Law Commons^™

Newsroom: Yelnosky On Judge Investigation, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Collapse Of The House That Ruth Built: The Impact Of The Feeder System On Female Judges And The Federal Judiciary, 1970-2014, Alexandra G. Hess

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Rise And Fall Of Bad Judge: Lady Justice Is No Tramp, Taylor Simpson-Wood

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Impropriety’S Invisible Hand: Judicial Race And Gender Biases Within State Supreme Courts, Robert K. Christensen, John Szmer, Anthony M. Kreis

Robert Christensen

No abstract provided.

Tell Us A Story, But Don't Make It A Good One: Resolving The Confusion Regarding Emotional Stories And Federal Rule Of Evidence 403, Cathren Page

Cathren Page

Abstract: Tell Us a Story, But Don’t Make It A Good One: Resolving the Confusion Regarding Emotional Stories and Federal Rule of Evidence 403 by Cathren Koehlert-Page Courts need to reword their opinions regarding Rule 403 to address the tension between the advice to tell an emotionally evocative story at trial and the notion that evidence can be excluded if it is too emotional. In the murder mystery Mystic River, Dave Boyle is kidnapped in the beginning. The audience feels empathy for Dave who as an adult becomes one of the main suspects in the murder of his friend Jimmy’s …

A Home With Dignity: Domestic Violence And Property Rights, Margaret Johnson

Margaret E Johnson

This Article argues that the legal system should do more to address intimate partner violence and each party’s need for a home for several reasons. First, domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness and family homelessness. Second, the struggle over rights to a shared home can increase the violence to which the woman is subjected. And third, a woman who decides that continuing to share a home with the person who abused her receives little or no system support, despite the evidence that this decision could most effectively reduce the violence. The legal system’s current failings result from its …

Justice Stevens And The Emerging Law Of Sex Discrimination , John P. Wagner

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Critical Mass In The Federal Appellate Courts., Laura Moyer

Faculty Scholarship

This article draws from critical mass studies of gender in other political institutions to inform an application to the US Courts of Appeals. The results demonstrate the utility of considering court-level aspects of diversity. As mixed-sex panels become more common within a circuit, both male and female judges increasingly support plaintiffs in civil rights claims, though the magnitude of the effect is larger for women. The presence of a female chief judge is also positively associated with pro-plaintiff decisions by men and women in sex discrimination cases.

Workshop On Judging: Does Gender Make A Difference, Herma Hill Kay, Geraldine Sparrow

Herma Hill Kay

No abstract provided.

When Will Black Women Lawyers Slay The Two-Headed Dragon: Racism And Gender Bias, Wilma Williams Pinder

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sex On The Bench: Do Women Judges Matter To The Legitimacy Of International Courts?, Nienke Grossman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article seeks to advance our understanding of international courts' legitimacy and its relationship to who sits on the bench. It asks whether we should care that few women sit on international court benches. After providing statistics on women's participation on eleven of the world's most important courts and tribunals, the article argues that under-representation of one sex affects normative legitimacy because it endangers impartiality and introduces bias when men and women approach judging differently. Even if men and women do not think differently, a sex un-representative bench harms sociological legitimacy for constituencies who believe they do nonetheless. For groups …

From The Bench To The Screen: The Woman Judge In Film, Laura Ray

Laura K. Ray

Although there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women judges over the past half century, their cinematic counterparts have failed to reflect that change. This Article explores the paradoxical relationship between social reality and its representation on screen to identify a lingering resistance to the idea of women exercising judicial power. The Article first examines the sparse history of women judges as central characters in films of the 1930s, finding the tension in those films between judicial authority and domestic happiness. It then turns to Hollywood’s romantic comedies of the 1940s, which resolved that tension through the …

Significant Statistics: The Unwitting Policy Making Of Mathematically Ignorant Judges, Michael I. Meyerson, William Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

This article will explore several areas in which judges, hampered by their mathematical ignorance, have permitted numerical analysis to subvert the goals of our legal system. In Part II, I will examine the perversion of the presumption of innocence in paternity cases, where courts make the counter-factual assumption that regardless of the evidence, prior to DNA testing, a suspect has a 50/50 chance of being the father. In Part III, I will explore the unnecessary injection of race into trials involving the statistics of DNA matching, even when race is entirely irrelevant to the particular case. Next, in Part IV, …

