Courts Commons^™

Interpreting State Statutes In Federal Court, Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl

Faculty Publications

This Article addresses a problem that potentially arises whenever a federal court encounters a state statute. When interpreting the state statute, should the federal court use the state’s methods of statutory interpretation—the state’s canons of construction, its rules about the use of legislative history, and the like—or should the court instead use federal methods of statutory interpretation? The question is interesting as a matter of theory, and it is practically significant because different jurisdictions have somewhat different interpretive approaches. In addressing itself to this problem, the Article makes two contributions. First, it shows, as a normative matter, that federal courts …

2022 Esther Clark Moot Court Competition Finals, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Professor Derek T. Muller In Support Of Applicant, Thomas R. Lee, John J. Nielsen, Tyler B. Lindley, Derek T. Muller

Court Briefs

No. 22A337
Senator Lindsey Graham v. Fulton County Special Purpose Grand Jury

On emergency application for a stay and injunction pending appeal from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

From the Introduction and Summary of Argument

The merits of this case are colored by partisan overtones. But the overarching legal questions implicate nonpartisan, institutional concerns. The Speech or Debate Clause has deep historical roots that protect important interests in legislative independence. That independence requires strong protection for legislative inquiry under an objective standard rooted in the facial basis for a particular investigation. If courts intrude on …

Brief Amicus Curiae Of The Bruderhof, Clear, Muslim Advocates, And The Sikh Coalition In Support Of Appellant, Stephanie Hall Barclay, Francesca Matozzo

Court Briefs

No. 22-2342
Thomas Walker v. John Baldwin

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division, Honorable Iain D. Johnston (3:19-cv-50233)

From the Summary of the Argument

The Seventh Circuit should re-examine its precedent to allow for monetary damages for individual capacity suits under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) for three reasons. First, RLUIPA’s text follows the same approach as 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and should be interpreted to afford the same types of broad remedies. Before Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 (1990), reduced the …

Brief For Amicus Curiae Professor Derek T. Muller In Support Of Respondents, Daniel M. Sullivan, Daniel M. Horowitz, Derek T. Muller

Court Briefs

No. 21-1271
Timothy K. Moore v. Rebecca Harper

On Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of North Carolina

From the Summary of Argument

The petition for certiorari in this case presents the question whether the phrase “Legislature thereof” in the Elections Clause of the Constitution bars state courts from regulating the contours of Congressional redistricting pursuant to state constitutions. But Congress has spoken, too. It has regulated the manner of drawing congressional districts by federal statute. See 2 U.S.C. § 2c. Congressional redistricting in a State now takes place pursuant to this federal statutory directive, which contemplates a role …

Where There Is A Right, There Is A Remedy—Or Is There?, Grace Panicola

SLU Law Journal Online

Courts have repeatedly declined to allow causes of actions under the Constitution when Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights are violated by government officials. In this article, Grace Panicola discusses a pocket of governmental immunity that creates serious implications for Plaintiffs as they ultimately face inadequate remedies.

Brief Of Amici Curiae Jewish Coalition For Religious Liberty, Islam & Religious Freedom Action Team Of The Religious Freedom Institute, And Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic In Support Of Petitioners, John A. Meiser, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Court Briefs

No. 22-238
Charter Day School, Inc. v. Bonnie Peltier

On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

From the Summary of Argument

The Fourth Circuit’s gross misapplication of state-action doctrine contradicts decades of precedent and expands the doctrine beyond its breaking point. If not corrected, that analysis would also endanger many vital public services provided by religious charitable groups and undermine this Court’s recent free-exercise cases in the process.

