Law Commons^™

Introduction: Is The Supreme Court Failing At Its Job, Or Are We Failing At Ours?, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is a pleasure and a privilege to write an introduction to this Symposium celebrating Dean Erwin Chemerinsky's important new book, The Case Against the Supreme Court. Chemerinsky is one of the leading constitutional scholars of our time and a frequent advocate before the U.S. Supreme Court. If he thinks there is a case to be made against the Court, we should all take it very seriously indeed. Chemerinsky's thesis may be stated in a few sentences. The primary role of the Supreme Court, in his view, is to "protect the rights of minorities who cannot rely on the political …

Faith In Fantasy: The Supreme Court's Reliance On Commutation To Ensure Justice In Death Penalty Cases, Victoria J. Palacios

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since scarcely a decade after Furman v. Georgia,' the Supreme Court has struggled to avoid review of death penalty cases by narrowing the grounds defendants can use to challenge their sentences, as well as the procedures they can use to make those challenges. The Court supports its jurisprudence and the deregulation of death with an important but unexamined assumption: whatever shortcomings exist in the administration of the death penalty, ultimately injustice can and will be avoided by the exercise of the commutation power at the state level.

This Article argues that such an assumption is unwarranted. By substituting the fantasy …

Symposium: Federalism's Future, Jeffrey R. Pettit

Vanderbilt Law Review

Two years have passed since my predecessor, Mike Smith, sat in Professor Barry Friedman's office to begin choosing a topic for the Symposium that now sits before you. Although choosing a topic for a symposium two years in advance of its occurrence can be a difficult task, the topic they agreed upon, Federalism's Future, transcends the risk of becoming outdated. If the Supreme Court's struggle to articulate a "reasoned principle" in balancing the powers and responsibilities of our state and federal governments in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, and later in New York v. United States,2 is any …

Why The Supreme Court Overruled "National League Of Cities", Mark Tushnet

Vanderbilt Law Review

We are now in the midst of a confused era for federalism doctrine. A court of appeals has read the Supreme Court's precedents for at least as much as they are worth in holding that Congress, in enacting the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, exceeded the power the Commerce Clause grants it., The Supreme Court itself has been unable to develop a stable constitutional doctrine about the roles of Congress and the courts in protecting federalism. Every time the Supreme Court has wandered into the federalism forest, it has gotten lost. For a while, scholars believed we understood why. …

The Supreme Court And The Definition Of "Security": The"Context" Clause, "Investment Contract" Analysis, And Their Ramifications, Marc I. Steinberg, William E. Kaulbach

Vanderbilt Law Review

In two recent decisions' construing the scope of the federal securities acts, the Supreme Court apparently has undertaken to alleviate some of the confusion and uncertainty surrounding the most fundamental question in securities law: the definition of"security" itself. Much of the existing confusion can be traced to earlier decisions of the Court that first implied, and later held,that the regulatory or offering context in which a particular transaction occurs could function to exclude the transaction from cover-age of the securities laws' anti-fraud provisions. This result could follow even though the transaction in question otherwise might satisfy the traditional Howey or …

Book Review: Louis D. Brandeis And The Progressive Tradition; Brandeis, Paul Brickner

Vanderbilt Law Review

Urofsky has captured the essence of Brandeis in his excellent and informative volume. Urofsky often demonstrates a fine facility for clarifying points and positions with meaningful factual details.His book reveals the depth of scholarship that one would expect from a co-editor of the five volume collection of Brandeis' letters."He recognized the importance of the relationship between Brandeis and Frankfurter and devoted an entire small chapter to their efforts to promulgate their views as described by Bruce Murphy. For a concise but telling biography of Brandeis, from the "people's attorney" to one of the Supreme Court's " nine old men", Urofsky's …

Earl Warren: The Judge Who Changed America. By Jack Harrison Pollack, Richard Y. Funston

Vanderbilt Law Review

Earl Warren was a decent, personable, and humane man who had the good fortune to preside over the Supreme Court of the United States at a peculiarly propitious moment. That, surely, is enough to say for any man's lifetime, and someday the definitive biography of Warren will say it. In the meantime, it remains some-thing of a mystery why aging liberals find it necessary to canonize the late Chief Justice. Nevertheless, journalist Jack Harrison Pollack's Earl Warren: The Judge Who Changed America is the latest addition to the Warren hagiography. In it you meet Warren,the self-effacing, underpaid, young District Attorney; …

