Judges Commons^™

Promoting Women's Advancement In The Judiciary In The Midst Of Backlash: A Comparative Analysis Of Representation And Jurisprudence In Key Domestic And International Fora, Shruti Rana

Faculty Publications

Women's advancement in the judiciary of the United States has been slow and uneven, and has long lagged behind other nations. Parity in representation remains distant, and the gains to date vulnerable to changes in administrations and fluctuating levels of state commitment to gender equality, with the recent global backlash to gender equality and international norms and institutions providing a critical example of this fragility. In this light, this Article argues that gender parity in the judiciary should not be viewed as merely a laudable goal. Rather, representation and parity should be viewed as fundamental state legal obligations under international …

Childist Objections, Youthful Relevance, And Evidence Reconceived, Mae C. Quinn

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Evidence rules are written by and for adults. As a result, they largely lack the vantage point of youth and are rooted in arm’s-length assumptions about the lives and legal interests of young people. Moreover, because children have been mostly treated as evidentiary afterthoughts, they have been patched into the justice system and its procedures in a piecemeal fashion. Yet, to date, there has been no comprehensive scholarly critique of evidence principles and practices for failing to meaningfully account for youth. And the evidentiary intersection of youth and race has been almost entirely overlooked in legal scholarship. This Article, in …

Just-Right Government: Interstate Compacts And Multistate Governance In An Era Of Political Polarization, Policy Paralysis, And Bad-Faith Partisanship, Jon Michaels, Emme M. Tyler

Indiana Law Journal

Those committed to addressing the political, economic, and moral crises of the day— voting rights, racial justice, reproductive autonomy, gaping inequality, LGBTQ rights, and public health and safety—don’t know where to turn. Federal legislative and regulatory pathways are choked off by senators quick to filibuster and by judges eager to strike down agency rules and orders. State pathways, in turn, are compromised by limited capacity, collective action problems, externalities, scant economies of scale, and—in many jurisdictions—a toxic political culture hostile to even the most anodyne government interventions. Recognizing the limited options available on a binary (that is, federal or state) …

A Newfound Power: How The Ohio Supreme Court Should Approach The Next Partisan Gerrymander, Bradley Davis

Indiana Law Journal

Partisan gerrymandering is a practice as old as the nation itself and a problem both state and federal courts continue to struggle with. In 2015, the people of Ohio overwhelmingly voted to amend the state constitution to prevent overly partisan outcomes in state legislative redistricting. Following the 2021 redistricting cycle, the Ohio Supreme Court narrowly struck down several redistricting proposals in what devolved into a protracted fight with legislators and executive officials. This Note carefully lays out the development of redistricting jurisprudence, Ohio’s relevant constitutional provisions, and various state and federal judicial approaches to alleged gerrymanders. Using a combination of …

The Cruel Case Of Wrongful Convictions: Conveying A Racial And Criminal Crisis In Our Courts, Cullen Livingston

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Starting in 1989 with the advent of DNA analysis, discourse on wrongful conviction has become more prevalent in the U.S., but lacks an explanation for how they happen. There are a number of studies on the effects of wrongful conviction on its victims in social, mental, and historical terms. There is also a concerning level of scope in this concept, with an uncertainty on how to best measure the amount of people who have been victimized by wrongful convictions and what the rate of these convictions may be. Based on this literature I study three different potential causes, these being …

Hearing The Voice Of The Woman Judge: Diversity, Equality, And Participation, Rachel Cahill-O'Callaghan, Pauline Roberts

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The UK has not achieved the judicial diversity of other common law jurisdictions. Whilst there is some success in the lower courts, few women judges have ever sat on the UK Supreme Court bench. It has long been argued that diversity enhances decision making, and the presence of women judges enhances the decision-making process. But this can only occur if women are appointed to the bench and supported to participate fully. Drawing on the theoretical framework developed by Sandra Fredman and the UK equality legislation, this Article explores how the structures and processes of the Supreme Court limit substantive equality …

