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Full-Text Articles in Law
Judging "Under Fire" And The Retreat To Facts, Allison Orr Larsen
Judging "Under Fire" And The Retreat To Facts, Allison Orr Larsen
William & Mary Law Review
Americans tend to worry about how our current polarized political climate will affect the legitimacy of our courts. Often overlooked in this important conversation is a discussion about what a toxic political dialogue can do—and in fact is doing—to the construction of the law itself. This Article will begin to make the case that judicial decisions themselves change as a result of high-intensity politics. Specifically, I will argue that when judges are “under fire” (to borrow a phrase from Planned Parenthood v. Casey), they tend to cloak their decisions in factual observations about the world that seem neutral and objective, …
Dicta, Schmicta: Theory Versus Practice In Lower Court Decision Making, David Klein, Neal Devins
Dicta, Schmicta: Theory Versus Practice In Lower Court Decision Making, David Klein, Neal Devins
William & Mary Law Review
The distinction between dictum and holding is at once central to the American legal system and largely irrelevant. In the first systematic empirical study of lower court invocations of the distinction, we show that lower courts hardly ever refuse to follow a statement from a higher court because it is dictum. Specifically, federal courts of appeals meaningfully invoke the distinction in about 1 in 4000 cases; federal district courts in about 1 in 2000 cases; and state courts in about 1 in 4000 cases. In this Essay, we report these findings, describe our coding system, and offer a preliminary assessment …
Social Meaning And School Vouchers, Neal Devins
Social Meaning And School Vouchers, Neal Devins
William & Mary Law Review
No abstract provided.