article V's supermajority requirements as virtually encoding gridlock into the …


The Need For A New National Court, Douglas D. Mcfarland, Thomas E. Baker Feb 2016

The Need For A New National Court, Douglas D. Mcfarland, Thomas E. Baker

Thomas E. Baker

By any measure, the Supreme Court is tremendously overburdened. Statistics speak clearly on this point; sometimes they shout. After the caseload relief provided by the Judges' Bill, 4 which was passed in I925 and took effect during the I928 Term, the Supreme Court caseload grew slowly for thirty years. Beginning in the I96os, growth sharply accelerated, and during the I970S and I98os, the numbers exploded.


A Roundtable Discussion With Stephen L. Carter & Michael J. Gerhardt, Thomas E. Baker Feb 2016

A Roundtable Discussion With Stephen L. Carter & Michael J. Gerhardt, Thomas E. Baker

Thomas E. Baker

Transcript of a discussion regarding the United States Supreme Court, the Supreme Court justices and justice nominees, the Senate process for confirming nominees and related issues such as fitness to serve on the court and judicial activism.


The Solicitor General And The Evolution Of Activism, James L. Cooper Feb 2015

The Solicitor General And The Evolution Of Activism, James L. Cooper

James M. Cooper

No abstract provided.


A Proposal For Improving Argument Before The United States Supreme Court, Louis Sirico Dec 2014

A Proposal For Improving Argument Before The United States Supreme Court, Louis Sirico

Louis J. Sirico Jr.

With rare exceptions, the U.S. Supreme Court allots thirty minutes to each side for oral argument. A review of transcripts and recordings of oral arguments confirms that the Court poses questions and makes comments with remarkable frequency. When students and lay people listen to the recordings, they may remark on the constant interruptions and view the Justices as rude interrogators. With the many questions that the Justices have and the limited time available, the advocates have little opportunity to present their arguments fully. The Justices may interrupt counsel with questions concerning the law or the relevant facts of a case. …


Opening An Oral Argument Before The Supreme Court: The Decline Of Narrative's Role, Louis J. Sirico Jr. Dec 2014

Opening An Oral Argument Before The Supreme Court: The Decline Of Narrative's Role, Louis J. Sirico Jr.

Louis J. Sirico Jr.

In contrast to an earlier era, today’s oral advocate can expect Supreme Court justices to start asking questions earlier and often. Consequently, the advocate should expect to launch the argument with only a few sentences before the questions begin. These critical sentences offer the brief opportunity to introduce the theme of the subsequent argument. Advocates in other “hot bench” courts face the same challenge.
Our study of opening statements in Supreme Court oral arguments finds that the statements have one of three themes: a conventional legal argument, a policy argument, or a narrative argument. The conventional legal argument is the …


A Contribuição Da Doutrina Na Jurisdição Constitucional Portuguesa E Brasileira, Teresa M. G. Da Cunha Lopes Dec 2014

A Contribuição Da Doutrina Na Jurisdição Constitucional Portuguesa E Brasileira, Teresa M. G. Da Cunha Lopes

Teresa M. G. Da Cunha Lopes

O presente livro pretende fazer um estudo interformantes, com o fim de verificar se a jurisprudência das Cortes Constitucionais e Supremas resulta explicitamente permeável ao formante doutrinário. Por outro lado, o objeto principal da investigação são as citações diretas da doutrina que utilizam os juízes na motivação das decisões.


Nineteenth Century Interpretations Of The Federal Contract Clause: The Transformation From Vested To Substantive Rights Against The State , James L. Kainen Aug 2014

Nineteenth Century Interpretations Of The Federal Contract Clause: The Transformation From Vested To Substantive Rights Against The State , James L. Kainen

James L. Kainen

During the early nineteenth century, the contract clause served as the fundamental source of federally protected rights against the state. Yet the Supreme Court gradually eased many of the restrictions on state power enforced in the contract clause cases while developing the doctrine of substantive due process after the Civil War. By the end of the nineteenth century, the due process clause had usurped the place of the contract clause as the centerpiece in litigation about individual rights. Most analyses of the history of federally protected rights against the state have emphasized the rise of substantive due process to the …


Court-Packing And Compromise, Barry Cushman Apr 2014

Court-Packing And Compromise, Barry Cushman

Barry Cushman

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1937 Court-packing bill would have permitted him to appoint six additional justices to the Supreme Court, thereby expanding its membership to fifteen immediately. Throughout the ultimately unsuccessful campaign to enact the measure, Roosevelt was presented with numerous opportunities to compromise for a measure authorizing the appointment of fewer additional justices. The President rejected each of these proposals, and his refusal to compromise often has been attributed to stubbornness, overconfidence, or hubris. Yet an examination of the papers of Attorney General Homer S. Cummings reveals why FDR and his advisors believed that he required no fewer than …


Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Deliberations: Two Models Of Judicial Deliberations In Courts Of Last Resort, Mathilde Cohen Dec 2013

Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Deliberations: Two Models Of Judicial Deliberations In Courts Of Last Resort, Mathilde Cohen

Mathilde Cohen

This Article discusses supreme and constitutional courts’ internal organizational cultures, that is, the way in which justices organize their work and establish informal decision-making norms. Courts of last resort are often presented as exemplary deliberative institutions. The conference meeting, which convenes judges in quiet seclusion to debate, has been glorified as the most significant step in a court’s decision-making process. Based in part on qualitative empirical research, I argue, however, that French, American, and European Justices may not deliberate in the full sense that deliberative democrats have theorized. The Article distinguishes two types of high court deliberations, which I call …


Imagining The Past And Remembering The Future: The Supreme Court's History Of The Establishment Clause, Gerard V. Bradley Oct 2013

Imagining The Past And Remembering The Future: The Supreme Court's History Of The Establishment Clause, Gerard V. Bradley

Gerard V. Bradley

No abstract provided.


