Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2000

Courts

Series

University of Richmond

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Law

Chief Judge Martin And The Modern Sixth Circuit, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

Chief Judge Martin And The Modern Sixth Circuit, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

In his article, In Defense of Unpublished Opinions, 60 Ohio St. LJ. 177 (1999), Chief Judge Boyce F. Martin, Jr. has recently and eloquently championed judicial reliance on unpublished opinions. Judge Martin, who speaks from more than two decades of service on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, substantially improves understanding of this court. Judge Martin informally and pragmatically scrutinizes critical problems that confront the modern regional circuits through the prism of unpublished determinations while elucidating judicial dependence on these decisions. Judge Martin apologizes for the dearth of empirical data on the decisions' invocation, but the …

Go to article

Choosing Judges At The Close Of The Clinton Administration, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

Choosing Judges At The Close Of The Clinton Administration, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Tobias suggests that federal judicial selection is one important area in which ·President Bill Clinton hopes that he will leave a legacy. The author finds that the first Clinton Administration realized much success in choosing judges who make the federal judiciary more diverse and who possess excellent qualifications. Over the last five years, however, the Administration has not been equally successful either in placing highly competent female and minority attorneys on the bench or in filling the perennial judicial vacancies, partly because the Republican Party has enjoyed a significant majority in the Senate. The author's analysis shows that similar …

Go to article

The Next Step For The Ninth Circuit, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

The Next Step For The Ninth Circuit, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Professor Arthur Hellman recently published a trenchant critique of the report compiled by the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals. In The Unkindest Cut: The White Commission Proposal to Restructure the Ninth Circuit, he emphasizes that the report adduced little empirical data which demonstrate that the Ninth Circuit operates inefficaciously. Indeed, the commissioners candidly declared: "There is no persuasive evidence that the Ninth Circuit ... is not working effectively ... .'' Despite this admission, the Commission prescribed drastic change with a divisional concept, which Professor Hellman finds flawed. He thus urges that Congress "reject the proposal …

Go to article

The White Commission And The Federal Circuit, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

The White Commission And The Federal Circuit, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals, or White Commission, ("the Commission") recently issued a report and recommendations for Congress and the President after studying the appellate courts for a year. The Commission investigation emphasized the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, as Congress had instructed. The centerpiece of the Commission's recommendations was a divisional arrangement for the Ninth Circuit and the remaining appellate courts as their caseloads increase. Notwithstanding this focus on the Ninth Circuit, the commissioners compiled a substantial amount of objective empirical data and some subjective information on the other …

Go to article

The Federal Appeals Courts At Century's End, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

The Federal Appeals Courts At Century's End, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

The Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals submitted its report and suggestions to the United States Congress and the President in December 1998. The Commission spent ten months studying the "structure and alignment of the Federal Court of Appeals system, with particular reference to the Ninth Circuit," and two months developing "recommendations for such changes in circuit boundaries or structure as may be appropriate for the expeditious and effective disposition of the caseload of the Federal Courts of Appeals, consistent with fundamental concepts of fairness and due process." The centerpiece of the Commission's proposal is the …

Go to article

Civil Justice Delay And Empirical Data: A Response To Professor Heise, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

Civil Justice Delay And Empirical Data: A Response To Professor Heise, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

One decade ago, Congress undertook an ambitious, controversial effort to reduce expense and delay in the federal civil justice system. The Civil Justice Reform Act ("CJRA") of 1990 instituted unprecedented nationwide experimentation by requiring that all ninety-four federal district courts scrutinize their civil and criminal dockets and then promulgate and apply numerous procedures which district judges believed would save cost and time in civil litigation. Congress also prescribed rigorous assessment of the six principles, guidelines, and techniques of litigation management and expense and delay reduction that federal districts in fact adopted and enforced. Lawmakers provided for an expert, independent evaluator …

Go to article

Filling The Federal Appellate Openings On The 9th Circuit, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

Filling The Federal Appellate Openings On The 9th Circuit, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Throughout much of the 1990s, the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has operated with fewer than the court's complete complement of 28 active judges. Since 1995, when Republican senators representing states of the Pacific Northwest instituted a serious campaign to divide the 9th Circuit, the court has essentially functioned absent one-fourth of its membership. The large number of openings and their protracted nature, as well as a steadily expanding docket, have demanded that the 9th Circuit depend on many appellate and district court judges who are not active members of the 9th Circuit when staffing three-judge …

Go to article

Natural Resources And The White Commission Report, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

Natural Resources And The White Commission Report, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Individuals and entities with concerns regarding environmental issues as well as those concerned about the federal judicial system have carefully followed the debate over the possible division of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that has been raging since 1995. During the first session of the 105th Congress, the Senate approved an appropriations rider, which would have established a new Twelfth Circuit including Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, and would have left California and Nevada in the Ninth Circuit. That action was very important because neither house of …

Go to article

Judicial Selection At The Clinton Administration's End, Carl W. Tobias Jan 2000

Judicial Selection At The Clinton Administration's End, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

During his presidency, Bill Clinton appointed almost half of the presently sitting federal appellate and district court judges. He, therefore, can justifiably claim that he has left a lasting imprint on the federal judiciary. During his 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton promised to choose intelligent, diligent, and independent judges who would increase balance, vigorously enforce fundamental constitutional rights, and possess measured judicial temperament. The initial achievement of the Clinton Administration in selecting members of the federal bench, who make it more diverse and who are exceptionally qualified, demonstrates that the President fulfilled these campaign pledges. President Clinton named unprecedented numbers and …

Go to article