Judges Commons^™

Former Colombian Constitutional Judge And Ut-Austin Professor Join Ccd Board, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

On Friday, August 11, and following the recent appointment of Brady Harman and Greg Zoeller, the Center for Constitutional Democracy added two new members to its Advisory Board: Professor Richard Albert (University of Texas at Austin) and Justice Manuel Cepeda (former President of the Constitutional Court of Colombia).

Judicial Selection That Fails The Separation Of Powers, Stephen Ware

Catholic University Law Review

Executive power should be constrained by checks and balances. The United States’ long and strong tradition of concerns about executive power, and its complementary tradition of Madisonian checks and balances on and to the executive, include the selection of supreme court justices. Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the constitution of any state places solely in the executive the power to appoint a justice to begin a new term on the (federal or state) supreme court. However, several states fail to constrain gubernatorial power in selecting justices to finish a term already started by another justice and these interim appointments are …

Ethics At The Speed Of Business, James A. Doppke Jr.

DePaul Business & Commercial Law Journal

This paper discusses several ways in which the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, and the Illinois Supreme Court Rules, construct barriers that prevent lawyers and businesses from accomplishing reasonable commercial goals. Often, those barriers arise from outdated concepts, or terminology that does not reflect current business realities. The paper argues for the amendment of specific Rules to enhance lawyers’ and businesses’ respective abilities to conduct their affairs more efficiently, without sacrificing public protection in the process.

Law School News: A More Perfect Union Through A Diverse Judiciary 08-07-2023, Gregory W. Bowman

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Legal Clutter: How Concurring Opinions Create Unnecessary Confusion And Encourage Litigation, Meg Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

Good judges are clear writers. And clear writers avoid legal clutter. Legal clutter occurs when judges publish multiple individually written opinions that are neither useful nor necessary. This essay argues that concurring opinions are the worst form of legal clutter. Unlike majority opinions, concurring opinions are legal asides, musings of sorts—often by a single judge—that add length and confusion to an opinion often without adding meaningful value. Concurring opinions do not change the outcome of a case. Unlike dissenting opinions, they do not claim disagreement with the ultimate decision. Instead, concurring opinions merely offer an idea or viewpoint that failed …

Confirm Julie Rikelman For The First Circuit, Carl Tobias

University of Richmond Law Review

Now that the United States Senate has reconvened after pauses for holidays, the upper chamber must expeditiously appoint designee Julie Rikelman to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which is the smallest, albeit critical, appellate court. The nominee, whom President Joe Biden tapped during late July 2022, would supply remarkable experiential, gender, and ideological diversity gleaned from pursuing much cutting-edge reproductive freedom litigation, which included arguing Dobbs before the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade. The nominee has definitely excelled in law’s highest echelon over twenty-plus years, most recently as the U.S. Litigation Director in the …

Confirm Rachel Bloomekatz To The Sixth Circuit, Carl Tobias

University of Richmond Law Review

Now that the United States Senate is convening after the July Fourth holiday, the upper chamber must promptly appoint Rachel Bloomekatz to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The nominee, whom President Joe Biden selected in May 2022, provides remarkable experiential, gender, and ideological expertise that she deftly realized in litigating high-profile gun control, environmental, and other significant cases in federal appellate courts and district courts. Over fifteen years, the nominee has reached law’s pantheon across a broad spectrum from extremely prestigious clerkships with Justice Stephen Breyer and particularly distinguished federal court and state court jurists to …

Investigation Procedures In The Crimes Of Ministers And Senior Officials In Light Of Federal Decree-Law No. (24) Of 2021 On The Accountability Of Ministers And Senior Officials Of The Federation, Yousuf Alkaabi

Journal of Police and Legal Sciences

The aim of this research is to define the concept of ministers and senior employees of the federation and to explain their legal nature, to stand on the legal basis for the penal responsibility of ministers and its scope, in addition to clarifying the procedures for receiving complaints and communications against ministers and senior employees of the federation in the UAE, and examining their seriousness, and indicating the competent authority for the preliminary investigation. And a statement of its authority to issue precautionary orders against ministers.

The problem of the research was to determine the adequacy of the procedural provisions …

Masthead And Table Of Contents, Deepika Chandrashekar

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

All Cases Matter: Mitigating Bias In The Administrative Law Judiciary, Cherron Payne

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

After an introduction and explanation of bias in Part I, Part II of this article explores the issue of bias and the underlying factors that configure bias, such as attitude, stereotype, and prejudice. Part II also examines the two principal types of bias, explicit bias and implicit bias, and defines common subsets of bias, such as gender bias. Part III presents implicit bias as an unconscious, utilitarian, and neuroscientific mechanism. Part III examines the neuroscience of decision-making and the neural structures that influence and regulate decision-making processes. Part III also discusses emotion as an underpinning to decision-making and the role …

Solemn Vow: Solum's Originalism, Treaties, And Tribal Sovereignty In Castro-Huerta, Liam T. Sheridan

