Law Commons^™

Justice Byron White And The Importance Of Process, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Justice Byron White exhibited acute sensitivity to process during his exceptional career on the Supreme Court. This essay affords several illustrations of that characteristic. One was his perceptive account of the Court's responsibility for amending the rules which mainly govern federal district court practice. The second was careful stewardship of a federal appellate court study authorized by Congress after the jurist had resigned. Another was his persistent dissents from denials of petitions for Supreme Court review. These examples relate to the three levels in the federal judicial hierarchy, and demonstrate Justice White's abiding concern for each constituent and the whole …

How Dewey Classify Oclc's Lawsuit, Roger V. Skalbeck

Law Faculty Publications

In order to understand the nature of the rights asserted here, it is important to properly classify the Dewey Decimal lawsuit. To these ends, this article presents analysis aimed to better define its scope and legal framework. This is not an analysis of the merits of the claims, let alone a prediction as to the outcome. The issues are considered in the following three sections. In closing, I offer a lighthearted suggestion as to how this suit might be resolved outside of litigation or settlement.

Cross-Burning Case Explores Free-Speech Controversy, John G. Douglass

Law Faculty Publications

Virginia v. Black was Smolla's first oral argument before the Supreme Court, but his appearance on the national stage of First Amendment controversy was nothing new. Among academics, Smolla has long been regarded as a leading First Amendment voice. His publications include a widely-used casebook, top law review articles, plays, short stories, a forthcoming novel, and a nonfiction work that became the script for a popular movie. As a litigator of two decades experience, he has argued First Amendment appeals in dozens of state and federal courts around the nation. Early in his career, he had a knack for finding …

Quirin Revisited, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Six decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Ex parte Quirin, in which the Justices determined that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt possessed the requisite constitutional authority to institute and use a military commission.

On November 13, 2001, President George W. Bush promulgated an Executive Order (Bush Order) that authorized the establishment and application of military commissions as well as purported to eliminate whatever jurisdiction federal courts might have by statute and to deny federal court access to individuals prosecuted or detained for terrorism. The Bush administration substantially premised that the Order and jurisdiction-stripping proviso on Ex parte Quirin. It has …

From A Cattle Ranch To The Supreme Court, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Review of Sandra Day O'Connor, Lazy B: Growing Up On A Cattle Ranch In The American Southwest (2002).

Aristotle On Animals, Agency, And Voluntariness, Nancy E. Schauber

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In this article, I propose a way of reading the text that has both interpretive and philosophical merits. It is a more straightforward and literal reading of the text, requiring less interpolation than alternative readings. It also attributes to Aristotle a theory of moral responsibility which is, if not correct, at least as worthy of attention as many of the contemporary theories under debate. My own view is that the objections raised miss their target not because they fail to voice legitimate concerns about an adequate theory of moral responsibility, but because what Aristotle offers in the text in question …

Sacco & Vanzetti Case, Eric S. Yellin, Louis Foughin

History Faculty Publications

Nicola Sacco, a skilled shoeworker born in 1891, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a fish peddler born in 1888, were arrested on 5 May 1920, for a payroll holdup and murder in South Braintree, Massachusetts. A jury, sitting under Judge Webster Thayer, found the men guilty on 14 July 1921. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed on 23 August 1927 after several appeals and the recommendation of a special advisory commission serving the Massachusetts governor. The execution sparked worldwide protests against repression of Italian Americans, immigrants, labor militancy, and radical political beliefs.