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Articles 1 - 29 of 29
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Need For An Established Senate Rule On Election-Year And Lame Duck Session Supreme Court Nominations, Jacob R. Weaver
The Need For An Established Senate Rule On Election-Year And Lame Duck Session Supreme Court Nominations, Jacob R. Weaver
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat
In 2016, the Republican-held Senate refused to hold a hearing on President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, sparking outrage among the Democratic Party. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell justified his party’s actions based on what became known as the “McConnell Rule.” This controversial rule holds that during years of presidential elections, when the president and the Senate majority are of different parties, the Senate is not expected to confirm the president’s Supreme Court nominees; but, when the president and Senate majority are of the same party, vacancies may be filled.
When the Senate applied this rule in 2020, the …
The Fortification Of Inequality: Constitutional Doctrine And The Political Economy, Kate Andrias
The Fortification Of Inequality: Constitutional Doctrine And The Political Economy, Kate Andrias
Articles
As Parts I and II of this Essay elaborate, the examination yields three observations of relevance to constitutional law more generally: First, judge-made constitutional doctrine, though by no means the primary cause of rising inequality, has played an important role in reinforcing and exacerbating it. Judges have acquiesced to legislatively structured economic inequality, while also restricting the ability of legislatures to remedy it. Second, while economic inequality has become a cause célèbre only in the last few years, much of the constitutional doctrine that has contributed to its flourishing is longstanding. Moreover, for several decades, even the Court’s more liberal …
Confirmation Bias, Patrick Barry
Confirmation Bias, Patrick Barry
Articles
Supreme Court confirmation hearings are vapid. Supreme Court confirmation hearings are pointless. Supreme Court confirmation hearings are harmful to a citizenry already cynical about government. Sentiments like these have been around for decades and are bound to resurface each time a new nomination is made. This essay, however, takes a different view. It argues that Supreme Court confirmation hearings are a valuable form of cultural expression, one that provides a unique record of as the theater critic Martin Esslin might say, a nation thinking about itself in public.
Ideology 'All The Way Down'? An Empirical Study Of Establishment Clause Decisions In The Federal Courts, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise
Ideology 'All The Way Down'? An Empirical Study Of Establishment Clause Decisions In The Federal Courts, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise
Michigan Law Review
As part of our ongoing empirical examination of religious liberty decisions in the lower federal courts, we studied Establishment Clause rulings by federal court of appeals and district court judges from 1996 through 2005. The powerful role of political factors in Establishment Clause decisions appears undeniable and substantial, whether celebrated as the proper integration of political and moral reasoning into constitutional judging, shrugged off as mere realism about judges being motivated to promote their political attitudes, or deprecated as a troubling departure from the aspirational ideal of neutral and impartial judging. In the context of Church and State cases in …
The Rise, Decline And Fall(?) Of Miranda, Yale Kamisar
The Rise, Decline And Fall(?) Of Miranda, Yale Kamisar
Articles
There has been a good deal of talk lately to the effect that Miranda1 is dead or dying-or might as well be dead.2 Even liberals have indicated that the death of Miranda might not be a bad thing. This brings to mind a saying by G.K. Chesterton: "Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up."4
What Do We Want In A Presidential Primary - An Election Law Perspective, Chad Flanders
What Do We Want In A Presidential Primary - An Election Law Perspective, Chad Flanders
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Although the 2008 presidential primaries were in many ways a resounding success in terms of turnout, attention, and sheer excitement, many noted the pressing need for reform. States were rushing to hold their primaries sooner than ever, giving rise to "Super-Duper Tuesday," where twenty-four states had their primaries on the same day. The Democratic nominee at one point looked like it might be decided by the votes of so-called "Superdelegates"-party regulars beholden to no one. As the Democratic nomination contest wore on, Rush Limbaugh, in "Operation Chaos," encouraged his "dittoheads" to raid the party primaries of the Democrats, tilting the …
Withdrawal: The Roberts Court And The Retreat From Election Law, Ellen D. Katz
Withdrawal: The Roberts Court And The Retreat From Election Law, Ellen D. Katz
Articles
Last Term the Supreme Court handed down four decisions that upheld diverse efforts by state governments to regulate the electoral process. The Court turned back challenges to New York’s method for nominating judicial candidates, Washington’s modified blanket primary system, Indiana’s voter identification requirement, and Alabama’s use of gubernatorial appointment to fill county commission vacancies in Mobile County. Unlike other recent election decisions, these were not close cases. All nine Justices supported the New York holding, while supermajorities voted in favor of the result in the others. This consensus, moreover, emerged even as the Court voted to reverse unanimous decisions by …
Barack Obama, Margarita Lopez Torres, And The Path To Nomination, Ellen D. Katz
Barack Obama, Margarita Lopez Torres, And The Path To Nomination, Ellen D. Katz
Articles
Operating within these regimes, Obama was able to mount a credible--and ultimately successful--challenge to the leadership's choice for the nomination while Lopez Torres could not. This article offers an explanation why. It argues that Obama succeeded where Lopez Torres failed because the nomination process Obama traversed was more penetrable and more contestable than the one Lopez Torres faced.