Maine Law Review

In Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, the Supreme Court held that states have inherent authority to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians in “Indian country.” Only two years earlier, the Court in McGirt v. Oklahoma held that most of eastern Oklahoma was Indian country, and thus immune from any state criminal jurisdiction. Castro-Huerta limited this immunity and narrowed the Court’s view of tribal sovereignty as a whole. The majority represented the Court’s originalist faction—minus Justice Gorsuch, who had penned both the majority opinion in McGirt and the dissent in Castro-Huerta. The majority and dissent disagreed over whether federal statutes preempted Oklahoma’s criminal jurisdiction. …

Ukraine’S Supreme Court: Born Amid Crisis, Now Under Siege, Sergii Koziakov, David Collins

Judicature International

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Law Guide To A Post-Dobbs America, James Hart, Flore Foulon

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned *Roe v. Wade* and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, necessitates a federal legislative solution to restore abortion rights. Drawing on France's civil law system, the article proposes a clear, comprehensive federal law that guarantees absolute abortion rights pre-viability and includes safeguards post-viability. It emphasizes the need for consistency and clarity, similar to France's approach, to address the legal void left by *Dobbs* and ensure uniform protections across all U.S. states.

Why Judges Should Use 18 U.S.C. § 3553 To Assess Prison Sentences Qualitatively In The Context Of Collateral Relief, Luke Doughty

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Tracing The Roots Of A Poisonous Tree: On The Origins And Impact Of Criminal Terminology In A Civil Apprehension Scheme, Shani Mahiri King, Nicole Silvestri Hall

Articles (Current Faculty)

Language is powerful. It can affect how we think about and treat groups of people. Poor language choices have a massive impact on immigration law, an area of the law that determines how groups of perceived “outsiders” are classified and regulated. Language and bias in judicial opinions have been studied, but less research has been done on poor language choices in immigration statutes.

This Comment focuses on the harmful effects of poor language choices in immigration statutes, including the criminal terminology “arrest” and “warrant” in civil immigration apprehension statutes 8 U.S.C. Sections 1226 and 1357. Two fundamental problems arise when …

Center For Constitutional Democracy Welcomes Two New Board Members, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Beginning on July 1, the Center for Constitutional Democracy will be welcoming two new members to its Advisory Board: former Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller ’82 and former CCD Senior Managing Affiliate Brady Harman ’15.

Four Maurer School Of Law Students Selected As 2023 Stevens Fellows, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Four Indiana Law students have been selected as Stevens Fellows, the John Paul Stevens Foundation accounced today (June 20). Selection as a Stevens Fellow allows students to receive critical financial support while participating in unpaid summer legal internships serving the public interest.

Named after the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice, the John Paul Stevens Foundation is dedicated to promoting public interest and social justice values in the next generation of American lawyers.

Where To Place The “Nones” In The Church And State Debate? Empirical Evidence From Establishment Clause Cases In Federal Court, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise

St. John's Law Review

In this third iteration of our ongoing empirical examination of religious liberty decisions in the lower federal courts, we studied all digested Establishment Clause decisions by federal circuit and district court judges from 2006 through 2015. The first clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution directs that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” That provision has generated decades of controversy regarding the appropriate role of religion in public life.

Holding key variables constant, we found that Catholic judges approved Establishment Clause claims at a 29.6% rate, compared with a 41.5% rate before non-Catholic …

Remembering The Hon. Viola J. Taliaferro, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Judge Viola J. Taliaferro, a pathbreaking jurist in Monroe County and renowned advocate for its children, passed away Monday, June 12 in Bloomington.

A 1977 graduate of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Taliaferro entered the legal profession later in life, but wasted no time making an immediate—and lasting—impact on her local community.

Viola Taliaferro earned a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1969. By then she and George had four children, and the family returned to Bloomington—where George had played for the Indiana University Hoosier football team—in 1972.

Three years later she enrolled at …

Change We Can Believe In: The Seventh Circuit's Exposure Of Inadequate Environmental Review In Protect Our Parks V. Buttigieg, P. Nicholas Greco

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Quantifying Implicit Bias In Judicial Legal Opinions: A Natural Language Processing Approach, Philip N. Surendran

Quantitative Social Science Undergraduate Senior Theses

Implicit bias and criminal justice are two concepts that have long been intertwined. There is no justice without neutrality, and yet how do we tell if the actors enforcing the system are actually impartial? In this thesis, I utilize recent advancements in machine learning to attempt to answer this question. Specifically, I use natural language processing to examine the text of opinions written by judges in appellate courts, and I leverage these findings to build quantifiable measures of implicit bias. In particular, I look at the over/under-representation of certain emotions, sentiments and linguistic styles as a proxy for disparate treatment …

Partisan Gerrymandering: The Promise And Limits Of State Court Judicial Review, Norman R. Williams

Marquette Law Review

In 2021, the Oregon Legislature succeeded in redrawing the state’s legislative and congressional districts, but the new redistricting plans were immediately challenged in state court as partisan gerrymanders. The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the challenge to the state legislative map, but its analysis, which accorded significant deference to the legislature’s choices, raised more questions than answers about the appropriate level of scrutiny for state redistricting plans. A special, five-judge court likewise rejected the gerrymandering challenge to the congressional map, and, while its analysis was less deferential, its decision also left unanswered the fundamental question regarding at what point a redistricting …

The Nil Glass Ceiling, Tan Boston

University of Richmond Law Review

Name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) produced nearly $1 billion in earnings for intercollegiate athletes in its inaugural year. Analysts argue that the shockingly high totals result from disproportionate
institutional support for revenue-generating sports.