The Early Legal Career Of Howell Jackson, Terry Calvani

Vanderbilt Law Review

Felix Frankfurter observed in 1937 that "American legal history has done very little to rescue the [United States Supreme] Court from the limbo of impersonality."' Subsequently, numerous individual and collective works have focused on the more prominent figures in the history of that institution.' Unfortunately, there remain many justices of the Supreme Court who have received relatively little scholarly attention. Yet, as one political scientist has recently lamented, "[until] there is a fuller awareness of the inter-play between individual personalities and decision making, it is unlikely there will be 'an adequate history of the Supreme Court."

One such individual is …

Abstention: The Supreme Court And Allocation Of Judicial Power, Randall P. Bezanson

Vanderbilt Law Review

In an era of continually expanding federal judicial power, the Supreme Court has fashioned and employed several devices designed to delegate certain classes of federal question litigation to the state court systems. Among these devices are the doctrines of abstention, comity, and exhaustion of state remedies. Implementation of these doctrines has enabled the Supreme Court to maintain state judicial presence in federal question litigation and retain at least the appearance of a manageable federalized judicial structure. This article will attempt to analyze the function of the abstention doctrines as judicially-created tempering devices. Following a brief discussion of the factors that …

The Court, The Constitution, And Chief Justice Burger, William F. Swindler

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although the constitutional crisis of 1973 has not yet demanded a definitive response from the Supreme Court, it obviously has established a landmark in the ultimate history of Warren Burger's Chief Justiceship. While the unprecedented confrontation between executive and judiciary was not carried beyond the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Burger's old court,' and although the prospective confrontation between executive and Congress did not--at least in its first round-- reach a stage of review on the merits, the questions presented went to the cornerstones of Anglo-American constitutional theory itself. The case of Vice President Agnew raised issues …

The Haynsworth Affair Reconsidered: The Significance Of Conflicting Perceptions Of The Judicial Role, Edward N. Beiser

Vanderbilt Law Review

Between 1900 and 1968, the Senate had refused to confirm an appointee to the Supreme Court on only one occasion. Then, within a two year period, the Senate twice refused to confirm an appointment: Associate Justice Abe Fortas, nominated as Chief Justice in 1968, was never acted upon because of a Senate filibuster,and his name was withdrawn; and Judge Clement Haynsworth, whose nomination provoked a great deal of debate and controversy, was ultimately rejected by the Senate by a vote of 55 to 45. These two incidents marked a distinct change from the traditional custom of Senatorial acquiescence to Presidential …

Book Reviews, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

This is a deceptive book. It appears to be one more friendly appraisal of the work of the Warren Court--this time from the recent Solicitor General-surveying in giant steps and broad strokes its decisions in six major areas within the short space of 135 pages. On close reading it turns out to be a tough-minded essay written with notable lucidity, analytical density, and high professional competence. Moreover, it confronts directly and steadily the well-worn paradox or dilemma of the Supreme Court of the United States which must be both court and political institution, and it seriously attempts to appraise the …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Identification & Police Line-ups By William E. Ringle New York: Gould Publications, 1968. Pp. x, 211. $5.00 (Paper)

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Metropolitan Decision Processes: An Analysis of Case Studies By Morris Davis & Marvin G. Weinbaum. Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1969. Pp. xx; 131.

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The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions Edited by Theodore L. Becker. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Pp. 213. $2.50 (Paper).

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The Limits of the Criminal Sanction By Herbert L. Packer.Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968. Pp. xi, 385. $8.95.