Promoting Women’S Advancement In The Judiciary In The Midst Of Backlash: A Comparative Analysis Of Representation And Jurisprudence In Key Domestic And International Fora, Shruti Rana

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Women’s advancement in the judiciary of the United States has been slow and uneven, and has long lagged behind other nations. Parity in representation remains distant, and the gains to date vulnerable to changes in administrations and fluctuating levels of state commitment to gender equality, with the recent global backlash to gender equality and international norms and institutions providing a critical example of this fragility. In this light, this Article argues that gender parity in the judiciary should not be viewed as merely a laudable goal. Rather, representation and parity should be viewed as fundamental state legal obligations under international …

Interracial Coalition Building: A Filipino Lawyer In A Black-White Community, Victor C. Romero

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The United States is in the midst of a political and cultural war around race and demography that goes to the heart of America’s self-definition as a nation of immigrants. Heeding Eric Yamamoto’s four-part prescription for interracial cooperation via the conceptual, the performative, the material, and the reflexive, this Essay draws from the author’s own experience as an Asian- American volunteer attempting to serve and lead a traditionally African-American civil rights organization in a predominantly white, rural town in Pennsylvania. Three lessons emerge from this experience. When volunteering, it is important to answer the call to serve even when in …

Just Choices? Judicial Selection, Ideology, And Partisanship In The Ohio Supreme Court, Margo D'Agostino

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

This thesis joins the conversation on judicial selection and impacts on judicial ideology. This is a multifaceted question that engages with the history of judicial selection, differences between states, growing polarization and partisanship, and an influx in campaign spending that can all influence Justices’ behavior while on the bench. While other theorists have used more quantitative or statistical analytics, more research is still needed on the nuanced and qualitative questions surrounding the judiciary in the United States, especially on the state level. I look at three Ohio Supreme Court Justices—Maureen O’Connor, Jennifer Brunner, and Sharon Kennedy—and decisions they have penned …

Forcing Supreme Court Review By The Federal Circuit, Jeremy W. Bock

Buffalo Law Review

From time to time, a federal court of appeals may want the Supreme Court to take a case because it is stuck: there is an unresolved issue that is important to the day-to-day administration of justice, but an en banc sitting would be futile. The Supreme Court, however, has a haystack problem: it receives several thousand certiorari petitions each year, of which approximately 1% receive plenary review. The literature suggests that the selection of the certworthy needles in this petition haystack is a black-box process affected by discretion and situational factors that make timely review unpredictable and difficult to obtain. …

Power And Persuasion In The Courtroom: The Force Of Law And The Settlement Dynamics Of Judges, Hadas Cohen, Michal Alberstein

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

This Article seeks to describe the shift in the legitimation of judicial authority in the age of the "vanishing trial," in circumstances where adjudication on the merits of the case in question has been replaced by the promotion ofjudicial settlement. Based on data collected during a five-year study funded by the European Research Council ("ERC") and drawing from studies in social psychology and conflict resolution, we analyze the judicial conflict resolution practices used in Israel's Magistrate Court in Tel Aviv to promote settlement, and from this depict a new taxonomy of power relations in the courtroom. This move, from adjudication …

Foreword: Toward A New Compact With Rural America, Anthony F. Pipa

University of Richmond Law Review

The interpretation of United States laws and policies, and the extent to which they obstruct or support rural places and people to take advantage of opportunity, are at the nexus of our nation’s ability to reweave the social fabric and create a new compact between its rural areas and the rest of the country. It requires recognizing our interdependencies, our mutual interests, and our shared humanity. The Articles contained herein get us started—it is incumbent that we build on these contributions to take their ideas forward and provoke new and constructive policy debates.

