Courts Commons^™

Unprincipled Punishment: The U.S. Sentencing Commission's Troubling Silence About The Purposes Of Punishment, Aaron J. Rappaport

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Accomplishing The Purposes Of Sentencing–The Role Of The Courts And The Commission, Aaron J. Rappaport

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Designing Judicial Review: A Comment On Schauer, Emily Sherwin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In his characteristically lucid paper, Neutrality and Judicial Review, Frederick Schauer revisits the meaning and plausibility of Herbert Wechsler’s argument for neutral principles in constitutional adjudication. Unlike some critics, Schauer takes the argument seriously, on its own terms, and does an excellent job of sorting through the different ideas that lie behind it. Schauer identifies four different versions of the argument for neutrality. At least three of these are drawn from Wechsler’s 1959 article. Schauer is particularly interested in a fourth version, which favors neutrality in the design and management of the institution of judicial review.

How Employment-Discrimination Plaintiffs Fare In The Federal Courts Of Appeals, Kevin M. Clermont, Theodore Eisenberg, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Employment-discrimination plaintiffs swim against the tide. Compared to the typical plaintiff, they win a lower proportion of cases during pretrial and after trial. Then, many of their successful cases are appealed. On appeal, they have a harder time in upholding their successes, as well in reversing adverse outcome.

This tough story does not describe some tiny corner of the litigation world. Employment-discrimination cases constitute an increasing fraction of the federal civil docket, now reigning as the largest single category of cases at nearly 10 percent.

In this article, we use official government data to describe the appellate phase of this …

Judging Global Justice: Assessing The International Criminal Court, Diane Orentlicher

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Inter-American System, Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Statutory Inflation And Institutional Choice, Lawrence Solan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Mixed Up About Mixed Motive: What Will Trigger A "Mixed Motive" Analysis In Title Vii Cases? An Analysis Of Desert Palace, Inc. V. Costa, Barbara J. Fick

Journal Articles

This article previews the Supreme Court case Desert Palace, Inc. v. Costa, 539 U.S. 90, 2003. The author expected the Court to clarify and define the circumstances in which it is appropriate to use the "mixed-motive model" to prove a violation of Title VII under the disparate treatment theory.

Reinforcing Representation: Enforcing The Fourteenth And Fifteenth Amendments In The Rehnquist And Waite Courts, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

A large body of academic scholarship accuses the Rehnquist Court of "undoing the Second Reconstruction," just as the Waite Court has long been blamed for facilitating the end of the First. This critique captures much of what is meant by those generally charging the Rehnquist Court with "conservative judicial activism." It posits that the present Court wants to dismantle decades' worth of federal antidiscrimination measures that are aimed at the "reconstruction" of public and private relationships at the local level. It sees the Waite Court as having similarly nullified the civil-rights initiatives enacted by Congress following the Civil War to …

Crawford V. Washington, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

On June 9, by granting certiorari in Crawford v. Washington, 02-9410, the Supreme Court signaled its intention to enter once again into the realm of the Confrontation Clause, in which it has found itself deeply perplexed. This time there was a difference, however, because the grant indicated that the Court might be willing to rethink its jurisprudence in this area. Crawford, like Lee v. Illinois, 476 U.S. 530 (1986), and Lilly v. Virginia, 527 U.S. 116 (1999), presents a classic case of what might be called station-house testimony. Michael Crawford was accused of stabbing another man. His wife, Sylvia, was …

Further Thoughts On The Role Of Regulatory Purpose Under Article Iii Of The General Agreement On Tariffs And Trade: A Tribute To Bob Hudec, Donald H. Regan

Articles

My topic in this article is the role of regulatory purpose under Article III of the GATT, and I regard Bob [Hudec] as the patron saint of efforts to establish the relevance of purpose. His famous "Requiem for an 'Aims and Effects' Test" may have been called a requiem, but it was reluctant and sceptical. Bob thought dispute settlement tribunals ought to consider the regulator's purpose, and he thought they would do so, whatever they said. As decisions on Article III accumulate, we are in the process of learning that he was right on both counts.

