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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Judicial Function: Justice Between The Parties, Or A Broader Public Interest?, Richard Zitrin Jan 2004

The Judicial Function: Justice Between The Parties, Or A Broader Public Interest?, Richard Zitrin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Virtuous Judges And Electoral Politics: A Contradiction?, Marie Failinger Jan 2004

Virtuous Judges And Electoral Politics: A Contradiction?, Marie Failinger

Faculty Scholarship

Judge Thomas J. Spargo serves as a fascinating poster-child in the debate on what’s wrong (or right) with judicial elections. Judge Spargo, campaigning for re-election as Justice of the Berne Town Court in upstate New York, was accused of “failing to observe the high standards of conduct” expected as a judge because he handed out doughnuts to voters. Judge Spargo’s case and others illustrate that popular debates about the merits of judicial elections versus judicial selection commissions have probably been mis-focused on two “second-order questions rather than concentrating on “first-order” concerns in judicial selection. This article discusses these questions and …


Judicial Campaign Codes After Republican Party Of Minnesota V. White, Richard Briffault Jan 2004

Judicial Campaign Codes After Republican Party Of Minnesota V. White, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

The vast majority of judicial offices in the United States are subject to election. The votes of the people select or retain at least some judges in thirty-nine states, and all judges are elected in twenty-one states. By one count, 87% of the state and local judges in the United States have to face the voters at some point if they want to win or remain in office. Judicial elections, however, differ from elections for legislative or executive offices in a number of significant ways. In nineteen states, most judges are initially appointed but must later go before the voters …


A Key Influence On The Doctrine Of Actual Malice: Justice William Brennan's Judicial Philosophy At Work In Changing The Law Of Seditious Libel, Carlo A. Pedrioli Jan 2004

A Key Influence On The Doctrine Of Actual Malice: Justice William Brennan's Judicial Philosophy At Work In Changing The Law Of Seditious Libel, Carlo A. Pedrioli

Faculty Scholarship

In light of the historical change in the law of seditious libel that New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) prompted and the need for further exploration of the human factors behind the case, this article gives attention to William Brennan’s judicial philosophy at work in the case. The article defines judicial philosophy as a system of guiding principles upon which a judge calls in the process of legal decision-making. Specifically, the article explains how, through Times v. Sullivan, Brennan’s instrumentalist judicial philosophy had an important influence on changing the course of legal protection for criticism of the government in the …


Foreseeing Greatness - Measurable Performance Criteria And The Selection Of Supreme Court Justices Symposium: Empirical Measures Of Judicial Performance, James J. Brudney Jan 2004

Foreseeing Greatness - Measurable Performance Criteria And The Selection Of Supreme Court Justices Symposium: Empirical Measures Of Judicial Performance, James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

This article contributes to an ongoing debate about the feasibility and desirability of measuring the merit of appellate judges - and their consequent Supreme Court potential - by using objective performance variables. Relying on the provocative and controversial tournament criteria proposed by Professors Stephen Choi and Mitu Gulati in two recent articles, Brudney assesses the Supreme Court potential of Warren Burger and Harry Blackmun based on their appellate court records. He finds that Burger's appellate performance appears more promising under the Choi and Gulati criteria, but then demonstrates how little guidance these quantitative assessments actually provide when reviewing the two …


A Tournament Of Judges?, Stephen Choi, Mitu Gulati Jan 2004

A Tournament Of Judges?, Stephen Choi, Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

We suggest a Tournament of Judges where the reward to the winner is elevation to the Supreme Court. Politics (and ideology) surely has a role to play in the selection of justices. However, the present level of partisan bickering has resulted in delays in judicial appointments as well as undermined the public's confidence in the objectivity of justices selected through such a process. More significantly, much of the politicking is not transparent, often obscured with statements on a particular candidate's "merit"- casting a taint on all those who make their way through the judicial nomination process. We argue that the …


Judges As Film Critics: New Approaches To Filmic Evidence, Jessica Silbey Jan 2004

Judges As Film Critics: New Approaches To Filmic Evidence, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

This Article exposes internal contradictions in case law deciding the use and admissibility of film as evidence. Based on a review of more than ninety state and federal cases dating from 1923 to the present, the Article explains how the source of these contradictions is the frequent miscategorization of film as "demonstrative evidence," that category of evidence that purports to illustrate other evidence rather than to be directly probative of some fact at issue. The Article further demonstrates how these contradictions are based on two venerable jurisprudential anxieties. One is the concern about the growing trend toward replacing the traditional …


Speech And Strife, Robert L. Tsai Jan 2004

Speech And Strife, Robert L. Tsai

Faculty Scholarship

The essay strives for a better understanding of the myths, symbols, categories of power, and images deployed by the Supreme Court to signal how we ought to think about its authority. Taking examples from free speech jurisprudence, the essay proceeds in three steps. First, I argue that the First Amendment constitutes a deep source of cultural authority for the Court. As a result, linguistic and doctrinal innovation in the free speech area have been at least as bold and imaginative as that in areas like the Commerce Clause. Second, in turning to cognitive theory, I distinguish between formal legal argumentation …