Enhancing Rural Representation Through Electoral System Diversity, Henry L. Chambers Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

Rural Virginians face disparities in outcomes regarding healthcare, access to important infrastructure, and other services. Some disparities may be related to rurality. The sparseness of population in rural areas may limit the sites where people may access services, triggering the need to travel significant distances to obtain goods and services in such areas. Limited access may lead to disparities even when the quality of goods and services in rural areas is high. The disparities affect all rural Virginians, but disproportionately affect rural Virginians of color. The causes of the disparities are complex and myriad, and may be based on race, …

Duped By Dope: The Sackler Family’S Attempt To Escape Opioid Liability And The Need To Close The Non-Debtor Release Loophole, Bryson T. Strachan

University of Richmond Law Review

The opioid epidemic continues to rage on in the United States, ravaging its rural populations. One of its main causes? OxyContin. Purdue Pharma (“Purdue”), the maker of OxyContin, aggressively marketed opioids to the American public while racking up a fortune of over $13 billion dollars for its owners,3 the Sackler family. As a result, roughly 3,000 lawsuits were filed against Purdue and members of the Sackler family. Generally, the lawsuits alleged that Purdue and members of the Sackler family knew OxyContin was highly addictive yet aggressively marketed high dosages of the drug and misrepresented the drug as nonaddictive and without …

Opioid Litigation Panel, Rick Mountcastle, Paul Farrell, Eric Eyre, Patrick C. Mcginley

University of Richmond Law Review

On February 17, 2023, the University of Richmond Law Review hosted a symposium entitled Overlooked America: Addressing Legal Issues in Rural America. A portion of the event focused on the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States, including the causes and effects of certain actions taken by players in the pharmaceutical industry. The Opioid Litigation Panel, transcribed below, brought together four of the most prominent leaders in the fight for justice in the opioid epidemic: Mr. Rick Mountcastle, Mr. Paul Farrell, Mr. Eric Eyre, and Professor Patrick McGinley. The University of Richmond Law Review was so honored to have …

Table Of Contents

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgments, Kelly M. Boppe

University of Richmond Law Review

The University of Richmond Law Review is honored to present its 2023 Symposium Issue: Overlooked America: Addressing Legal Issues Facing Rural United States. Each year, the University of Richmond Law Review hosts a Symposium for scholars and practitioners to engage with a specific area of law. In a time when our country seems more divided than ever, discussions surrounding law and policy frequently diverge not just on political lines, but on regional lines as well. Rural regions of the United States are routinely evoked in the political sphere, but rarely are the problems and disparities that exist in rural …

Rural Bashing, Kaceylee Klein, Lisa R. Pruitt

University of Richmond Law Review

Anti-rural sentiment is expressed in the United States in three major threads. The first is a narrative about the political structure of our representative democracy—an assertion that rural people are over-represented thanks to the structural features of the U.S. Senate and the Electoral College. Because rural residents are less than a fifth of the U.S. population, complaints about this situation are often framed as “minority rule.”

The second thread is related to the first: rural people and their communities get more than their fair share from federal government coffers. The argument, often expressed in terms of “subsidies,” is that rural …

With A Wink And A Nod: How Politicians, Regulators, And Corrupt Coal Companies Exploited Appalachia, Patrick C. Mcginley

University of Richmond Law Review

Environmental regulators treated America’s leading coal companies like Wall Street’s mismanaged banks leading to the “Great Recession”—big coal companies that produced millions of tons of coal were simply too big to fail. With a wink and a nod, federal and state regulators ignored a core provision of federal law that was intended to prevent coal companies from continuing their past practices of plundering Appalachia’s mineral wealth while ravaging her environment.