On Dworkin And Borkin, Tom Lininger
On Dworkin And Borkin, Tom Lininger
Michigan Law Review
This Essay will use Dworkin's and Davis's scholarship as a jumping-off point for a discussion of the Supreme Court nomination process. I argue that while Dworkin's and Davis's books, when read together, expose a significant problem with the current nomination process, a possible solution to this predicament may lie in a change to the judicial code of ethics and the procedural rules for confirmation of judges. My analysis will proceed in four steps. Part I will address Dworkin's arguments. Part II will evaluate the analysis and evidence in Davis's book. Part III will consider an additional variable to which neither …
Through The Lens Of Diversity: The Fight For Judicial Elections After Republic Party Of Minnesota V. White, Sherrilyn A. Ifill
Through The Lens Of Diversity: The Fight For Judicial Elections After Republic Party Of Minnesota V. White, Sherrilyn A. Ifill
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article is directed at the ongoing discussion taking place in many states and among members of the bench and bar about whether states that elect judges should switch to appointment in light of White. The author argues that states should resist what he regards as the Court's heavy-handed dicta denouncing judicial elections in White. Rather than accede to the pressure to shift from an elective to an appointive system-pressure that is being felt in several states- the author contends that states should regard the White decision as an opportunity to engage in a thorough and far-reaching review …
Barriers To Participation, Trevor Potter, Marianne H. Viray
Barriers To Participation, Trevor Potter, Marianne H. Viray
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Despite the nation's founding commitment to participatory democracy, many barriers to candidate and public participation in the electoral process are damaging the public's confidence that our elections are fair and open to full participation by candidates and voters.
The nominating processes created by the two major parties mainly serve the goals of party "insiders" and the more politically extreme factions, at the expense of competition and public confidence in the two-party system. At the same time, barriers to minor party and independent candidates-closed primaries, excessive early-voter registration requirements and complicated state primary and general ballot access requirements-operate to foreclose the …
Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. And The Counterrevolution In The Federal Securities Laws, Adam C. Pritchard
Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. And The Counterrevolution In The Federal Securities Laws, Adam C. Pritchard
Articles
The confirmation of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., to the Supreme Court coincided with a dramatic shift in the Court's approach to securities law. This Article documents Powell's influence in changing the Court's direction in securities law. Powell's influence was the product of his extensive experience with the securities laws as a corporate lawyer, which gave him much greater familiarity with that body of law than his fellow Justices had. That experience also made him skeptical of civil liability, particularly class and derivative actions. Powell's skepticism led him to interpret the securities law in a consistently narrow fashion to reduce liability …
Justice Frank Murphy And American Labor Law, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Justice Frank Murphy And American Labor Law, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Articles
Working people and disfavored groups were central concerns of Frank Murphy, the last Michigan Law School graduate to sit on the United States Supreme Court. In the pages of this Review, just over a half century ago, Archibald Cox wrote of him: "It was natural ...th at his judicial work should be most significant in these two fields [labor law and civil rights] and especially in the areas where they coalesce."' In this Essay, after a brief overview of Murphy the man, his days at the University of Michigan, and his career prior to the Court appointment, I shall review …
What Will Diversity On The Bench Mean For Justice?, Theresa M. Beiner
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 …
Picking Federal Judges: A Mysterious Alchemy, Michael D. Schattman