Although NIL earnings have soared upwards of eight figures to date, first-year data reveals that significant gender disparities exist. Such disparities raise Title IX concerns, which this Article illustrates using a hypothetical university and NIL collective. As such, this Article reveals how schools can facilitate gender discrimination through NIL collectives, contrary to Title IX. Although plainly applicable to NIL transactions in which schools are involved, Title IX’s …

Valedictory Reference In Honour Of Justice Andrew Phang: Compilation Of Valedictory Addresses For Justice Andrew Phang, Hon. Sundaresh Menon, Indranee Rajah, Lucien Wong, Hon. Yihan Goh, Adrian Tan, Davinder Singh, Scott Tan, Hon. Andrew Phang

Singapore Law Journal (Lexicon)

On 15 December 2022, Justice Andrew Phang retired from the Supreme Court Bench. To pay tribute to Justice Phang’s 18 years of service, a Valedictory Reference was convened on 28 November 2022. The following is a collection of speeches delivered at the event by distinguished members of the Bar – a fitting tribute to celebrate Justice Phang’s outstanding contributions to local jurisprudence and legal scholarship, and the indelible mark he left on the lives of those around him.

Fact-Finding Without Rules: Habermas's Communicative Rationality As A Framework For Judicial Assessments Of Digital Open-Source Information, Matthew Gillett

Michigan Journal of International Law

Jürgen Habermas’s theory of “communicative rationality” (also known as “communicative action”) provides a promising conceptual apparatus through which to justify and validate the International Criminal Court’s consideration of the emerging phenomenon of digital open-source information. Because of its process-based and inclusive qualities, Habermas’s communicative rationality is particularly apposite for the dynamic nature of digital open-source information and the heterogenous range of actors and institutions which have relevant experiences and skills to contribute to the generation of norms and determinations regarding its role before the Court. This is important, as the International Criminal Court’s procedural framework is largely silent on digital …

When Patent Litigators Become Neurosurgeons, Katie Chang

Washington Law Review Online

Patent law is where the law meets the most cutting-edge and innovative technology of its time. Usually, subject matter experts, with the help of lawyers, are the ones applying for patents. But when it comes to granting and enforcing patent rights, the job falls onto lawyers and judges, who, for the most part, are likely not experts in the relevant technical field. Bridging the gap between technological expertise and legal expertise has been a pain point in patent litigation, one that Congress has tried to rectify for many years. This Comment primarily examines one of Congress’s solutions—the Patent Pilot Program—and …

Table Of Contents

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Disinformation And The Defamation Renaissance: A Misleading Promise Of “Truth”, Lili Levi

University of Richmond Law Review

Today, defamation litigation is experiencing a renaissance, with progressives and conservatives, public officials and celebrities, corporations and high school students all heading to the courthouse to use libel lawsuits as a social and political fix. Many of these suits reflect a powerful new rhetoric—reframing the goal of defamation law as fighting disinformation. Appeals to the need to combat falsity in public discourse have fueled efforts to reverse the Supreme Court’s press–protective constitutional limits on defamation law under the New York Times v. Sullivan framework. The anti–disinformation frame could tip the scales and generate a majority on the Court to dismantle …

Executive Order 14036: Promoting Competition?, Holly E. Fredericksen

University of Richmond Law Review

Four million Americans left their jobs in July 2021. By the end of that month, the number of open jobs reached an all-time high: 10.9 million. Employees are walking out the door in record numbers as part of a trend so remarkable, we even gave it a name: the Great Resignation. With 4.3 million Americans quitting their jobs in January 2022 and 11.3 million job openings, the Great Resignation is only gaining momentum and showing no signs of slowing down.

And as a consequence of employees exiting in droves, employers are hurting. According to The Work Institute, turnover costs employers …

The Nagging In Our Ears And Original Public Meaning, Perry Dane

Marquette Law Review

The debate over how to understand the meaning of legal texts once pitted intentionalism against a variety of other views united by the conviction that a legal enactment takes on a meaning not reducible to anybody’s mental state. Both these approaches are supported by powerful intuitions. This Article does not try to referee between them. Instead, it takes aim at a third set of views— theories of “original public meaning”—that in recent decades has upended the traditional debate and has now become gospel for the new majority on the United States Supreme Court.