Law Commons^™

The Curious Case Of Justice Neil Gorsuch, Justin Burnworth

Pace Law Review

Justice Gorsuch has a propensity for unexpected decisions. His opinions in Bostock v. Clayton County, United States v. Vaello Madero, and McGirt v. Oklahoma confounded the legal community at large. Some argue that his Western upbringing played a role. Others argue that his time clerking for Justice Kennedy primed him for unpredictable decisions. These explanations do not get at the core of Justice Gorsuch’s legal reasoning. This article dives into the depths of these opinions to extract his “Enduring” theories of law. I argue that legal scholarship has incorrectly viewed these three decisions as isolated incidents when they are best …

Remembrance, Group Gripes, And Legal Frictions: Rule Of Law Or Awful Lore?, Aviam Soifer

Touro Law Review

The rise of groups that honor and seek to advance their particular imagined or real pasts has seemed increasingly dangerous in the years since Bob Cover’s death in 1986. This essay briefly examines the challenges such groups pose to Bob’s hope, and even his faith, that law and legal procedure could be bridges to more just worlds. It may not be ours to finish consideration of how to distinguish the Rule of Law from Awful Lore—both composed of exactly the same letters—but we should continue that task, with remembrance, even within our troubled world.

Talking Back In Court, M. Eve Hanan

Washington Law Review

People charged with crimes often speak directly to the judge presiding over their case. Yet, what can be seen in courtrooms across the U.S. is that defendants rarely “talk back” in court, meaning that they rarely challenge authority’s view of the law, the crime, the defendant, the court’s procedure, or the fairness of the proposed sentence.

With few exceptions, legal scholars have treated the occasions when defendants speak directly to the court as a problem to be solved by appointing more lawyers and better lawyers. While effective representation is crucial, this Article starts from the premise that defendants have important …

Rethinking Appeals, Uri Weiss

Touro Law Review

This paper makes the point that a court decision that is open to an appeal is akin to a take-it-or-leave-it settlement proposal for both parties. For the case to not be appealed, both parties need to “take,” i.e., accept, this proposal. Thus, on one hand, if both parties cannot achieve a settlement by themselves, they usually benefit from the right to appeal. On the other hand, a right to appeal activates the regressive effects that characterize settlements, which also applies to lower-court decisions. For example, legal uncertainty has a regressive effect on lower-court decisions: if the judge wishes to block …

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall—Biased Impartiality, Appearances, And The Need For Recusal Reform, Zygmont A. Pines

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The article focuses on a troubling aspect of contemporary judicial morality.

Impartiality—and the appearance of impartiality—are the foundation of judicial decision-making, judicial morality, and the public’s trust in the rule of law. Recusal, in which a jurist voluntarily removes himself or herself from participating in a case, is a process that attempts to preserve and promote the substance and the appearance of judicial impartiality. Nevertheless, the traditional common law recusal process, prevalent in many of our state court systems, manifestly subverts basic legal and ethical norms.

Today’s recusal practice—whether rooted in unintentional hypocrisy, wishful thinking, or a pathological cognitive dissonance— …

Herman Melville’S Billy Budd: Why This Classic Law And Literature Novel Endures And Is Still Relevant Today, Rodger Citron

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The History, Meaning, And Use Of The Words Justice And Judge, Jason Boatright

St. Mary's Law Journal

The words justice and judge have similar meanings because they have a common ancestry. They are derived from the same Latin term, jus, which is defined in dictionaries as “right” and “law.” However, those definitions of jus are so broad that they obscure the details of what the term meant when it formed the words that eventually became justice and judge. The etymology of jus reveals the kind of right and law it signified was related to the concepts of restriction and obligation. Vestiges of this sense of jus survived in the meaning of justice and judge. …

Justice As Fair Division, Ian Bartrum, Kathryn Nyman, Peter Otto

Pepperdine Law Review

The current hyperpoliticization of the Court grows out of a feedback loop between politicized appointments and politicized decision-making. This Article suggests a change in the internal procedures by which the Court hears and decides particular cases. A three-Justice panel hears and decides each case. Appeal to an en banc sitting of the entire Court would require a unanimous vote of all non-recused Justices. This Article explores several possible approaches in selecting the three-Justice panel. This Article proposes that applying a fair division scheme to the Court’s decision-making process might act to reverse this loop and work to depoliticize the Court …