The Desegregation Opinion Revisited:Legal Or Sociological?, Morris D. Forkosch

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is the thesis of this article that the Supreme Court, regardless of its decision for or against the state laws, had the judicial ability and jurisdiction to render the opinion in the Desegregation Case of 1954. A distinction is drawn here between the judicial power to decide a case regardless of any attendant consequences, and the reasons given for that decision. When reasons which were supposedly valid seventy years ago are now rejected, there is nothing illogical in this rejection so long as the Court still adheres to the identical procedure used earlier; but when the substance within the …

Book Reviews, Robert H. Birkby, Elliot E. Cheatham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Law and Politics in the Supreme Court By Martin Shapiro New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1964. Pp. 333. $6.95.

reviewer: Robert H. Birkby

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Lives of the Lord Chancellors, 1885-1940 By R. F. V. Heuston Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964, Pp. xxiii, 632.

reviewer: Elliot E. Cheatham

Justice Murphy: The Freshman Years, Woodford Howard

Vanderbilt Law Review

Justice Murphy is commonly regarded as having been a libertarian activist. He was not highly regarded as a Justice during his lifetime and this opinion prevails today. Here Professor Howard sees Justice Murphy during his early years on the Supreme Court as a man of indecision rather than an uncompromising libertarian. Through an examination of first amendment cases between 1940-42, the author finds that Murphy displayed a common reaction to the responsibilities of a new Supreme Court Justice which differed from most only in intensity.

Theodore Roosevelt And The Appointment Of Mr. Justice Moody, Paul T. Heffron

Vanderbilt Law Review

The author here describes the events leading to the appointment of William Henry Moody to the United States Supreme Court. Here counts the pressures brought to bear on President Theodore Roosevelt and the considerations which led to the President's selection of Moody over Horace Harmon Lurton.

Salmon P. Chase: Chief Justice, David F. Hughes

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article is not an in-depth study of some aspect of Salmon P. Chase's career as Chief Justice. Nor is it a survey of his judicial career. Rather, it is an attempt to present an overall view of Chase as Chief Justice through an examination of a limited number of topics. Such an approach seemed appropriate, for the sweep of his days on the Court are not well enough known to make a detailed study of one aspect of his career particularly valuable, nor is enough known about him to make a summary more than an exercise in superficiality. In …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

In his discussion of the traditional power framework within which the Supreme Court operates the author covers old ground, dealing with such matters as the jurisdictional limitations upon the Court, its law court function of making case by case determinations, and its self-imposed restraints as to when and how it will hear and determine a controversy. The second broad heading, entitled "Marshalling the Court," forms probably the most fascinating chapter in the book. The author is here concerned with the issue most vital to any policy-oriented Justice: How can he win and hold for his side at least four other …

Chief Justice Taft At The Helm, Alpheus T. Mason

Vanderbilt Law Review

The office of Chief Justice carries scant inherent powers. The Chief Justice manages the docket, presents the cases in conference, and guides the discussion. When in the majority, he assigns the writing of opinions. Whatever influence he exerts in the exercise of these prerogatives rests less on formal authority than on elusive personal characteristics. Charles Evans Hughes, who had served as Associate Justice from 1910 to 1916 and later had been able to observe Taft's role in the Court over a period of seven years, considered the Chief Justice "the most important judicial officer in the world." His actual power, …

In Search Of Holmes From Within, Saul Touster

Vanderbilt Law Review

What appears here is part of a longer psychological study of Holmes which takes as points of focus, or rather of entree, four of his life choices: his enlistment in the Union forces while still in college in 1861, his entrance into law school in 1864, his decision to give up a law professorship at Harvard in 1882 in favor of the Massachusetts bench, and finally, his move to Washington and the Supreme Court in 1902. In a sense this last was not a choice. There were not the clear alternatives before him as there were in the first three--he …

Immunity Through Confession?, John A. Spanogle Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Does this advice from Judge Leonard P. Moore sound fanciful? Could it ever profit a criminal to confess his guilt? The advisability of such action may not be as improbable as it sounds. In order to determine whether it is fanciful or not it is necessary to review several cases decided by the United States Supreme Court, which this article will undertake to do.

Book Reviews, Ronan E. Degnan, Jerold Israel, Robert F. Drinan S.J.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cases and Materials on Debtor and Creditor

By Vern Countryman

Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1964. Pp. lxiii, 841. $12.50.

reviewer: Ronan E. Degnan

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The Supreme Court on Trial

By Charles S. Hyneman

New York: Atherton Press, 1963. Pp. IX, 308. $6.50.

reviewer: Jerold Israel

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Religion and American Constitutions (1963 Rosenthal Lectures)

By Wilbur G. Katz

Northwestern University Press 1964. Pp. 114. $3.50.

reviewer: Rev. Robert F. Drinan, S.J.

