Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Courts

Judicial selection

2009

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Law

Filling Federal Appellate Vacancies, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2009

Filling Federal Appellate Vacancies, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Judicial selection for the United States Courts of Appeals has rarely been so controversial. Delay in nominating and analyzing candidates as well as fractious accusations, recriminations, and "paybacks" between Democrats and Republicans have vexed circuit appointments over two decades. Many judgeships remain empty for long periods, while one position has been vacant since 1994. Certain appellate tribunals have confronted acute difficulties. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently operated absent half its judicial complement across eight months, and numerous courts labored without one in three members at various junctures.

The Senate, which furnishes advice and consent, has …

Go to article

Unmasking Judicial Extremism, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2009

Unmasking Judicial Extremism, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Review of Cass R. Sunstein, Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for America (2005)

Go to article

The Missouri Plan In National Perspective, Stephen Ware Dec 2008

The Missouri Plan In National Perspective, Stephen Ware

Stephen Ware

We should distinguish the process that initially selects a judge from the process that determines whether to retain that judge on the court. Judicial selection and judicial retention raise different issues. In this paper, I primarily focus on selection. I summarize the fifty states’ methods of supreme court selection and place them on a continuum from the most populist to the most elitist. Doing so reveals that the Missouri Plan is the most elitist (and least democratic) of the three common methods of selecting judges in the United States. After highlighting this troubling characteristic of the Missouri Plan’s process of …

Go to article

The Bar’S Extraordinarily Powerful Role In Selecting The Kansas Supreme Court, Stephen Ware Dec 2008

The Bar’S Extraordinarily Powerful Role In Selecting The Kansas Supreme Court, Stephen Ware

Stephen Ware

In supreme court selection, the bar has more power in Kansas than in any other state. This extraordinary bar power gives Kansas the most elitist and least democratic supreme court selection system in the country. While members of the Kansas bar make several arguments in defense of the extraordinary powers they exercise under this system, these arguments rest on a one-sided view of the role of a judge.

Go to article