Law Commons^™

Law Clerks And The Institutional Design Of The Federal Judiciary, Albert Yoon

Marquette Law Review

This Essay highlights the evolving institutional changes in the federal judiciary—a protracted confirmation process, higher caseload demands, and declining real salaries—in concurrence with evidence suggesting greater reliance by judges on their law clerks when writing opinions. These dynamic forces arguably undermine the integrity of the judicial process and counsel for legislative action to address judicial working conditions or for changes by judges in the hiring of law clerks.

Bonus Babies Escape Golden Handcuffs: How Money And Politics Has Transformed The Career Paths Of Supreme Court Law Clerks, Artemus Ward, Christina Dwyer, Kiranjit Gill

Marquette Law Review

Job prospects for former Supreme Court law clerks have radically changed in recent years. Beginning in 1986, skyrocketing law firm signing bonuses caused a transformation from the natural sorting system, where clerks chose among private practice, government, academic, and public interest positions, to a Bonus Baby Regime where former clerks almost always choose to work in private firms after they leave the Court. This development is a result of both financial and ideological factors. While the more conservative clerking corps of recent years has been increasingly drawn to private practice, the firms themselves hire along ideological lines. Still, while former …

Supreme Court Clerks As Judicial Actors And As Sources, Scott Armstrong

Marquette Law Review

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Good Conduct Time For Prisoners: Why (And How) Wisconsin Should Provide Credits Toward Early Release, Michael O'Hear

Marquette Law Review

Wisconsin is one of about twenty states not offering good conduct time (GCT) to prisoners. In most states, prisoners are able to earn GCT credits toward accelerated release through good behavior. Wisconsin itself had GCT for more than a century, but eliminated it as part of a set of reforms in the 1980s and 1990s that left the state with what may be the nation’s most inflexible system for the release of prisoners. Although some of these reforms helpfully brought greater certainty to punishment, they went too far in eliminating nearly all meaningful recognition and encouragement of good behavior and …

Introduction: Judicial Assistants Or Junior Judges: The Hiring, Utilization, And Influence Of Law Clerks, Chad Oldfather, Todd C. Peppers

Marquette Law Review

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A Truth About Career Law Clerks, Joseph D. Kearney

Marquette Law Review

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Advice From The Bench (Memo): Clerk Influence On Supreme Court Oral Arguments, Timothy R. Johnson, David R. Stras, Ryan C. Black

Marquette Law Review

Scholars of the U.S. Supreme Court have long debated the role, and possible influence, of clerks on the decisions their Justices make. In this Paper, we take a novel approach to analyze this phenomenon. We utilize pre-oral argument bench memos sent to Justice Harry A. Blackmun from his clerks. Specifically, we use these memos to determine whether Justice Blackmun asked questions of counsel that were recommended by his clerks in the memos. Our data indicate Justice Blackmun often followed his clerks’ advice. Accordingly, we provide another important link to demonstrate Supreme Court clerks can and do affect how their Justices …

Revisiting The Influence Of Law Clerks On The U.S. Supreme Court's Agenda-Setting Process, Ryan C. Black, Christina L. Boyd, Amanda C. Bryan

Marquette Law Review

Do law clerks influence U.S. Supreme Court Justices’ decisions in the Court’s agenda-setting stage? For those Justices responding to their own law clerks’ cert recommendations, we expect a high degree of agreement between Justice and clerk. For non-employing Justices, however, we anticipate that the likelihood of agreement between clerk and Justice will vary greatly based on the interplay among the ideological compatibility between a Justice and the clerk, the underlying certworthiness of the petition for review, and the clerk’s final recommendation. Relying on a newly collected dataset of petitions making the Court’s discuss list over the 1986 through 1993 Terms, …

The World Of Law Clerks: Tasks, Utilization, Reliance, And Influence, Stephen L. Wasby

Marquette Law Review

This Article is an examination of the work of judges’ law clerks, based on a variety of materials. It begins with consideration of who is a law clerk and of the role of staff attorneys and judges’ secretaries. Clerks’ tasks are examined next, with attention to the preparation of bench memoranda and judges’ delegation of work to their clerks. Aspects of clerks’ influence and the related matter of judges’ reliance on them is then presented, including attention to law clerks’ recommendations to their judges.

Keynote Address: Secret Agents: Using Law Clerks Effectively, David R. Stras

Marquette Law Review

Recent scholarship discusses the role of law clerks and their role in influencing the courts on which they work. This Keynote Address discusses the nuts and bolts of law clerks, including how they are selected, what role they play on various courts, and their potential opportunities for influence.

