Supreme Court of the United States Commons^™

A Conversation On The Supreme Court With Adam Liptak, Jacob Burns Center For Ethics In The Practice Of Law

2023–2024 Flyers

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Voting: State Courts, Independent Legislatures & The Supreme Court, Floersheimer Center For Constitutional Democracy, Wisconsin Law School State Democracy Research Initiative

2022–2023 Flyers

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The Supreme Court And New Frontiers In Religious Liberty, Floersheimer Center For Constitutional Democracy

2023 Event Invitations

The Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy is proud to present The Supreme Court and New Frontiers in Religious Liberty. Join us for a conversation with First Amendment experts to discuss the future of First Amendment Free Exercise and Establishment Clause jurisprudence.

Professor Michael Pollack will lead a discussion on the Court’s jurisprudence and its impact on civil liberties, religious liberty, and separation of church and state.

Panelists:

• Nelson Tebbe, Cornell Law School
• Mark L. Movsesian, St. John's University School of Law
• Elizabeth Reiner Platt, Columbia Law School
• Giselle Klapper, Sikh Coalition

Click here to view the flyer.

The Supreme Court And New Frontiers In Religious Liberty, Floersheimer Center For Constitutional Democracy

2022–2023 Flyers

Click here to view the event invitation.

The Supreme Court In Crisis, David M. Hunt Library

2023 Event Invitations

The speakers will discuss recent decisions affecting abortion and gun rights, the public’s trust and confidence in the high court and cases the Court will decide before the summer involving LGBTQ rights, affirmative action, election law and immigration policy.

Speakers:

• Tom Gerety, former President of Amherst and Trinity Colleges, former Executive Director of the Brennan Center for Justice
• Adam Liptak, New York Times Supreme Court Correspondent
• David Rudenstine, Sheldon H. Solow Professor of Law at Cardozo and former Dean

Oral Argument In Moore V. Harper And The Perils Of Finding “Compromise” On The Independent State Legislature Theory, Katherine A. Shaw

Online Publications

The Supreme Court’s cert grant last June in Moore v. Harper was an ominous note on which to end an explosive term. The grant seemed to broadcast an openness to embracing what’s known as the “independent state legislature theory,” or ISLT. It is a once-fringe idea that the U.S. Constitution, and in particular Article I’s “elections clause,” grants to state legislatures alone, and withholds from other state entities (think: courts and constitutions), the power to regulate elections for federal office.

Scotus On Immigration: A Review Of Recent Decisions & What's To Come, Cardozo Journal Of Equal Rights And Social Justice

2022 Event Invitations

Please join the Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice for a panel discussion with seven immigration attorneys. The discussion will cover recent SCOTUS decisions impacting immigration, the impacts of these decisions and important cases on the docket for this upcoming session.

Moderator: Mauricio Noroña, Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor of Law in the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, Cardozo Law

Panelists:

• Peter Markowitz, Associate Dean of Equity in Curriculum and Teaching and Professor of Law, Founding Faculty Member and Co-Director of the Kathryn O. Greenberg Immigration Justice Clinic, Cardozo Law

• Lindsay Nash, Associate Professor of Law, Co-Director of …

Scotus On Immigration: A Review Of Recent Decisions & What's To Come, Cardozo Journal Of Equal Rights And Social Justice

2022–2023 Flyers

Click here to view the event invitation.

A New Supreme Court Case Threatens Another Body Blow To Our Democracy, Katherine A. Shaw, Leah Litman, Carolyn Shapiro

Online Publications

When the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, the justices in the majority insisted they were merely returning the issue of abortion to the democratic process. But a case the court has announced it will hear in its October term could make that democratic process a lot less democratic.

The Link Between Voting Rights And The Abortion Ruling, Katherine A. Shaw, Leah Litman, Melissa Murray

Online Publications

The Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization gives states the maximum amount of freedom to restrict abortion. The decision is so sweeping that, under its logic, states could ban abortion even in cases of rape or incest; they may even be able — as the dissent notes — to prohibit abortions in circumstances in which a doctor believes the procedure is necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant person.

We Clerked For Justices Scalia And Stevens. America Is Getting Heller Wrong., Katherine A. Shaw, John Bash

Online Publications

In the summer of 2008, the Supreme Court decided District of Columbia v. Heller, in which the court held for the first time that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to gun ownership. We were law clerks to Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, and Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the lead dissent.