Picking Federal Judges: A Mysterious Alchemy, Michael D. Schattman
Michigan Law Review
I have twice been nominated to the federal bench by President Clinton. The first nomination, in December 1995, lapsed at the end of the 104th Congress. I was renominated in March 1997. I have never had a hearing and never had a letter from the Senate Judiciary Committee requesting additional information. In 1995 and again in 1997 the White House precleared my nomination with my two home-state Republican senators. Originally, I was nominated before the scheduled retirement date of the judge I was named to replace, which gives knowledgeable readers an idea of the lack of controversy surrounding my appointment. …
Review Of The Selling Of Supreme Court Nominees, By J. A. Maltese, Richard D. Friedman
Review Of The Selling Of Supreme Court Nominees, By J. A. Maltese, Richard D. Friedman
Reviews
John Anthony Maltese has written a genial book on a subject of enormous importance and enduring interest-presidential selection and senatorial consideration of Supreme Court nominees. Readers new to this field will find The Selling of Supreme Court Nominees a helpful introduction to it. Those more familiar with it will not find much that is surprising.
Telling The Story Of The Hughes Court, Richard D. Friedman
Telling The Story Of The Hughes Court, Richard D. Friedman
Articles
When Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., died in 1935, he left the bulk of his estate to the United States Government. This gift, known as the Oliver Wendell Hnlmes Devise, sat in the Treasury for about twenty years, until Congress set up a Presidential Commission to determine what to do with it. The principal use of the money has been to fund a multivolume History of the United States Supreme Court. The history of the project itself has not always been a happy one, for some of the authors have been unable to complete their volumes. Among them was one …
Pragmatism And Parity In Appointments, Yxta Maya Murray
Pragmatism And Parity In Appointments, Yxta Maya Murray
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This review uses Carter's two foci as a springboard for analyzing the Article II, Section II appointment process. First, Carter's discussion of indecency in modern appointments may be a valuable theoretical insight into the process instead of a mere sociological observation. "Indecency" in appointments, or what is known as "borking" in Carter parlance, may also be a symptom of race and gender bias in the administration of the Article II, Section II power. To ameliorate the effects of this bias, I suggest the incorporation of pragmatism (a thread of philosophical and legal thought) and parity concepts into the existing appointments …
The Supreme Court In Politics., Terrance Sandalow
The Supreme Court In Politics., Terrance Sandalow
Reviews
Despite all that has been written about the bitter struggle initiated by President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to a seat on the Supreme Court, its most remarkable feature, that it was waged over a judicial appointment, has drawn relatively little comment. Two hundred years after the Philadelphia Convention, Hamilton's "least dangerous" branch - least dangerous because it would have "no influence over either the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever"'-had come to occupy so important a place in the nation's political life …
Judge Picking, Abner J. Mikva
Judge Picking, Abner J. Mikva
Michigan Law Review
A Review of God Save This Honorable Court: How the Choice of Supreme Court Justices Shapes Our History by Laurence H. Tribe
Justices And Presidents: A Political History Of Appointments To The Supreme Court (2d Edition), James S. Portnoy
Justices And Presidents: A Political History Of Appointments To The Supreme Court (2d Edition), James S. Portnoy
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court (2d edition) by Henry J. Abraham
Potter Stewart, Terrance Sandalow
Potter Stewart, Terrance Sandalow
Articles
In the spring of 958, Justice Harold Burton informed President Eisenhower of his decision to retire at the end of the Term, but, at the President's request, withheld public announcement until the latter was ready to name a successor. In September, Eisenhower appointed Potter Stewart, who became, at age forty-three, the second youngest person to serve on the Supreme Court since the Civil War.
