Courts Commons^™

The Case Of The Prisoners And The Origins Of Judicial Review, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

For over one hundred years, scholars have closely studied the handful of cases in which state courts, in the years before the Federal Constitutional Convention, confronted the question whether they had the power to declare laws invalid. Interest in these early cases began in the late nineteenth century as one aspect of the larger debate about the legitimacy of judicial review, a debate triggered by the increasing frequency with which the Supreme Court and state courts were invalidating economic and social legislation. The lawyers, political scientists, and historians who initially unearthed the case law from the 1770s and 1780s used …

28 U.S.C. § 1658: A Limitation Period With Real Limitations, Kimberly Jade Norwood

Scholarship@WashULaw

Several centuries from now, when archaeologists have unearthed a copy of the Federal Reporter and turned it over to legal historians for study and analysis, our descendants will be puzzled to discover that a society in which judicial resources were such a scarce "commodity" expended so much of that "commodity" searching its state codes for "analogous" limitation periods. I doubt very much that, at least in this regard, our priorities will command much admiration.

Fixing the statute of limitation for a particular cause of action is a legislative function. Indeed, it is not a particularly difficult or complex legislative function. …

Taxation Of Punitive Damages Obtained In A Personal Injury Claim, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

The author explains that in recent court opinions and commentaries concerning whether punitive damages are taxable, considerable weight has been given to a negative inference that appears to lurk in a 1989 amendment to the relevant code provision, section 104(a)(2). To the contrary, he argues, the legislative history of that amendment and the form that the bill had when it was reported out of the Conference Committee establish beyond doubt that no such inference is warranted.

The Role Of The Federal Magistrate Judge In Civil Justice Reform, R. Lawrence Dessem

Faculty Publications

This Article considers the role of the United States magistrate judge in civil justice reform and, more specifically, the role that the early implementation districts envision for magistrate judges within their own districts. Part I briefly considers the evolution of the office of magistrate judge prior to the enactment of the Judicial Improvements Act of 1990. Part II addresses the treatment of magistrate judges under that legislation. Next, Part III recounts the roles assigned to magistrate judges under the Civil Justice Reform Act in the individual district courts. These varying uses of magistrate judges then will be critiqued in Part …

Presidential Interpretation Of The Constitution, David A. Strauss

Cardozo Law Review

May the executive branch disagree with the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution, and act in accordance with its own view? We tend to associate this question with a few great constitutional crises. Disputes between President Jackson and the Supreme Court over the Bank of the United States; between President Lincoln and the Court over slavery; and between President Franklin Roosevelt and the Court over New Deal legislation, all produced memorable statements by presidents claiming a broad power to act independently from the Court's decisions. The school desegregation controversy was between the Court and some state governments, not the President, …

Judicial Reporting Under The Civil Justice Reform Act: Look, Mom, No Cases!, R. Lawrence Dessem

Faculty Publications

This article addresses the new reporting provision of the Civil Justice Reform Act. Part II analyzes the reporting requirement and the requirement's legislative history. Part III describes the implementation of the requirement by the federal judiciary, while Part IV discusses the initial reports filed pursuant to the provision and the media coverage of those reports. Part V next analyzes the wisdom of the reporting requirement, concluding that, on balance, the requirement may be helpful in furthering public accountability of an independent federal judiciary. Part VI then considers what the data now publicly reported under the Civil Justice Reform Act does, …

Extraterritorial Application Of Rico: Protecting U.S. Markets In A Global Economy, Kristen Neller

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was enacted by Congress in 1970 to combat organized crime in America. Since its enactment, it has been used extensively in both the civil and criminal arenas. With the participation of foreign corporations, foreign subsidiaries, and foreign actors in general in the U.S. economy, it is only a matter of time before foreign defendants will be sued under RICO. This Note will discuss whether RICO should be applied extraterritorially: that is, whether federal courts should assume jurisdiction over foreign entities as defendants in RICO claims. First, RICO's language, legislative history and application …

Symposium On Securities Law Enforcement Priorities, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judicial Forging Of A Political Weapon: The Impact Of The Cold War On The Law Of Contempt, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 3 (1993), Melvin B. Lewis

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Death Penalty: A Solution To The Problem Of Intentional Aids Transmission Through Rape, 26 J. Marshall L. Rev. 941 (1993), Stefanie S. Wepner

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Federalist Papers: The Framers Construct An Orrery, Harold H. Bruff

Publications

No abstract provided.

Prospective Overruling And The Revival Of ‘Unconstitutional' Statutes, William Michael Treanor, Gene B. Sperling

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey reshaped the law of abortion in this country. The Court overturned two of its previous decisions invalidating state restrictions on abortions, Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, and it abandoned the trimester analytic framework established in Roe v. Wade. At the time Casey was handed down, twenty states had restrictive abortion statutes on the books that were in conflict with Akron or Thornburgh and which were unenforced. In six of these states, courts had held the statutes unconstitutional. Almost …

The Aspirational Constitution, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Firmly embedded in every theory of judicial decisionmaking lies an important set of assumptions about the way government is supposed to work. Sometimes these theories about government are made explicit. More often they are not. Moreover, deeply embedded in every theory of government is a theory of human nature. Although these assumptions about human nature generally remain latent within the larger theory, because they provide the underpinnings for our ideas about the way government is supposed to work, they drive our notions about judicial decisionmaking. For example, the theory of government reflected in the United States Constitution reveals what one …