Ed Godfrey: The Justice, The Person, And Some Cases On Property, Merle W. Loper

Maine Law Review

At the end of 1994 Dean Edward S. Godfrey III stepped down from his teaching position as Professor Emeritus of the University of Maine School of Law. In honor of his service to Maine’s only law school, to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, to the Maine Bar, and to the people of the State of Maine, the Board and Staff dedicate Volume 47 of the Maine Law Review to Dean Edward Godfrey. Reviews by Maine Law School faculty members of Dean Godfrey’s Law Court decisions in several areas of the law follow.

Sidney W. Wernick: In Memoriam, Edward S. Godfrey

Maine Law Review

A common sentiment has it that we should bear the death of our elders with a kind of sensible equanimity. The idea seems to be that the old folks have had their turn, served out their usefulness, and, by their departure, have beneficently made more room for the rest of us. Or, more charitably, in a culture that still resonates now and then to Biblical thought, perhaps we are moved to that common sentiment by the mournful cadence of the Ninetieth Psalm, which warns us of the “labour and sorrow” attending survival of the “strong” beyond three score and ten. …

Foreword: Benjamin N. Cardozo: Judge, Justice, Scholar, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Brandeis And Railroad Accidents: Fairness, Uniformity And Consistency, Larry Zacharias

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Louis Brandeis And Contemporary Antitrust Enforcement, Kenneth G. Elzinga, Micah Webber

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword To The Conference: Louis D. Brandeis: An Interdisciplinary Retrospective, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

On March 31-April 1, 2016, Touro Law Center and the Jewish Law Institute hosted a national conference: Louis D. Brandeis: An Interdisciplinary Retrospective. More than thirty judges, lawyers, and scholars, across a broad range of disciplines and hailing from across the United States, explored a variety of themes that included, among others: Brandeis’s groundbreaking work as a lawyer and a scholar; his commitment to his Jewish heritage; his historic appointment to the United States Supreme Court; and his jurisprudence on the Court. In addition to the timeless quality of these themes, the timing of the conference was significant, taking place …

The Judicial Legacy Of Louis Brandeis And The Nature Of American Constitutionalism, Edward A. Purcell Jr.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Solving A Mystery: Justice Brandeis’ Approach To Judicial Decision-Making, Judge Kermit V. Lipez

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Brandeis And Civic Duty In A Pluralistic Society, Joel K. Goldstein

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Continuing Vitality Of Louis D. Brandeis’S Free Expression Jurisprudence, Frederick M. Lawrence

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sunlight And Shadows: Louis D. Brandeis On Privacy, Publicity, And Free Expression In American Democracy, Erin Coyle

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Moving From A Brandeis Brief To A Brandeis Law Firm: Challenges And Opportunities For Holistic Legal Services In The United States, Judith A. Mcmorrow

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Louis Brandeis’S Vision Of Light And Justice As Articulated On The Side Of A Coffee Mug, Randy Lee

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Challenge To Bleached Out Professional Identity: How Jewish Was Justice Louis D. Brandeis?, Russell G. Pearce, Adam B. Winer, Emily Jenab

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Collaborative Divorce: What Louis Brandeis Might Say About The Promise And Problems?, Susan Saab Fortney

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Privacy And Conformity: Rethinking “The Right Most Valued By Civilized Men”, Susan E. Gallagher

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Louis Brandeis’S Arc Of Moral Justice, Katherine A. Helm

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Progressive Mind: Louis D. Brandeis And The Origins Of Free Speech, Elizabeth Todd Byron

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Contributions Of Louis Brandeis To The Law Of Lawyering, John S. Dzienkowski

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam: Justice Antonin Scalia And The Constitution's Golden Thread, L. Margaret Harker

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A Feminist Political Theory Of Judging: Neither The Nightmare Nor The Noble Dream, Sally J. Kenney

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.