The Future Of Federal Law Clerk Hiring, Aaron L. Nielson

Marquette Law Review

The market for federal law clerks has been upended. Beginning in 2003, the Federal Judges Law Clerk Hiring Plan was implemented to regulate clerkship hiring. According to the Plan, a judge could not interview or hire a potential law clerk before the beginning of the applicant’s third year of law school. The Plan, however, never worked well, constantly got worse, and has now officially collapsed. Across the country, clerkship hiring once again regularly occurs during the second year of law school.

This Article addresses the rise and inevitable fall of the Plan. In particular, it submits that the Plan never …

Fielding An Excellent Team: Law Clerk Selection And Chambers Structure At The U.S. Supreme Court, Christopher D. Kromphardt

Marquette Law Review

Supreme Court Justices exercise wide discretion when hiring law clerks. The Justices are constrained only by the pool of qualified applicants and by norms of the institution, such as that beginning with Chief Justice Burger’s tenure in 1969 90% of clerks have previously served a clerkship with a federal judge. Previous work finds that ideology structures hiring decisions at the individual clerk level; however, these analyses fail to account for the fact that a Justice hires several clerks each Term—he seeks a winning team, not just a single all-star. Hiring decisions are structuring decisions in which one of a Justice’s …

Surgeons Or Scribes? The Role Of United States Court Of Appeals Law Clerks In "Appellate Triage", Todd C. Peppers, Micheal W. Giles, Bridget Tainer-Parkins

Marquette Law Review

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Hiring Supreme Court Law Clerks: Probing The Ideological Linkage Between Judges And Justices, Lawrence Baum

Marquette Law Review

Since the 1970s, the overwhelming majority of Supreme Court law clerks have had prior experience clerking in lower courts, primarily the federal courts of appeals. Throughout that period, there has been a tendency for Justices to take clerks from lower court judges who share the Justices’ ideological tendencies, in what can be called an ideological linkage between judges and Justices in the selection of law clerks. However, that tendency became considerably stronger between the 1970s and 1990s, and it has remained very strong since the 1990s.

This Article probes the sources of that alteration in the Justices’ selection of law …

Panel Discussion: Judges' Perspectives On Law Clerk Hiring, Utilization, And Influence, David R. Stras, Diane S. Sykes, James A. Wynn Jr.

Marquette Law Review

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Law Clerks As Advisors: A Look At The Blackmun Papers, Zachary Wallander, Sara C. Benesh

Marquette Law Review

The Justices of the United States Supreme Court seek advice, by way of cert pool memos, when making their consequential agenda-setting decisions. There is some debate over the extent to which these law clerks actually influence the Justices. Focusing on the certiorari stage and on the information and advice provided to the Court via the cert pool memos, we ascertain the extent to which the contents of the memos drive the decision making of the Court. We find that information about conflict, amici, and the position of the United States does indeed influence the Court’s votes, but also that the …

Taking A Dip In The Supreme Court Clerk Pool: Gender-Based Discrepancies In Clerk Selection, John J. Szmer, Erin B. Kaheny, Robert K. Christensen

Marquette Law Review

Former U.S. Supreme Court clerks are heavily recruited by select law firms, and many eventually find their way to policy “elite” positions in the government or in the legal academy. A number of former clerks have returned to the Court as litigators, and a subset has returned to the Court as Justices. We are interested in clerk selection for two reasons. First, clerks influence key aspects of the judicial process while serving in their clerkship capacity, and second, many seem to be in a good position to influence legal policy well after their clerkships have ended. With this in mind, …

Diversity And Supreme Court Law Clerks, Tony Mauro

Marquette Law Review

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Justice Brennan And His Law Clerks, Stephen Wermiel

Marquette Law Review

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Hallows Lecture: Screws V. United States And The Birth Of Federal Civil Rights Enforcement, Paul J. Watford

Marquette Law Review

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Twenty Years In The Making: Transitioning Patented Seed Traits Into The Generic Market, Brianna M. Schonenberg

Marquette Law Review

Since the introduction of genetically modified seeds into the global market during the 1990s, there has been little need to prepare for the expiration of the patents related to the technologies. That is, until the expiration of the pioneer Roundup Ready seed-trait patent drew near. Now that Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seed-trait patent is nearing expiration, seed-producing competitors, farmers, and the global food market have raised questions regarding how Monsanto will handle the unprecedented transition into a generic seed market. In response, Monsanto and other agricultural-biotechnology companies have created the Accord, comprised of two contractual agreements, which attempts to regulate the …

Are Catholic Bishops Seeking A Religious Preference Or Religious Freedom?, Ivan E. Bodensteiner

Marquette Law Review

Using the Catholic Bishops’ litigation strategy in challenging the Affordable Care Act as an example, this Article suggests that the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment religion clauses has emboldened religious organizations to seek preferred treatment, i.e., “to become a law unto [themselves].” The religion clauses have a common goal, religious freedom, but they are often in tension and require a delicate balance. Beginning with the Rehnquist Court, and continuing with the Roberts Court, the interpretation of the religion clauses, in combination with the free speech clause, has eliminated the wall of separation between religion and government. The wall …