Demons & Droids: Nonhuman Animals On Trial, Gerrit D. White

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Nonhuman animal trials are ridiculous to the modern sensibilities of the West. The concept of them is in opposition to the idea of nonhuman animals—entities without agency, incapable of guilt by nature of irrationality. This way of viewing nonhuman animals is relatively new to the Western mind. Putting nonhuman animals on trial has only become unacceptable in the past few centuries. Before this shift, nonhuman animal trials existed as methods of communities policing themselves. More than that, these trials were part of legal systems ensuring they provided justice for all. This shift happened because the relationship between Christian authorities and …

Wake Up And Smell The Smog: The Third Circuit Provides Clarity On Cercla's Federally Permitted Release Reporting Exemption In Clean Air Council V. United States Steel Corp., Zachary Lawlor

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Dicamba Is Gone With The Wind: The Ninth Circuit Blows Life Into Fifra In National Family Farm Coalition V. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Timothy Howley Keith

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Wishing To Be Part Of That Court: How The Supreme Court's Decision In Bp P.L.C. V. Mayor Of Baltimore Lets Energy Companies Wander Free And Drown The Shore Up Above, Natalie Poirier

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Are Rules Effective Before Publication? Reflections On The D.C. Circuit’S Decision In Humane Society V. Usda, Jack M. Beermann

Faculty Scholarship

Since at least 1980, there has been a documented increase in regulatory activity at the end of presidential terms, especially in the post-election period when the outgoing President’s successor is from the other party. This phenomenon has come to be known as “midnight regulation,” and the products of end-of-term legislative rulemaking are referred to as “midnight rules.” While a study I conducted for the Administrative Conference of the United States revealed that most midnight rules are routine,[1] some are not and are designed to project the agenda of the outgoing administration into the future and force the incoming administration …

Courts Without Court, Andrew G. Ferguson

Vanderbilt Law Review

What role does the physical courthouse play in the administration of criminal justice? This Article uses recent experiments with virtual courts to reimagine a future without criminal courthouses at the center. The key insight of this Article is to reveal how integral physical courts are to carceral control and how the rise of virtual courts helps to decenter power away from judges. This Article examines the effects of online courts on defendants, lawyers, judges, witnesses, victims, and courthouse officials and offers a framework for a better and less court-centered future. By studying post-COVID-19 disruptions around traditional conceptions of place, time, …

Tribal Sovereignty And Economic Efficiency Versus The Courts, Robert J. Miller

Washington Law Review

American Indian reservations are the poorest parts of the United States, and a higher percentage of Indian families across the country live below the poverty line than any other ethnic or racial sector. Indian nations and Indian peoples also suffer from the highest unemployment rates in the country and have the highest substandard housing rates. The vast majority of the over three hundred Indian reservations and the Alaska Native villages do not have functioning economies. This lack of economic activity starves tribal governments of the tax revenues that governments need to function. In response, Indian nations create and operate business …

Managing Judicial Discretion: Qualified Immunity And Rule 12(B)(6) Motions, Zachary R. Hart

Indiana Law Journal

Qualified immunity is a judicially created doctrine that shields government officials from personal liability for civil damages. Courts applying the doctrine, which is heavily dependent on the facts of the case, must determine whether the government officials’ conduct violated a clearly established statutory or constitutional right of which a reasonable person would have known. This inquiry is discretionary as judges must determine if the alleged violation was “clearly established,” a term that the Supreme Court has defined in conflicting ways. Moreover, when federal judges conduct the qualified immunity inquiry at the Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss stage, their decision is …

Liberalism Triumphant? Ideology And The En Banc Process In The Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals, Arthur D. Hellman

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

More than 40 years ago, President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, appointed 15 of the then-23 judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Those judges were predominantly liberal, and some were extremely liberal. Ever since then, the Ninth Circuit has been widely regarded as “a reliably liberal appeals court” that predictably issues “rulings favorable to liberal causes.” But some knowledgeable commentators, including Professor (now Dean) Erwin Chemerinsky, have disputed the characterization, calling it a “myth.”