Mr. Justice Powell And The Emerging Nixon Majority, A.E. Dick Howard
Mr. Justice Powell And The Emerging Nixon Majority, A.E. Dick Howard
Michigan Law Review
In recent years, we have come to expect the debate over Supreme Court nominations to reflect ideological passions in the Government and the country at large; the Fortas, Haynsworth, and Carswell cases remain fresh in memory. In the hearings on the nominations of Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and William H. Rehnquist to the Court, Senate Democratic liberals made clear their intention to probe not only the nominees' integrity and legal qualifications, but also their judicial philosophies. It was ironic, therefore, to watch as liberal members of the Judiciary Committee, through their questions and comments at the confirmation hearings, made Powell, …
The Fortas Controversy: The Senate's Role Of Advice And Consent To Judicial Nominations, Prospectus: A Journal Of Law Reform
The Fortas Controversy: The Senate's Role Of Advice And Consent To Judicial Nominations, Prospectus: A Journal Of Law Reform
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Introduction to the Articles, The Broad Role by Robert P. Griffin, and The Discriminating Role by Philip A. Hart
The Discriminating Role, Philip A. Hart
The Discriminating Role, Philip A. Hart
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
The controversy which arose in the summer of 1968 over the nomination of Mr. Justice Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice of the United States has raised serious questions about the proper role of the Senate in advising and consenting to such nominations. That Sen. Hart’s remarks may be read in perspective, it should be mentioned that he supported strongly the nomination of Mr. Fortas. Hart believes that were it not for the unique circumstances of the summer of 1968- the erosion of the power of the President with the approach of a political campaign, the nearness of the end …
The Broad Role, Robert P. Griffin
The Broad Role, Robert P. Griffin
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This article will expand on two major points: first, the nature of the higher responsibility which the Senate owes to considerations of judicial nominations; and second, the factors generally influencing non-consent in the Fortas case. The purpose is not to reopen a discussion of the particularities of Justice Abe Fortas' quality for appointment as Chief Justice of the United States. Rather we will be concerned only with the types of factors influencing a Senate determination.
Constitutional Law-Conclusiveness Of Consent Of Senate To Presidential Appointment
Constitutional Law-Conclusiveness Of Consent Of Senate To Presidential Appointment
Michigan Law Review
On December 3, 1930, President Hoover submitted to the Senate the name of George Otis Smith as chairman and member of the Federal Power Commission, which Congress had created by an act approved June 23, 1930. On December 20, 1930, the Senate in open executive session voted to advise and consent to Smith's nomination. The president pro tem. announced that the President would be notified, and there was no objection. On the same day it was ordered that all resolutions of confirmation that day passed be forwarded "forthwith" to the President. The secretary of the Senate formally notified the …
The Technique Of Judicial Appointment, Harold J. Laski
The Technique Of Judicial Appointment, Harold J. Laski
Michigan Law Review
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of the judiciary in the modern state. The work of the executive has become so vast, the powers delegated to it by the legislature are so wide, that judges are, perhaps more than at any previous time, the real safeguard of personal liberty. It is only necessary to recall cases like Coppage v. Kansas, or R. v. Halliday, to realize how nearly judicial activity goes to the very heart of freedom. That is, of course, even more the case when, as with America, the constitution of the state is written, and …
Some Checks And Balances In Government, Thomas M. Cooley
Some Checks And Balances In Government, Thomas M. Cooley
Articles
The purpose of the present paper is not to discuss the broad general subject of checks and balances in this, or any other, government. but to call attention to a few considerations only. These, in the main, affect the executive and the judiciary, rather than the legislature; and they will serve to show, perhaps, that neither of them can always, and under all circumstances, rely upon any very sure protection to its legitimate powers. It is one thing, unfortunately, to put intricate machinery in motion, and another, and quite a different, thing, to make it, under unforeseen occurrences, work out …