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Full-Text Articles in Law

Transforming Constitutional Doctrine Through Mandatory Appeals From Three-Judge District Courts: The Warren And Burger Courts And Their Contemporary Lessons, Michael E. Solimine Jan 2025

Transforming Constitutional Doctrine Through Mandatory Appeals From Three-Judge District Courts: The Warren And Burger Courts And Their Contemporary Lessons, Michael E. Solimine

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Judicial interpretations of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment underwent significant change, both expanding and retrenching in various ways, in Supreme Court doctrine during the Warren and Burger Courts. An underappreciated influence on the change is the method by which those cases reached the Court’s docket. A significant number of the cases reached the Court’s docket not by discretionary grants of writs of certiorari, as occurred in most other cases, but by mandatory appeals directly from three-judge district courts. This article makes several contributions regarding the important changes in these doctrines during the Warren Court …


The Court And The Constitution, Lori A. Ringhand Jan 2023

The Court And The Constitution, Lori A. Ringhand

Scholarly Works

Americans do not want the Supreme Court to be just another political institution. This is apparent in the lukewarm response to even modest proposals to change the structure of the Court, such as limiting the terms of its justices or changing its size. The partisan overlay of this reaction is obvious, but the purpose of this Essay is to highlight an additional barrier to change: the dominance of originalist rhetoric in American constitutional discourse. The rhetoric of originalism has successfully tapped into many Americans’ deeply held expectations about the role of the Court and the Constitution as a unique and …


Simplified Courts Can't Solve Inequality, Colleen F. Shanahan, Anna E. Carpenter Jun 2019

Simplified Courts Can't Solve Inequality, Colleen F. Shanahan, Anna E. Carpenter

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

State civil courts struggle to handle the volume of cases before them. Litigants in these courts, most of whom are unrepresented, struggle to navigate the courts to solve their problems. This access-to-justice crisis has led to a range of reform efforts and solutions. One type of reform, court simplification, strives to reduce the complexity of procedures and information used by courts to help unrepresented litigants navigate the judicial system. These reforms mitigate but do not solve the symptoms of the larger underlying problem: state civil courts are struggling because they have been stuck with legal cases that arise from the …


Simplified Courts Can't Solve Inequality, Colleen F. Shanahan, Anna E. Carpenter Jan 2019

Simplified Courts Can't Solve Inequality, Colleen F. Shanahan, Anna E. Carpenter

Faculty Scholarship

State civil courts struggle to handle the volume of cases before them. Litigants in these courts, most of whom are unrepresented, struggle to navigate the courts to solve their problems. This access-to-justice crisis has led to a range of reform efforts and solutions. One type of reform, court simplification, strives to reduce the complexity of procedures and information used by courts to help unrepresented litigants navigate the judicial system. These reforms mitigate but do not solve the symptoms of the larger underlying problem: state civil courts are struggling because they have been stuck with legal cases that arise from the …


From Orphans To Families In Crisis: Parental Rights Matters In Maine Probate Courts, Deirdre M. Smith Aug 2015

From Orphans To Families In Crisis: Parental Rights Matters In Maine Probate Courts, Deirdre M. Smith

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the sources of the contemporary problems associated with the adjudication of parental rights matters in Maine’s probate courts and identifies specific reforms to address both the structural and substantive law problems. The Article first reviews the development of Maine’s probate courts and their jurisdiction over parental rights matters. It traces the expansion of jurisdiction over children and families from a limited role incidental to the administration of a decedent’s estate to the current scope: a range of matters that may result in the limitation, suspension, or termination of the rights of living parents. Maine probate courts now …


Anna Moscowitz Kross And The Home Term Part: A Second Look At The Nation's First Criminal Domestic Violence Court, Mae C. Quinn Jan 2015

Anna Moscowitz Kross And The Home Term Part: A Second Look At The Nation's First Criminal Domestic Violence Court, Mae C. Quinn

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.


The Verdict Is In: Judge And Administrator Perceptions Of State Court Governance, Christopher D. Kimbrough, Mitchel Herian, David B. Rottman, Brian H. Bornstein, Alan Tomkins Jun 2014

The Verdict Is In: Judge And Administrator Perceptions Of State Court Governance, Christopher D. Kimbrough, Mitchel Herian, David B. Rottman, Brian H. Bornstein, Alan Tomkins

Alan Tomkins Publications

The court unification movement has progressed in fits and starts over the decades. Recent proposals have been put forth that attempt to continue the move toward a state court structure that utilizes a more coherent approach to governance. Drawing on a survey of court personnel who were asked about a set of proposed governance principles, this article examines how state court judges and administrators view their roles and responsibilities in the court system, the current need for court reform, the importance of future trends, and whether they are confident in the performance of their respective court system. Three hundred and …


Restructuring The U.S. Tax Court: A Reply To Stephanie Hoffer And Christopher Walker's The Death Of Tax Court Exceptionalism, Leandra Lederman Jan 2014

Restructuring The U.S. Tax Court: A Reply To Stephanie Hoffer And Christopher Walker's The Death Of Tax Court Exceptionalism, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article is an invited reply to an article in the Minnesota Law Review regarding whether the “reviewing court” provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) apply to the U.S. Tax Court, the principal court hearing disputes between taxpayers and the IRS. (The Tax Court has repeatedly said that the APA does not apply to it). It argues in part that the question of whether the Tax Court must apply the APA’s standard and scope of review when reviewing IRS action is not as clear as a matter of history and doctrine as Professors Hoffer and Walker argue. The author …