How Embedded Knowledge Structures Affect Judicial Decision Making: An Analysis Of Metaphor, Narrative, And Imagination In Child Custody Disputes, Linda L. Berger

Linda L. Berger

We live in a time of radically changing conceptions of family and of the relationships possible between children and parents. Though undergoing “a sea-change,” family law remains tethered to culturally embedded stories and symbols. While so bound, family law will fail to serve individual families and a society whose family structures diverge sharply by education, race, class, and income. This article advances a critical rhetorical analysis of the interaction of metaphor and narrative within the specific context of child custody disputes. Its goal is to begin to examine how these embedded knowledge structures affect judicial decision making generally; more specifically, …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Parental Consent And Notification Laws In The Abortion Context: Rejecting The "Maturity" Standard In Judicial Bypass Proceedings, Anna Bonny

ExpressO

The choice to become a parent, to give a baby up for adoption, or to terminate a pregnancy presents a life-altering decision for a minor. The majority of states require minors to engage their parents or legal guardians in their choice to obtain an abortion, but not in decisions to give their babies up for adoption or to become parents. Though the Supreme Court has held that parental consent and notification laws do not infringe on a minor's constitutional rights if judicial bypass options are available, the reality of these judicial proceedings demonstrates a biased and unworkable legal avenue. Even …

Multistable Figures: Sexual Orientation Visibility And Its Effects On The Experiences Of Sexual Minorities In The Courts, Todd Brower

ExpressO

A multistable figure is a cognitive illusion in which a single drawing contains multiple, competing images. On first viewing a person will see one image, but not the other – it usually requires additional information to trigger the viewer’s awareness of the second image. However, once you know about the disparate figures in the illustration, you cannot erase that knowledge from your mind and see a sole image as you did originally. This inability to ignore information and its effect on subsequent experience has parallels in lesbians’ and gay men’s treatment in the courts.

Courts today are deeply involved in …

The South African Judicial Appointments Process, Penelope Andrews

Articles & Chapters

Consideration of racial and gender diversity, and to a lesser extent disability and sexual orientation diversity, has propelled the transformation of the judiciary in South Africa. This consideration is underpinned by both the stated and unstated assumption that a majority white judiciary cannot adequately and fairly serve and deliver justice to a majority black population. The very legitimacy of the judiciary, and indeed the project of constitutional democracy, is contingent on a bench that reflects the racial and gender diversity of the society. Moreover, with equality as the primary principle in the "Bill of Rights," the judiciary has to accommodate …

Breaking The Bank: Revisiting Central Bank Of Denver After Enron And Sarbanes-Oxley, Celia Taylor

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

One Man's Token Is Another Woman's Breakthrough - The Appointment Of The First Women Federal Judges, Mary Clark

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Gender Bias And The Legal Profession: A Discussion Of Why There Are Still So Few Women On The Bench, Leah V. Durant

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

Carter's Groundbreaking Appointment Of Women To The Federal Branch: His Other Human Rights Record, Mary Clark

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Changing The Face Of The Law: How Women's Advocacy Groups Put Women On The Federal Judicial Appointments Agenda, Mary Clark

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

What Will Diversity On The Bench Mean For Justice?, Theresa M. Beiner

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This article is aimed at the general question: whether having a woman judge would make a difference in sexual harassment cases. This article is aimed at this general question, the response to which has been elusive: Does the race, gender, or other background characteristics of a judge make a difference in the outcome of cases? The effects of diversity on the bench are just becoming measurable. Many legal scholars have assumed diversity will make a difference. While this conclusion may seem commonsensical, it is important to be able to support such assertions with actual data. The supposition has been that …

Leaving A Legacy On The Federal Courts, Carl Tobias

University of Miami Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Civil Opinions Of Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch: A Tribute, Stephen Wermiel

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

W Stories: Women In Leadership Positions In The Judiciary, Deanell Reece Tacha

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Progressive Free Speech And The Uneasy Case For Campus Hate Codes, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Media Masala: Why Women's Control Matters, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Gender Gap On The Federal Bench, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

This Commentary evaluates President George H.W. Bush's lackluster record of appointing women to the federal courts. The Commentary initially examines the relevant data on female judicial appointments and assesses why the Bush Administration has placed few women on the bench. It next recommends that President Bush name substantially more women in 1991 and 1992 and explores why and how this endeavor should be instituted. The Commentary then analyzes what the Bush Administration is likely to do about the paucity of female appointees. Because it is not clear that President Bush will place very many women on the federal courts, the …