Thayerian Deference To Congress And Supreme Court Supermajority Rules: Lessons From The Past (Symposium: Congressional Power In The Shadow Of The Rehnquist Court: Strategies For The Future), Evan H. Caminker

Articles

Over the past eight years, the Supreme Court has been unusually aggressive in its exercise ofjudicial review over federal statutes challenged on federalism grounds. Eleven times the Court has invalidated provisions in federal statutes after determining that Congress exceeded the scope of its limited regulatory authority. In ten of the eleven cases, the vote was 5-4 with the identical five-Justice conservative majority (Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas) controlling the decision.

In Defense Of The Search And Seizure Exclusionary Rule (Law And Truth - The Twenty-First Annual National Student Federalist Society Symposium On Law And Public Policy - 2002), Yale Kamisar

Articles

think Dean Pye's advice about casebook writing was sound,6 and what he had to say also applies to discussions and debates about such issues as the search and seizure exclusionary rule. We cannot (at least we should not) begin with Mapp v. Ohio. We need a prelude.

From A Cattle Ranch To The Supreme Court, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Review of Sandra Day O'Connor, Lazy B: Growing Up On A Cattle Ranch In The American Southwest (2002).

Nullification At Work? A Glimpse From The National Center For State Courts Study Of Hung Juries, Paula Hannaford-Agor, Valerie P. Hans

Faculty Publications

In 1998, the National Institute of Justice awarded a grant to the National Center for State Courts ("NCSC") to examine the frequency and various causes of hung juries. One of the factors that the NCSC project staff investigated was jurors' perceptions of the fairness of the law they were asked to apply in felony trials as well as jury and case characteristics that are often associated with jury nullification. The project also asked judges and other court actors to rate the strength of the evidence in the case. Thus, the project enabled researchers to examine jurors' views, the evidence, and …

Judicial Selection As War, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Daubert Asks The Right Questions: Now Appellate Courts Should Help Find The Right Answers, Christopher B. Mueller

Publications

No abstract provided.

Helping The Pro Se Litigant: A Changing Landscape, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

This article describes how the influx of self-represented litigants has forced many within the court and legal communities to reconsider some of the fundamental premises on which the civil justice system is based and to respond in new and creative ways to changing litigant demands on existing court and legal resources. It focuses on changes to the delivery of legal services to low- and moderate-income people, especially the emergence of “unbundled” legal services, and addresses the practical implications related to the distinction between legal information and legal advice. Finally, it describes how judges and court staff are rethinking the conceptual …

Foreign Judgments In American And English Courts: A Comparative Analysis, Brian Richard Paige

Seattle University Law Review

Part II of this Comment provides some background on the current American scheme of foreign judgment recognition and enforcement by comparing and contrasting its three major components American common law, the Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law, and the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgments Recognition Act. Part III tracks the English scheme of foreign judgment recognition and enforcement from its common law origin to its more sophisticated and streamlined foreign judgment registration system. Finally, Part IV suggests that the United States could benefit from the implementation of federal legislation that would bring foreign judgment registration procedures to American courts and provide for …

No Bond, No Body, And No Return Of Service: The Failure To Honor Misdemeanor And Gross Misdemeanor Warrants In The State Of Washington, Hon. Philip J. Van De Veer

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will first examine how the warrant system works in Washington and how jail overcrowding and prisoner litigation has hindered the ability of law enforcement to arrest defendants wanted on misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor warrants. Second, the scope of the problem will be documented, followed by an analysis of why limited jurisdiction judges are currently unable to adequately respond to the growing problem. Finally, the harms caused by the failure to execute warrants will be detailed, followed by a survey of options available to correct the problem.

Confrontation As A Hot Topic: The Virtues Of Going Back To Square One, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

I have been working so obsessively on the accused's right to confront the witnesses against him 1 that I am gratified that the organizers of this conference have designated confrontation as one of the "hot topics" of Evidence law. I am not so egotistical as to think that my work has made confrontation into a hot topic; I am just glad to know that I am working where a good deal of action is, and that other scholars recognize that confrontation is an important area in which dramatic changes may be occurring.