“Somebody Grab The Wheel!”: State Autonomous Vehicle Legislation And The Road To A National Regime, Andrew Swanson

Marquette Law Review

This Comment critically analyzes bills, statutes, and regulations that govern the use of autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles, also known as self-driving cars, represent the future of personal transportation. States have begun to regulate the testing and implantation of this technology onto public highways, and the federal government has suggested baseline regulations for states to consider when proposing future legislation. First, this Comment provides a brief overview of autonomous vehicle technology, as well as the pros and cons of a self- driving vehicle. Second, this Comment analyzes both enacted and proposed legislation at the state level. This Comment then recommends various …

Boden Lecture: The Real Problem With Citizens United: Campaign Finance, Dark Money, And Shadow Parties, Heather K. Gerken

Marquette Law Review

Boden Lecture given at Marquette University Law School on October 7, 2013

Anything But Mickey Mouse: Legal Issues In The 2012 Wisconsin Gubernatorial Recall, Steven M. Biskupic

Marquette Law Review

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker faced only the third gubernatorial recall in the nation’s history and was the first to survive. From a legal perspective, the 2012 Walker recall involved equally unique issues arising from the Wisconsin Constitution and obscure state statutes. This Article reviews the history of recall in Wisconsin and examines three significant legal issues that arose during the Walker recall: (1) litigation over review of submitted recall signatures; (2) unlimited campaign finance contributions; and (3) the scheduling of the recall election. The Article concludes that an assessment of the historical nature of the Walker recall is incomplete without …

Gang Definitions, How Do They Work?: What The Juggalos Teach Us About The Inadequacy Of Current Anti-Gang Law, Zachariah D. Fudge

Marquette Law Review

Precisely what constitutes a gang has been a hotly contested academic issue for a century. Recently, this problem has ceased to be purely academic and has developed urgent, real-world consequences. Almost every state and the federal government has enacted anti-gang laws in the past several decades. These anti-gang statutes must define ‘gang’ in order to direct police suppression efforts and to criminally punish gang members or associates. These statutory gang definitions are all too often vague and overbroad, as the example of the Juggalos demonstrates. The Juggalos are the fans of Insane Clown Posse, and have been declared a gang …

(Sub)Urban Poverty And Regional Interest Convergence, Patience A. Crowder

Marquette Law Review

Poverty has expanded from America’s urban cores to its inner and outer suburban rings. In the midst of spreading hardship, new opportunities for confronting questions of regional equity are emerging, such as how best to govern our regional spaces for the benefit of all regional constituents, including the poor, middle class, and affluent. To date, governance theories have proven inadequate to this task. In the parlance of the current regional governance discourse, localists, regionalists, and new regionalists need a framework to make a reality of their seemingly disparate and inconsistent visions of local versus regional interests. Localists champion the autonomy …

Second Amendment Decision Rules, Non-Lethal Weapons, And Self-Defense, A.J. Peterman

Marquette Law Review

General public debate about the Second Amendment has focused almost exclusively on the regulation of firearms. After Heller and McDonald, the scope of the Second Amendment’s protection has been hotly contested. One area of the Second Amendment that has been less discussed is the decisional rules that would govern non-firearms and levels of protection based on location. This Comment proposes two Second Amendment Constitutional decisional rules. Broadly, this Comment suggests that the “common use” test for “arms” should be modified for the development of new arms, such as non-lethal weapons, that are subject to the Second Amendment. The proposed …

Reviving Legislative Generality, Evan C. Zoldan

Marquette Law Review

The Supreme Court does not recognize a constitutional principle disfavoring special legislation, that is, legislation that singles out identifiable individuals for benefits or harms that are not applied to the rest of the population. As a result, both Congress and state legislatures routinely enact special legislation despite the fact that it has been linked to a variety of social harms, including corruption and the exacerbation of social inequality. But the Court’s weak protections against special legislation, and the resulting harms, are not inevitable. Instead, special legislation can be limited by what may be called a value of legislative generality, that …

A Better Defense Of Big Waiver: From James Landis To Louis Jaffe, Yair Sagy

Marquette Law Review

This Article is a rejoinder to Professors David J. Barron and Todd D. Rakoff’s article, In Defense of Big Waiver, recently published in the Columbia Law Review. “Big Waiver” provisions, which figure prominently in the “No Child Left Behind” and the “Obamacare” legislation, authorize administrative agencies to displace the regulatory baseline established by Congress. Propounding a defense of big waiver statutory provisions, Barron and Rakoff ground their argument in James Landis’s seminal work, The Administrative Process. This Article shows, however, that Barron and Rakoff’s defense is misguided because it ignores Landis’s work’s focal point, the concept of administrative expertise, which …