Retroactive Application Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1991 To Pending Cases, Michele A. Estrin

Michigan Law Review

This Note addresses the applicability of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to cases pending on the Act's date of enactment. Part I discusses current Supreme Court doctrine on the issue. This Part finds that the Court has endorsed two conflicting views on retroactively applying statutes to pending cases and that the lower federal courts consequently lack a principled framework for dealing with retroactivity issues in the 1991 Act. Part II describes the battle over the Civil Rights Acts of 1990 and 1991 and the subsequent confusion over the enacted statute's reach. This Part finds that Congress provided conflicting textual …

Where Have You Gone, Karl Llewellyn? Should Congress Turn Its Lonely Eyes To You?, Stephen F. Ross

Vanderbilt Law Review

Over forty years ago, in the Symposium we commemorate today, Professor Karl Llewellyn wrote a devastating critique of the canons of statutory construction. For virtually every canon of construction, he demonstrated that there was another canon that could be employed to reach the opposite result. His point was not to be critical, but to argue proscriptively that the process of statutory construction requires an interpretation in light of a judicial determination of "some assumed purpose."'

Other commentators, both before and after the publication of Llewellyn's magnificent contribution to the Vanderbilt Law Review, have taken a different approach. These observers have …

Modern Statutes, Loose Canons, And The Limits Of Practical Reason: A Response To Farber And Ross, Edward L. Rubin

Vanderbilt Law Review

Daniel Farber' and Stephen Ross, in separate contributions to this Symposium, raise the most crucial question in modern statutory interpretation, a question that exposes the profound triviality of the canons of statutory construction that Karl Llewellyn so effectively attacked. Ross points out that the legislature can control, or at least attempt to control, the judicial use of the canons by the way it drafts the statute and by effective use of supplementary materials such as mark-ups, committee reports, and floor debates. Farber, in his critique of formalism, demonstrates that formalist interpretation is an impediment to effective statutory drafting. Inherent in …

A Legislative History Of The Creation Of The Eleventh Circuit, Thomas E. Baker

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Problems In Imposing Extended-Term Sentences Under Section 5-5-3.2(B)(2) Of The Unified Code Of Corrections, 25 J. Marshall L. Rev. 491 (1992), Iain D. Johnston

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

On The Brink: The First Amendment In The Rehnquist Court, 1990-91 Term, Joel Gora

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Interpreting Codes, Bruce W. Frier

Michigan Law Review

Large systematically codified bodies of law, such as the European codes or the UCC, gradually effect, or at least encourage, a different kind of legal culture, in which, as such codes are integrated within a national legal heritage, general clauses and principles become more salient within an expanded interpretive community. Because of the open texture of their rules, codes foster an altered legal posture; ancient judicial vigilance against the intrusive legislation may give way to a new ethos of cooperation in the development of law. To be sure, it remains uncertain whether the resulting law will be, in fact, "better," …

Bright Lines, Dark Deeds: Counting Convictions Under The Armed Career Criminal Act, James E. Hooper

Michigan Law Review

The Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 (ACCA) enables the federal government to help state authorities more effectively prosecute "career criminals.'' The ACCA imposes a mandatory sentence of at least fifteen years, and up to life imprisonment, for illegal possession of a firearm by anyone who has three prior convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses "committed on occasions different from one another."

To apply the ACCA, judges must determine first whether the defendant's prior convictions meet the definitions of "violent felony or serious drug offense," and secondly whether the offenses were committed on different occasions so that they …

Employer Recapture Of Erisa Contributions Made By Mistake: A Federal Common Law Remedy To Prevent Unjust Enrichment, J. Daniel Plants

Michigan Law Review

This Note investigates more fully the policies animating ERISA in order to ascribe an appropriate construction to the mistaken contribution section. Part I analyzes the Ninth Circuit's anomalous implied cause of action theory. Searching the legislative history as well as ERISA's language and structure, this Part finds lacking the requisite expression of congressional intent to support a statutorily implied remedy. As an alternative, Part II explores the appropriateness of common law relief. Part II defends the creation of common law relief by the federal courts as consistent with the direct and indirect evidence suggesting that Congress envisioned judicial supplementation of …

Tradition, Precedent, And Justice Scalia, David A. Strauss

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Asceticism, Larry Kramer

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Textualism And Taboo: Interpretation And Deference For Justice Scalia, Michael E. Herz

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Scalia’S Jurisprudence And The Good Society: Shades Of Felix Frankfurter And The Harvard Hit Parade Of The 1950’S, Peter B. Edelman

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Justice Scalia’S Textualism: The “New” New Legal Process, Nicholas S. Zeppos

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Introduction To Federal Court Rulemaking Procedure, Thomas E. Baker

Faculty Publications

Toward the end of September 1990 at a closed meeting in Washington, DC, the Judicial Conference of the United States passed on a substantial set of proposed amendments to the rules of practice and procedure of the federal courts. The new appellate rules authorized local circuit rules on electronic filing, required a jurisdictional statement in the appellant's brief and eliminated some inconsistencies in the notice rules for admiralty appeals.

Privity, Products Liability, And Ucc Warranties: A Retrospect Of And Prospects For Illinois Commercial Code 2-318, 25 J. Marshall L. Rev. 177 (1991), Steven Bonanno

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

International Law Principles Governing The Extraterritorial Application Of Criminal Law, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

In this piece Professor Blakesley provides remarks on the differences and similarities between Germany and the United States on international principles of jurisdiction over extraterritorial crime.