The Reliability Of The Administrative Office Of The U.S. Courts Database: An Initial Empirical Analysis, Theodore Eisenberg, Margo Schlanger

Articles

Researchers have long used federal court data assembled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) and the Federal Judicial Center (FJC). The data include information about every case filed in federal district court and every appeal filed in the twelve nonspecialized federal appellate courts. Much research using the AO data spans subject matter areas, and includes articles on appeals, caseloads and case-processing times, case outcomes, the relation between demographics and case outcomes, class actions, diversity jurisdiction, and litigation generally. Other research using the AO data covers particular subject matter areas, such as inmate cases, contract cases, corporate litigation, …

Engaging With The State: The Growing Reliance On Lawyers And Judges To Protect Battered Women, Jane C. Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

The passage of the federal Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (“VAWA II”) marked an important milestone in the evolution of the domestic violence movement. VAWA II created, among other things, a complex system for state and federal funding in all fifty states to provide civil legal assistance to battered women. Its passage completed a process that began in the early 1980s when domestic violence advocates shifted their focus from grass roots efforts to help battered women and their children leave abusive partners to building alliances with government and advocating for legal remedies to assist battered women. This paper looks …

A Unified Family Court, Barbara A. Babb

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Virtual Cross-Examination: The Art Of Impeaching Hearsay, John G. Douglass

Law Faculty Publications

Trial lawyers and judges are quite accustomed to courtroom battles over the admissibility of hearsay. But relatively few have much experience at challenging the credibility of hearsay. Once hearsay is admitted in evidence, even the ablest advocates typically proceed as if the hearsay battle were over, at least until the appeal. Few lawyers take advantage of the opportunities available to impeach the hearsay declarant. Consider the perspective of one experienced trial judge: I sometimes wonder at what seems to me the passing up of golden opportunities by the able advocate. Foremost among these lost opportunities is the virtual total neglect …

Quirin Revisited, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Six decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Ex parte Quirin, in which the Justices determined that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt possessed the requisite constitutional authority to institute and use a military commission.

On November 13, 2001, President George W. Bush promulgated an Executive Order (Bush Order) that authorized the establishment and application of military commissions as well as purported to eliminate whatever jurisdiction federal courts might have by statute and to deny federal court access to individuals prosecuted or detained for terrorism. The Bush administration substantially premised that the Order and jurisdiction-stripping proviso on Ex parte Quirin. It has …

Justice Byron White And The Importance Of Process, Carl W. Tobias

Law Faculty Publications

Justice Byron White exhibited acute sensitivity to process during his exceptional career on the Supreme Court. This essay affords several illustrations of that characteristic. One was his perceptive account of the Court's responsibility for amending the rules which mainly govern federal district court practice. The second was careful stewardship of a federal appellate court study authorized by Congress after the jurist had resigned. Another was his persistent dissents from denials of petitions for Supreme Court review. These examples relate to the three levels in the federal judicial hierarchy, and demonstrate Justice White's abiding concern for each constituent and the whole …

Contractual Choice Of Law And The Prudential Foundations Of Appellate Review, David Frisch

Law Faculty Publications

What are the advantages and disadvantages of appellate review of trial court rulings on issues of foreign law? What exactly does judicial review of unsettled questions of foreign law accomplish? What is its price? These questions are of considerable theoretical interest and immense practical importance. Their resolution calls for inquiries into the allocation of judicial authority and in its production of outcomes in the real world. The discussion proceeds first by briefly describing in Part II some of the causes and effects of the steadily increasing caseloads in appellate courts. After demonstrating that these caseloads may soon become unmanageable, Part …

Social Policy Advocacy And The Role Of The Courts In India, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The "success" of India's democracy is a feat that must not be underemphasized; this article by no means will attempt to say otherwise. However, even within the most thriving of democratic societies problems exist. In addition to the challenges mentioned above, India confronts other issues. Corruption and bribery of politicians, police abuse, non-performance by and incompetence among bureaucrats, and an inadequate infrastructure are just a smattering of troubles that burden the Indian state. As serious, if not more so of a problem, but one that has received passing attention by most scholars, is the inefficiency of the country's judicial system. …

Supreme Court Section 1983 Decisions: (October 2001 Term), Martin A. Schwartz

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.