The Waite Court And The Fourteenth Amendment, Howard J. Graham

Vanderbilt Law Review

Underscoring so much while leaving so much unsaid, this book is a powerful plea for post-1937 trends and constructions--not merely in the Supreme Court, but now in Congress. How does the nation, the Court, the Congress, make good a lost century? Chief Justice Waite's triumph--decidedly more modest in my estimation than in Dr. Magrath's--was that he dared, tried, succeeded--at least by half. The country's failure was that it so long did not--has not yet--even by half. Twenty years and three constitutional amendments after emancipation too many of our forebears, including all members of this Court except the former Union colonel …

Book Notes, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

A TREASURY OF LEGAL QUOTATIONS Selected by Paul C. Cook New York:Vantage Press, 1961. Pp.181. $5.00

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COLONIAL JUSTICE IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS Edited by Joseph H. Smith Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961. Pp.ix, 426. $7.50.

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THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES: ITS BUSINESS, PURPOSES, AND PERFORMANCE By Paul A. Freund Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1961. Pp.224. $1.35.

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A LAWYER'S VERSUS. By Irving J. Siegal New York: Vantage Press, 1960. Pp.40. $2.00.

Baker V. Carr -- Malapportionment In State Governments Becomes A Federal Constitutional Issue, William M. Hames

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Court's decision in Baker v. Carr was properly cast in terms of protecting individual rights under the equal protection clause, for this issue can be distinguished and separately handled. It does seem inevitable, however, that the decisions which set standards by which to determine invidious discrimination will also by these standards delineate, at least in broad outline, one aspect of what will be considered an acceptable "republican" form of government guaranteed by the Constitution.

Judicial Review: Political Reality And Legislative Purpose: The Supreme Court's Supervision Of Congressional Investigations, Martin Shapiro

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Supreme Court has long claimed the power to exercise judicial review over the investigatory activities of Congress. The most severe limitation the Court has imposed is the requirement of legislative purpose. Investigations must be conducted for the purpose of aiding Congress in making the laws. But the Court has also introduced the doctrine of presumption of legislative purpose. The Justices will presume that the investigating committee and the Congress which authorized it had a legislative purpose in pursuing the inquiry. It will be argued here that these two doctrines are completely inter-dependent; once legislative purpose was required, presumption was …

Book Reviews, Stanley D. Rose (Reviewer), Wallace Mendelson (Reviewer), Lawrence Herman (Reviewer), William R. Anderson (Reviewer)

Vanderbilt Law Review

THE PRESIDENCY OF JOHN ADAMS, THE COLLAPSE OF FEDERALISM, 1795-1800. By Stephen G. Kurtz-- Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957. Pp. 448. $8.50.

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THE JEFFERSONIAN REPUBLICANS, THE FORMATION OF PARTY ORGANIZATION, 1789-1801. By Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.-- Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1957. Pp. x, 279. $6.00.

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THE SUPREME COURT FROM TAFT TO WARREN-- By Alpheus T. Mason-- Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958. Pp. 250. $4.95.

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THE LAW OF AWOL. By Alfred Avins. New York: Oceana Publications, 1957. Pp. xxxi, 288. $4.95. --

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TRAFFIC VICTIMS, TORT LAW & INSURANCE. By Leon Green. …

Constitutional Law -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Elvin E. Overton

Vanderbilt Law Review

State constitutional law decisions, lacking the universality of application of many other fields of the law, are vital and of significance frequently only to the local bar and local public officials. There is another difference between state constitutional law decisions, and federal constitutional law decisions: state courts are inclined to deal with state constitutional issues with an emphasis on the pragmatic problem of deciding the case and getting it out of the way,rather than with an emphasis on completing the blue print-of seeking to establish the general principle which reflects the conflicting policies struggling for recognition. In most United States …

The Supreme Court And Racial Discrimination, George W. Spicer

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this essay is to consider the response of the Supreme Court of the United States to two general aspects of racial discrimination: first, discrimination as restrictive of political freedom and, second,discrimination as restrictive of the enjoyment of such social advantages as the acquisition and occupancy of real estate, transportation and education.