Judges Commons^™

In Memoriam: Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr.—A Tribute, Kenneth F. Ripple

Journal Articles

In remembering Justice Powell, my memory invariably recalls three distinct images from the years I spent at the Supreme Court. Two of these memories are from my own work with him. The other is from my observation of him on the bench. In the days since his death this past autumn, all three have sparked a great deal of reflection about his enduring contribution to our jurisprudence and to our profession.

The Religious Dimension Of Judicial Decision Making And The Defacto Disestablishment, Mark C. Modak-Truran

Journal Articles

Despite the de facto disestablishment of religion, I will try to illustrate the centrality of religion as a resource for understanding judicial decision making. The central question for this inquiry is: What, if any, is the role of religious beliefs in judicial decision making?

The Compromise Of '38 And The Federal Courts Today, John H. Robinson

Journal Articles

In 1998 the legal community of the United States should stop and take stock of two epochal events in the history of the federal judicial system. One of those events, as readers of a procedure symposium do not need to be told, is the sixtieth anniversary of the introduction of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. I shall have more to say about that event presently, but I want first to devote a few paragraphs to a second event, one which proceduralists ignore at their peril. The event I have in mind is the initiation of a new era of …

Catholic Judges In Capital Cases, Amy Coney Barrett, John H. Garvey

Journal Articles

The Catholic Church's opposition to the death penalty places Catholic judges in a moral and legal bind. While these judges are obliged by oath, professional commitment, and the demands of citizenship to enforce the death penalty, they are also obliged to adhere to their church's teaching on moral matters. Although the legal system has a solution for this dilemma by allowing the recusal of judges whose convictions keep them from doing their job, Catholic judges will want to sit whenever possible without acting immorally. However, litigants and the general public are entitled to impartial justice, which may be something a …

Scalia Slugs It Out, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

A Matter of Interpretation
Antonin Scalia, Princeton University Press, 1997, 159 pages, $20

Antonin Scalia, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, has done more to combat judicial activism than any other living person. Since taking his seat on the High Court in 1986, he has defended and applied a mode of constitutional interpretation - most often called "originalism," sometimes "textualism" - the precise aim of which is to reduce, if not eliminate, judicial lawmaking. Scalia maintains that judges, even Supreme Court Justices, must distinguish what they think law ought to be from what the rule of law in …

Freedom And Interdependence In Twentieth-Century Contract Law: Traynor And Hand And Promissory Estoppel, Alfred S. Konefsky

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Is This Appropriate?, Thomas L. Shaffer, Julia B. Meister

Journal Articles

The word "appropriate" is so wildly overused in American culture that, as with other vacuous words and phrases, a person learns to read right through it. "Appropriate" is verbal tofu. This Essay pauses instead of reading through, particularly to notice the instances in which "appropriate" and its negative counterpart are used to give the appearance of a moral or legal judgment.

"Appropriate," chosen to express a legal judgment, is not only vacuous; it is also irresponsible. It catches the legislator, judge, or administrator in the act of passing the buck, as the President did when he ordered the Justice Department …

The Ambiguity Of Legal Dreams: A Communitarian Defense Of Judicial Restraint, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Remarks On The Dedication Of The Robing Room In Honor Of Judge Robert Allen Grant, Kenneth F. Ripple

Journal Articles

Today, Notre Dame Law School honors one of its most beloved and successful sons by naming in his honor the robing room of the courtroom. "Robing Room" is really a misnomer for this chamber. It serves a variety of functions for the court, and it is no exaggeration to term it the epicenter of the court's activity. If we take a few moments to review what judges do in this room and reflect on the significance of those activities in the American judicial tradition, it becomes readily apparent why it is particularly appropriate that this room be named in honor …

Process Of Constitutional Decision Making, Kenneth F. Ripple

Journal Articles

Over the past decade, our profession has engaged in an intense debate over the proper role of judges in the interpretation of our Constitution. This is not, of course, a new controversy. It has been with us ever since Chief Justice Marshall's decision in Marbury v. Madison.' However, during this last decade, the debate has taken on new dimensions. There is a new range and depth to the inquiry. What began as a discussion largely among members of the academic bar and some members of the judiciary has become a national political issue. Yet the basic question remains: In a …

The Constitutional Catechism Of Antonin Scalia, George Kannar

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

The Judge And The Academic Community, Kenneth F. Ripple

Journal Articles

In the inaugural essay of this series, Judge Coffin described this unique effort of the editors of the Ohio State Law Journal as an opportunity for judges to engage in "reflective self-examination" in a time of "remorselessly increasing pressures" on the judicial way of life as it has existed since the founding of the Republic. When any institution—public or private—is experiencing great stress and, consequently, is in danger of undergoing cataclysmic change, the quality of its relationships with the other institutions with which it regularly interacts can determine its ability to deal effectively with the pressures. If those other institutions …

The Article Iii Judiciary In Its Third Century, Kenneth F. Ripple

Journal Articles

Tonight we celebrate the memory of one of the great American jurists of this century, Robert A. Ainsworth, Jr. In this bicentennial year of our Constitution, it seems most appropriate that we honor the memory of Judge Ainsworth by reflecting on that part of the Constitution to which he exhibited so much devotion—article III, the judicial article.