Until now, no one has empirically tested whether the Ninth Circuit is indeed the liberal bastion that it is reputed to be. That is the …

A Conversation Piece About Implementing Inuit Legal Orders Into The Nunatsiavut Government's Inuit Court, Elizabeth Zarpa

LLM Theses

A majority of Inuit reside above the 55th parallel in 51 communities throughout Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut and Inuvialuit. This area is Inuit Nunangat and each of these Inuit regions has their own modern treaty. The political and legal history of the evolution of these modern treaties is under-represented within educational institutions. Breathing life into and contextualizing this history is integral when revitalizing Inuit legal orders. There is space to implement Inuit legal orders into the governing structures throughout Inuit Nunangat. This thesis highlights that published and publicly accessible Inuit stories embodies law. Law from the stories is applicable to governance …

Protecting Ma And Pa: Bond Workouts And The Trust Indenture Act In The 21st Century, Stephen J. Lubben

Cardozo Law Review

Revlon, the well-known cosmetics manufacturer, has labored under a massive debt load since the 1980s, when it was the subject of a classic hostile takeover battle. As with many recent distressed firms, it decided to address its debt not through the Bankruptcy Code and chapter 11, but rather in an “exchange offer.” That is, it offered to buy its old bonds back with an offer of new securities. One implication of its decision to proceed this way was that it was able to pay its retail bondholders much less than its institutional bondholders.

The Trust Indenture Act of 1939 was …

An Interdisciplinary Legal Study Of The Organisation Of The Courts: The Methodological Consequences Of The Meeting Between Legal And Management Approaches (Penelitian Hukum Interdisipliner Pada Organisasi Peradilan: Pertemuan Pendekatan Hukum Dan Pendekatan Manajemen Serta Konsekuensi Metodologisnya), Dian Rositawati

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This article presents the relationship between legal principles and management principles in the judicial organization and how they affect the judiciary's performance. As an organization, the judiciary is bound by the rule of law principles, especially the principle of judicial independence, as stated in the constitution and laws. However, the courts as an organization are also influenced by management principles, which include viewing public organizations from efficiency, effectiveness, and service quality perspectives. This paper discusses the interaction and tension between these principles in a judicial organization and their methodological consequences. In the discussion about methodology, this paper will elaborate on …

The Emerging Authority Of Magistrate Judges Within U.S. District Courts, Tracey E. George, Christina L. Boyd, Albert H. Yoon

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The federal judicial system is a hierarchy with district courts at the bottom, courts of appeals in the middle, and the Supreme Court at the top. A second, less visible, judicial hierarchy exists within district courts, with magistrate judges situated below district judges. Existing scholarship largely ignores magistrate judges, assuming they are agents tasked with procedural matters with little independent effect on federal courts adjudication. Using a combination of national administrative data (2000–2016) and original case-level data from nine district courts (1997–2014), we find that district courts not only grant meaningful responsibility and discretion to magistrate judges but do so …

Overcoming The Peremptory's Greatest Challenge, Brian A. Wilson

Faculty Scholarship

Four decades after the Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") first proscribed certain group-based peremptory challenges, eradicating unlawful discrimination in jury selection has gained renewed interest. Yet so long as Massachusetts retains the inherently flawed three-step "Batson-Soares" test, lawyers seeking to exclude jurors for impermissible reasons will proceed virtually undeterred.

The solution is not to abolish peremptory challenges, as Arizona did in 2022. When exercised lawfully, they enable litigants to remove jurors they legitimately perceive as biased where a challenge for cause, due to its narrow scope, legally cannot. Eliminating peremptories would provide the parties little opportunity to influence who decides the …

The Various Problems And Instabilities With The Implementation Of The Special Immigrant Juvenile Status Statute, Calli Schmitt

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) statute, highlighting its purpose to protect vulnerable immigrant children who have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. However, the implementation of SIJS faces significant challenges, including inconsistent state court interpretations, political interference, and visa backlogs, which undermine its humanitarian goals. The note proposes reforms to address these issues and ensure that SIJS beneficiaries receive the protections and pathways to permanent residency intended by Congress.