This Article examines how the coal industry successfully evaded compliance with that law. The consequences of this evasion include mass bankruptcies, thousands of acres of mined land laying unclaimed, …

Rural America As A Commons, Ann M. Eisenberg

University of Richmond Law Review

With many ready to dismiss non-urban life as a relic of history, rural America’s place in the future is in question. The rural role in the American past is understandably more apparent. As the story of urbanization goes in the United States and elsewhere, the majority of the population used to live in rural places, including small towns and sparsely populated counties. A substantial proportion of those people worked in agriculture, manufacturing, or extractive industries. But trends associated with modernity—mechanization, automation, globalization, and environmental conservation, for instance—have reduced the perceived need for a rural workforce. Roughly since the industrial revolution …

Those Who Need The Most, Get The Least: The Challenge Of, And Opportunity For Helping Rural Virginia, Andrew Block, Antonella Nicholas

University of Richmond Law Review

Rural America, as has been well documented, faces many challenges. Businesses and people are migrating to more urban and suburban regions. The extraction and agricultural economies that once helped them thrive—mining, tobacco, textiles—are dying. And, as we discuss below, residents of rural communities tend to be older, poorer, less credentialed in terms of their education, less healthy, and declining in population.

On a regular basis, political leaders on both sides of the aisle, and on national and state levels, make commitments to rural areas to help improve the quality of life for residents, to listen, and to help. Even with …

The Due Process Owed To Noncitizens: Standardizing The Burden In Sec. 1226(A) Bond Hearings With The Help Of Hernandez-Lara And Velasco Lopez, Sharon Shaji

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Move Toward An Indigenous Virgin Islands Jurisprudence: Banks In Its Second Decade, Kristen David Adams

Fordham Law Review

In 2011, the Supreme Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands decided Banks v. International Rental & Leasing Corp. and, with that decision, introduced a new era in Virgin Islands jurisprudence that embraced a much more active role for Virgin Islands courts and a correspondingly diminished role for the American Law Institute’s restatements. This Essay examines what I will call “second-generation” decisions referencing Banks with the goal of determining whether Banks and its progeny have met, or are at least in the process of meeting, “the goal of establishing ‘an indigenous Virgin Islands jurisprudence’” set by the Banks court. Ultimately, this …

Management’S Substantive Edges, Alexander A. Reinert

Articles

The article examines the evolution of judicial management in federal courts since Judith Resnik's seminal work, *Managerial Judges*, highlighting both advancements and persistent challenges. While increased transparency and the expanded role of magistrate judges have mitigated some concerns, issues like discovery disputes and the impact of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) continue to shape judicial practice. The article critiques the disuniformity introduced by judges' individual standing orders, which, despite offering flexibility, raise concerns about procedural fairness, transparency, and consistency in federal procedure.

The Court And The Private Plaintiff, Elizabeth Beske

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Two seemingly irreconcilable story arcs have emerged from the Supreme Court over the past decade. First, the Court has definitively taken itself out of the business of creating private rights of action under statutes and the Constitution, decrying such moves as relics of an “ancient regime.” Thus, the Supreme Court has slammed the door on its own ability to craft rights of action under federal statutes and put Bivens, which recognized implied constitutional remedies, into an ever-smaller box. The Court has justified these moves as necessary to keep judges from overstepping their bounds and wading into the province of the …

19th Annual Diversity Symposium Dinner 2023, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Rucho In The States: Districting Cases And The Nature Of State Judicial Power, Chad M. Oldfather

Fordham Law Voting Rights and Democracy Forum

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Gerald S. "Geary" Reamey, Michael Ariens

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Professor Reamey: A Mentor And A Friend, Victoria Mather

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Dean's Desk: Recognizing Iu Maurer Alumnae Who Have Made A Difference, Christiana Ochoa

Christiana Ochoa (7/22-10/22 Acting; 11/2022-)

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to welcome future law students as part of our annual Admitted Student Day. From their seats in the Kathleen and Ann DeLaney Moot Court Room, they look to the front of the room where they see the portraits of four trailblazing alumnae who have made indelible marks on the judiciary. Juanita Kidd Stout ’48, Sue Shields ’61, Linda Chezem ’71 and Loretta Rush ’83 all face out into the sea of newly admitted students who one day hope to forge paths of their own.As we celebrate Women’s History Month, I wanted to …