The Struggle For Judicial Independence In Antebellum North Carolina: The Story Of Two Judges, Walter F. Pratt

Journal Articles

The Supreme Court of North Carolina is an anomaly among state courts in the antebellum years. In a period dominated by democratic reforms of state government, the court did not merely survive unscathed it actually increased its independence. The remarkable success of this court is largely attributable to the personal reputations and political acumen of two of its judges, Thomas Ruffin and William Gaston. Without those two men it is likely that the Supreme Court would have been abolished in a wave of democratic reforms that peaked in North Carolina with the constitutional amendments of 1835.

The Supreme Court And The Constitution: The Continuing Debate On Judicial Review, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

The three books reviewed in this essay are recent contributions to the growing literature of constitutional theory (Michael J. Perry, The Constitution, the Courts, and Human Rights (New Ha- ven: Yale University Press, 1982); Sotirios A. Barber, On What the Constitution Means (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984); and John Agresto, The Supreme Court and Constitutional Democracy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984). They explore important questions about the role of the Supreme Court and the meaning of the Constitution.

Judicial Disability And The Good Behavior Clause, Walter F. Pratt

Journal Articles

Justice Douglas's retirement ended months of speculation about his health and ability to remain on the Court. Coming at the end of a decade during which the fitness of judges was increasingly examined, his illness stimulated renewed consideration of judicial disability. Numerous remedies have been suggested. Two examples of such proposals in the present Congress are S. 1110 and H.R. 10439. S. 1110 would establish a Council on Judicial Tenure composed of judges in regular active service. The proposed Council would receive complaints about judges, conduct investigations, and report to the Judicial Conference of the United States. If a report …

Memorial Tribute To Roger J. Kiley, Thomas L. Shaffer

Journal Articles

The editors and staff of the Notre Dame Lawyer pay tribute in this final issue of our fiftieth volume to the late Roger J. Kiley, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. In so doing, we honor him as the model of the Notre Dame lawyer.

Book Review, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

Reviewing: THE PRICE OF PERFECT JUSTICE. By Macklin Fleming. The Adverse Consequences of Current Legal Doctrine on the American Courtroom. Justice of the California Court of Appeals (Basic Books, Inc. New York).

Introduction, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

A symposium was held on February 29, 1964, devoted to the constitutional amendments proposed by the Council of State Governments. Very briefly these amendments would (1) vest power to amend the Constitution in State legislatures; (2) set up a "Court of the Union," composed of the chief justice of the supreme court of each of the 50 states, which would have authority to review "any judgment of the Supreme Court relating to the rights reserved to the states or to the people by this Constitution"; (3) take from the federal courts all jurisdiction over the apportionment of representation in State …

Natural Law And Everyday Law, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

Like most terms "natural law" has had, and has, a variety of meanings. In most of its meanings it touches scarcely at all the professional concerns of the lawyer but moves, rather, on a plane widely separated from his daily cares and duties. Thus, for the most part, natural law stands aloof from the urgent here-and-now with which lawyer and judge necessarily are preoccupied; it inhabits a world apart.

In these remarks I hope to suggest an approach to natural law which will make it useful on a day-to-day basis in the perplexities by which practitioners and judges constantly are …

The Supreme Court In The American Constitutional System: Foreword, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

Our Symposium’s purpose is to examine the function of the Supreme Court and the conditions under which it necessarily operates, and in this way, we hope, to illuminate some of the far-reaching questions which are involved.

Appeal To The Conscience Of The Practicing Bar, Joseph O'Meara

Journal Articles

The impact of the war will inevitably produce vast and profound, if not revolutionary changes in our economic and political arrangements, putting in jeopardy our democratic way of life. The ominous shadow of these changes that press upon us, due to the ascendancy of Force in so large a part of the world, gives rise to the question: What can we do about it? More particularly: What can the lawyer, as a lawyer, do about it? That leads to the deeper question of the role of Law in the successful functioning of the democratic process. In every state and city, …

Reviewing Judicial Review, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

Address of Clarence E. Manion, Professor of Law at Notre Dame University School of Law, delivered at the mid-winter meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association January 16, 1937.

Review Of The Power To Please By J. W. Donovan, Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

This little book of sixty pages edited by H. L. Herschberg and dedicated to Henry Ford contains more meat than volumes many times its size. It contains quotations from the best and many interesting experiences and stories of this grand old lawyer. It is full of suggestions to lawyers and speakers and professional men in general.