Law Commons^™

The Loudest Voice At The Supreme Court: The Solicitor General’S Dominance Of Amicus Oral Argument, Darcy Covert, Annie J. Wang

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Solicitor General (“SG”) is often called the “Tenth Justice,” a title that captures his unique relationship with the Supreme Court and his independence from the executive branch. No phenomenon better reflects this relationship than the Court’s practice of permitting amici to participate in oral argument. Although amicus oral argument is nominally available to all litigants, the modern Court grants this privilege almost exclusively to the SG. Scholars and Court watchers have long argued that this practice is justified because the SG uses it to pursue the rule of law and an objective sense of “justice.”

This Article challenges that …

The Supreme Court And Fundamental Rights--A Problem Of Judicial Method, James H. Wildman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the Constitution is a plan of written but flexible basic rights, interpreted and applied by a judiciary with few limitations upon its powers, it is necessary to avoid conferring carte blanche discretion upon the Court. This Note adopts the premises that we may be arriving at an era when "liberty" will demand constitutional protection of human interests other than those explicitly embodied within the text of the Bill of Rights; that judicial identification of those interests is often the most effective method for granting this protection; and that the function of constitutional due process is to preserve the relevancy …