New Paths For The Court: Protections Afforded Juveniles Under Miranda; Effective Assistance Of Counsel; And Habeas Corpus Decisions Of The Supreme Court’S 2010/2011 Term, Richard Klein Oct 2013

New Paths For The Court: Protections Afforded Juveniles Under Miranda; Effective Assistance Of Counsel; And Habeas Corpus Decisions Of The Supreme Court’S 2010/2011 Term, Richard Klein

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.


Chief Justice Roberts' Individual Mandate: The Lawless Medicine Of Nfib V. Sebelius, Gregory Magarian Feb 2013

Chief Justice Roberts' Individual Mandate: The Lawless Medicine Of Nfib V. Sebelius, Gregory Magarian

Gregory P. Magarian

After the U.S. Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius held nearly all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act constitutional, praise rained down on Chief Justice John Roberts. The Chief Justice’s lead opinion broke with his usual conservative allies on the Court by upholding the Act’s individual mandate under the Taxing Clause. Numerous academic and popular commentators have lauded the Chief Justice for his political courage and institutional pragmatism. In this essay, Professor Magarian challenges the heroic narrative surrounding the Chief Justice’s opinion. The essay contends that the opinion is, in two distinct senses, fundamentally …


A Modest Memoir: Justice Stevens’S Supreme Court Life, Laura K. Ray May 2012

A Modest Memoir: Justice Stevens’S Supreme Court Life, Laura K. Ray

Laura K. Ray

No abstract provided.


Hiding Behind The Cloak Of Invisibility: The Supreme Court And Per Curiam Opinions, Ira P. Robbins May 2012

Hiding Behind The Cloak Of Invisibility: The Supreme Court And Per Curiam Opinions, Ira P. Robbins

Ira P. Robbins

Per curiam--literally translated from Latin to "by the court"-is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as "[a]n opinion handed down by an appellate court without identifying the individual judge who wrote the opinion." Accordingly the author of a per curiam opinion is meant to be institutional rather than individual, attributable to the court as an entity rather than to a single judge The United States Supreme Court issues a significant number of per curiam dispositions each Term. In the first six years of Chief Justice John Roberts’ tenure, almost nine percent of the Court full opinions were per curiams. The prevalence …


Lawyering Decisions—October 2009 Term, Eileen Kaufman Jul 2011

Lawyering Decisions—October 2009 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.


Supreme Court Section 1983 Decisions: (October 2001 Term), Martin A. Schwartz Jun 2011

Supreme Court Section 1983 Decisions: (October 2001 Term), Martin A. Schwartz

Martin A. Schwartz

No abstract provided.


Judgments Of The United States Supreme Court And The South African Constitutional Court As A Basis For A Universal Method To Resolve Conflicts Between Fundamental Rights, Daniel H. Erskine Feb 2008

Judgments Of The United States Supreme Court And The South African Constitutional Court As A Basis For A Universal Method To Resolve Conflicts Between Fundamental Rights, Daniel H. Erskine

Daniel H. Erskine

This article describes the methods utilized by the United States Supreme Court to resolve specific cases involving conflicts between federal constitutional rights, a federal constitutional right and a state constitutional or statutory right, and an international treaty right and a federal constitutional right. Consideration of particular decisions representative of the manner the Court resolves conflicts between rights in the three typologies described above, illustrates how the Court views such conflicts and the rationales employed to resolve apparent conflicting rights. The rationales used by the United States Supreme Court are compared to the South African Constitutional Court’s decisions in the Soobramoney, …


Vineet Narain V Union Of India: A Court Of Law And Not Justice: Is The Indian Supreme Court Bound By The Indian Constitution, Shubhankar Dam Dec 2004

Vineet Narain V Union Of India: A Court Of Law And Not Justice: Is The Indian Supreme Court Bound By The Indian Constitution, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

The last twenty five years are an “impressive” chronicle of the Indian Supreme Court in action. Its novel functioning has changed the internal dynamics of Indian polity in a manner unknown to constitutional democracies. From an institution entrusted with the task of adjudicating disputes between parties, the Indian Supreme Court has transformed itself into an institution enjoined to promote the ideals of a socio-economic and political justice. Its prior role as an “adjudicator” has undergone a reappraisal. The judges therein are no more adjudicators but activists, energetically contributing to the accomplishment of India's constitutional vision. In this new creation, they …


Lawmaking Beyond Lawmakers: The Little Right And The Great Wrong, Shubhankar Dam Dec 2004

Lawmaking Beyond Lawmakers: The Little Right And The Great Wrong, Shubhankar Dam

Shubhankar Dam

No abstract provided.