Courts Commons^™

Resisting Retreat: The Struggle For Equity In Educational Opportunity In The Post-Brown Era, Lia Epperson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Will Employment Discrimination Class Actions Survive?, Melissa Hart

Publications

Recent years have witnessed increasing attacks on the appropriateness of certification of employment discrimination class action claims. The shift is often attributed to amendments to federal antidiscrimination laws in the Civil Rights Act of 1991. This paper argues, however, that the changes wrought by the 1991 amendments need not pose a barrier to resolution of employment discrimination claims through class litigation. The addition of compensatory and punitive damages and a jury-trial right may increase the level of scrutiny and perhaps the level of judicial involvement necessary in an employment discrimination class action. But they do not render such a class …

Induced Litigation, Chris Guthrie, Tracey E. George

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

If "justice delayed" is "justice denied,"justice is often denied in American courts. Delay in the courts is a "ceaseless and unremitting problem of modem civil justice" that "has an irreparable effect on both plaintiffs and defendants." To combat this seemingly intractable problem, judges and court administrators routinely clamor for additional judicial resources to enable them to manage their dockets more "effectively and efficiently." By building new courthouses and adding new judgeships, a court should be able to manage its caseload more efficiently. Trial judges should be able to hold motion hearings, host settlement conferences, and conduct trials in a timely …

The United States Supreme Court Rulings On Detention Of "Enemy Combatants" - Partial Vindication Of The Rule Of Law, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

In three rulings on prolonged military detention of so-called "unlawful enemy combatants" in the "war" against terrorism, the United States Supreme Court in June 2004 shielded the rule of law from some of the more extreme excesses of the Bush Administration. However, the Court also yielded some ground and left open a number of troublesome questions.

What Is The Time Limit For Filing A Lawsuit? It Depends On What Your Definition Of "Arising Under" Is! An Analysis Of Jones V. R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case Jones et. al. v. R.R. Donnelly & Sons Co., 541 U.S. 369 (2004). The author predicted that the case would require the court to determine the appropriate statute of limitations to apply in a class action race-discrimination lawsuit filed under 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

Complex Litigation: Key Findings From The California Pilot Program, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Popular Media

The California Judicial Council initiated its Complex Civil Litigation Pilot Program to address concerns raised by business litigants about the time and expense needed to resolve complex cases, the consistency of decision making, and perceptions that the substantive law governing commercial transactions was becoming increasingly incoherent. Two issues in particular were highlighted as problematic. The first was the use of a master calendar system that diffused judicial decision making and accountability for efficient case management. The second was excessive reliance on, and insufficient judicial oversight of, referees and special masters appointed to manage complex litigation.

In a three-year evaluation of …

Federal Courts, International Tribunals, And The Continuum Of Deference: A Postscript On Lawrence V. Texas, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

Last year, in the pages of this journal, I published an article addressing the role of international tribunal decisions in federal courts.1 In that article, it was suggested that federal courts should confer varying degrees of deference to international tribunal decisions depending on the circumstances presented. Such degrees of deference were plotted along a "continuum of deference." See: Federal Courts, International Tribunals, and the Continuum of Deference

The purpose of this brief Postscript is to reconsider the "no deference" model in light of the Supreme Court's decisions in Bowers and Lawrence. The Postscript elucidates why Lawrence relied on an international …

The Rehnquist Court’S Two Federalisms, Ernest A. Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

All Facts Are Not Created Equal, Bryan Adamson

Faculty Articles

This article attempts to: 1) illustrate the inherent ambiguities of Rule 52(a), exacerbated by a court-created fact typology; 2) explain one of those types-the constitutional fact doctrine-and demonstrate how the Supreme Court has applied that doctrine inconsistently; and 3) explore whether the Sixth Circuit, by invoking the constitutional fact doctrine in Grutter, was attempting to extend the doctrine into the jurisprudence of Fourteenth Amendment intentional discrimination claims, or wrongfully appropriating the trial court's fact finding role.

Face To Face With The Right Of Confrontation, Richard D. Friedman

Other Publications

This article is an edited excerpt from the amicus curiae brief filed in Crawford v. Washington, heard before the United States Supreme Court on November 10, 2003. Prof. Friedman wrote the brief for the Court.

Doing Right By Charles Alan Wright, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Review of Charles Alan Wright & Mary Kay Kane, Law of Federal Courts (6th ed. 2002)

A Principled Approach To The Quest For Racial Diversity On The Judiciary, Kevin R. Johnson, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

Part I of this Article considers the different voices and perspectives added to the judiciary by the appointment of minorities. Part II analyzes the many impacts of diversity on the bench, including greater judicial impartiality. Part III sets forth the arguments supporting a diverse jury pool and discusses how they inform the analysis of the quest for racial diversity among judges. Part IV outlines a principled approach to the pursuit of judicial diversity.

Why Do Hung Juries Hang?, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans, Nicole L. Mott, G. Thomas Munsterman

Faculty Publications

The National Center for State Courts examined dead-locked, or “hung,” juries to see what characteristics they share and how they might be avoided. As one part of the study, surveys of jurors, judges, and attorneys were conducted in four jurisdictions. The Central Division, Criminal, of the Los Angeles County (California) Superior Court and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia were selected because of reported concerns about hung jury rates in those jurisdictions. The Maricopa County (Arizona) Superior Court was chosen because of an innovative procedure there that permits judges to allow further evidence and arguments when a jury …

Building On Bedrock: The Continued Evolution Of Jury Reform, G. Thomas Munsterman, Paula L. Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

Abundantly clear is that, far from being an enclave from the pressures and concerns of contemporary society, jury service readily absorbs and reflects those concerns in ways that can both support and challenge the American jus­tice system. Some of these concerns cut across many stages of jury service, and their effects are felt in unexpected ways. To sift through and identify the most noteworthy jury improvement efforts and concerns in the last seven years, we turned to technology (coincidently one of the hottest topics in jury service) and examined the topics that subscribers to Jur-E Bulletin, the National Center …

Aquaculture And Pollutants Under The Clean Water Act: A Case For Regulation, Sean M. Helle

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ultimate Independence Of The Federal Courts: Defying The Supreme Court In The Exercise Of Federal Common Law Powers, Ronald H. Rosenberg

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.