Men's Rights, Gun Ownership, Racism, And The Assault On Women's Reproductive Health Rights: Hidden Connections, Walter S. Dekeseredy

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this current era characterized by much fear of, and anxiety about, the political influence and actions of the U.S. alternative right (alt-right), only a small number of men’s rights organizations receive attention from the media, the Democratic Party, or a large cadre of progressives. This article demonstrates that ignoring all-male anti-feminist organizations is a flawed strategy for challenging the recent rise of the alt-right because these misogynistic groups are heavily involved in the gun rights movement, major contributors to racist practices and discourses, and active participants in efforts to criminalize and curtail women’s access to abortion. Another, but equally …

Circuit Personalities, Allison Orr Larsen, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

The U.S. Courts of Appeals do not behave as one; they have developed circuit-specific practices that are passed down from one generation of judges to the next. These different norms and traditions (some written down, others not) exist on a variety of levels: rules governing oral argument and the publishing of opinions, en banc practices, social customs, case discussion norms, law clerk dynamics, and even selfimposed circuit nicknames. In this Article, we describe these varying “circuit personalities” and then argue that they are necessary to the very survival of the federal courts of appeals. Circuit-specific norms and traditions foster collegiality …

Brief Of Religious Liberty Scholars And Employment Law Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioner, Douglas Laycock, John A. Meiser, Richard W. Garnett

Court Briefs

No. 22-174
Gerald E. Groff v. Louis DeJoy

On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

From the Summary of Argument

This case is an ideal vehicle for correcting an error that has undermined protection for religious workers across the country, in defiance of clear statutory text and underlying principles of religious liberty.

A Reflection Of Canadian Society? An Analysis Of Federal Appointments To Provincial Superior Courts By The Liberal Government Of Justin Trudeau, Erin Crandall

Dalhousie Law Journal

Recent reforms to Canada’s system of federal judicial appointments have sought to make the process more transparent and better able to produce a bench reflective of the society it serves. This paper reviews these reforms and using judicial appointment data (2016–2020), considers whether the Liberal government has met these objectives. The relationship between official bilingualism and representation on the bench is also considered. The paper finds that “diversity” on Canada’s federally appointed provincial courts remains unbalanced. While women have made up the majority of appointments since the Trudeau Liberals formed government in 2015, other equity-deserving groups, like people of colour …

Chisholm V. Georgia (1793): Laying The Foundation For Supreme Court Precedent, Abigail Stanger

The Cardinal Edge

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Amicus Curiae Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic In Support Of Plaintiffs-Appellants, John A. Meiser, Francesca Genova Matozzo

Court Briefs

No. 22-11674
Thai Meditation Association of Alabama, Inc. v. City of Mobile, Alabama

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama No. 1:16-cv-00395

From the Summary of the Argument

This Court already corrected the district court’s errant understanding of RLUIPA’s substantial-burden analysis once in this case. Unfortunately, a second correction is needed now.

In Thai Meditation Association’s first appeal, this Court explained that “the district court misread our opinion in Midrash” and, as a consequence, had erroneously required the Association to show that the government “completely prevent[ed]” its religious exercise in order to demonstrate …

Brief Amicus Curiae Of The National Congress Of American Indians, A Tribal Elder, The International Council Of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, And The Mica Group Supporting Plaintiff-Appellant And En Banc Rehearing, Stephanie Hall Barclay, Francesca Matozzo

Court Briefs

No. 21-15295
Apache Stronghold v. United States of America

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, Honorable Steven P. Logan (2:21-cv-00050-PHX-SPL)

From the Summary of the Argument

Meaningful access to sacred sites such as Oak Flat is an indispensable part of many Indigenous tribes’ religious exercise. Nonetheless, the government has repeatedly denied necessary access and even destroyed such sites, thus thwarting the ability of tribal members to exercise core aspects of their spiritual practices. The tribal members in this case face the same fate.

Defining “Different”–How Distinctive Methods Of Textual Interpretation Led To The Abduction Enhancement Circuit Split, Adam Manaa

Pepperdine Law Review

This note examines the federal circuit courts’ differing approaches to interpreting the robbery abduction enhancement in the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Specifically, this note sets forth how the Sixth Circuit’s strict method of textual interpretation in United States v. Hill led to the erroneous holding that the term “different location” refers to “a place different from the store that is being robbed.” This note argues the court should have taken a more holistic interpretative approach, taking the underlying purpose of the Guidelines into account.