Rotten To The Core: Project Capture And The Failure Of Judicial Reform In Mongolia, Brent T. White Apr 2009

Rotten To The Core: Project Capture And The Failure Of Judicial Reform In Mongolia, Brent T. White

Publications

Despite claims by international donor agencies that judicial reform efforts in Mongolia have been great success, this Article argue that Mongolian courts continue to grossly lack integrity, transparency, and accountability-and are perceived by the Mongolian public as more corrupt today than when donor-funded judicial reform efforts began almost a decade ago. This Article further argues that the failure of judicial reform in Mongolia stems in significant part from the "capture" of donor-funded judicial reform efforts by elites within the Mongolian judicial sector. It concludes that the inherent tendency for project capture in the "institution-building" approach to judicial reform that international …


Guest Editors’ Introduction To Special Issue On Substance Abuse And Addiction In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran Apr 2009

Guest Editors’ Introduction To Special Issue On Substance Abuse And Addiction In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Modern Problem-Solving Court Movement: Domination Of Discourse And Untold Stories Of Criminal Justice Reform, Mae Quinn Jan 2009

The Modern Problem-Solving Court Movement: Domination Of Discourse And Untold Stories Of Criminal Justice Reform, Mae Quinn

Journal Articles

There is a chasm between the rhetoric about and the reality of modern court reform movements. It is a deeply troubling divide. This Article, responding to the work of Professor Jane Spinak, is not concerned with innovations within the family court system. Rather, it examines modern criminal justice reforms.1 It focuses on the claims of the contemporary ―problem-solving court‖ movement—a movement that has resulted in the development of thousands of specialized criminal courts across the country over the last two decades.2


Romancing The Court, Jane M. Spinak Jan 2008

Romancing The Court, Jane M. Spinak

Faculty Scholarship

Problem-solving courts, created at the end of the 20th century, make court-based solutions central to addressing significant societal problems, such as substance abuse and its impact on criminal activity and family functioning. Yet, lessons gleaned from over 100 years of family court history suggest that court-based solutions to intractable social problems have rarely been effective. This article asks three questions of the problem-solving court movement: What problem are we trying to solve? Is the court the best place to solve the problem? What are the consequences of giving authority to a court for solving the problem? Answering those questions through …


Judicial Independence In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran Jan 2003

Judicial Independence In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Substance Abuse, Families, And Unified Family Courts: The Creation Of A Caring Justice System, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran Jan 1999

Substance Abuse, Families, And Unified Family Courts: The Creation Of A Caring Justice System, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

This article proposes an approach to family law decision-making tailored to assist families plagued by substance abuse. Substance abuse is linked to social, health, and economic problems facing Americans today and is a factor for a substantial number of family law litigants. By failing to address substance abuse issues, the family repeatedly may need to seek court intervention. The unified family court model is the concept of a single court that coordinates the work of independent agencies and tribunals, each with some limited role in resolving the problems incident to a family's legal matters. Professor Babb has created an interdisciplinary …


Where We Stand: An Analysis Of America's Family Law Adjudicatory Systems And The Mandate To Establish Unified Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb Apr 1998

Where We Stand: An Analysis Of America's Family Law Adjudicatory Systems And The Mandate To Establish Unified Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb

All Faculty Scholarship

The volume and scope of family law cases in contemporary American society, as well as their unending nature both individually and systemically, exacerbate the difficulty of their resolution. To address this crisis, the American Bar Association and others have recommended court reform, specifically, the establishment of unified family courts in all jurisdictions. A unified family court is a single forum within which to adjudicate the full range of family law issues, based on the notion that court effectiveness and efficiency increase when the court resolves a family's legal problems in as few appearances as possible. The model is based on …


Court Reform: A View From The Bottom, Julia C. Lamber, Mary Lee Luskin Jan 1992

Court Reform: A View From The Bottom, Julia C. Lamber, Mary Lee Luskin

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.


Law Reform By Courts, Legislatures, And Commissions Following Empirical Research On Jury Instructions, J. Alexander Tanford Jan 1991

Law Reform By Courts, Legislatures, And Commissions Following Empirical Research On Jury Instructions, J. Alexander Tanford

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Empirical research demonstrates that jurors have difficulty understanding and following traditional instructions about the law. The social science literature recommends several procedural reforms, including giving important instructions at the start of the trial and providing jurors with written instructions. This article examines changes in the law following the publication of this social science research, comparing courts, legislatures and rule-making commissions. Analysis reveals that although all three institutions are dominated by lawyers, they have acted differently. Commissions have made substantial changes in the law consistent with the recommendations of social scientists, legislatures have made few changes, and courts have changed case …


Review Of J. Lieberman Ed., The Role Of Courts In American Society: The Final Report Of The Council On The Role Of Courts, Doug Rendleman Jan 1986

Review Of J. Lieberman Ed., The Role Of Courts In American Society: The Final Report Of The Council On The Role Of Courts, Doug Rendleman

Scholarly Articles

None available