The Roberts Court's Transformative Religious Freedom Cases: The Doctrine And The Politics Of Grievance, Stephen M. Feldman

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that the Roberts Court has adopted a conservative approach in religious freedom cases, shifting toward a jurisprudence that favors Christianity and undermines the separation of church and state. This approach, rooted in tradition and a de facto Christian America, has led to significant changes in both Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause doctrines. The Court's decisions increasingly protect Christian practices and institutions while marginalizing non-Christian religions, reflecting a broader ideological shift toward judicial engagement and away from principles of federalism and judicial restraint.

Textualism, Dynamism, And The Meaning Of "Sex", Bill Watson

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

A recent Article by Professors William N. Eskridge, Brian G. Slocum, and Stefan Th. Gries critically examines textualism, both in general and as applied in Bostock v. Clayton County. This Essay makes three points in reply. First, the authors criticize strawman versions of textualism that no mainstream legal interpreter claims to hold. Second, the authors’ examples of “societal dynamism” do not put any pressure on textualism properly understood. And third, the authors’ corpus-linguistics analysis of the word “sex” is, from a textualist perspective, irrelevant to the issue in Bostock.

“A Force Created”: The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce And The Politics Of Corporate Immunity, Myriam E. Gilles

Articles

Upon its founding in 1912, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was conceived as a “force created” to exert “a beneficent influence upon our national life” by integrating the views of the business community into governmental policies and regulations. That a force was created is beyond question. Beneficence is a separate issue.

Hospitality At The Center Of Dispute Resolution, Peter Block

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

My intent here is to amplify and give voice to the transformative importance of the work described in three of the Articles being published in this edition of the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. The Articles discuss restorative answers to this culture's dominant narrative of retribution. Each of these social innovations represents a form of hospitality, which is akin to the welcoming of strangers. The Articles form a strategy, in alliance with the alternative dispute resolution movement and addressing the violence against the self and others, which forms the headlines of our daily news consumption.

The End Of The Eviction Moratoriums, Public Interest Law Student Association (Pilsa)

2021–2022 Flyers

No abstract provided.

Motion For Leave To File And Brief For Amici Curiae Legal Scholars And Academics In Support Of Petitioner, David Rudenstine

Amicus Briefs

Amici Curiae are legal scholars and academics who have dedicated their careers to the study, teaching and practice of United States constitutional law, including the death penalty and methods of execution. Many amici have written scholarly articles on these topics.

Many amici listed below earlier wrote to this Court in 2018 by submitting a brief in Bucklew v. Precythe, 139 S. Ct. 1112 (2019), to apprise the Court of information regarding the availability of alternative methods of execution to be considered in clarifying the applicable Eighth Amendment standard for method-of-execution challenges. Amici agreed with the Court’s clear statement in …

Court Packing As An Antidote, Rivka Weill

Cardozo Law Review

Court packing is considered the nuclear weapon that may unleash total chaos on the American constitutional system. Even in the face of a highly controversial appointment process to the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2020 presidential election season, scholars caution against the wisdom and utility of resorting to court packing. This Essay makes three bold arguments: First, a President may nominate a candidate to the Supreme Court at any time, including their last year in office; this is true both empirically and normatively. It is the Senate’s responsibility to ensure the people’s will is not frustrated. Second, never since the …

Court Packing Is A Chimera, Brian L. Frye

Cardozo Law Review

The dream of the 1930s is alive in Washington. Democrats see Republicans hemorrhaging voters as Trump struggles with the economy and the pandemic and are salivating at the prospect of retaking not only the White House, but also the Senate. Of course, you should never sell a bearskin until you’ve caught the bear. But even a blowout victory can’t get Democrats the prize they really want, a Supreme Court majority. So, in back-to-the-future fashion, many progressives are pushing the idea of court packing. After all, in politics, rules are made to be broken.

The Iron Rule, Jacob Bronsther, Guha Krishnamurthi

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Bolt Of Lightning: Measuring The Impact Of Modern Transitions On The Supreme Court, Daniel Kiel

Cardozo Law Review

Lightning struck on September 18, 2020. In a year in which so many unimaginable events had unfolded and were unfolding, the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sent shock waves not only through the nation’s legal community, but throughout the country. Ginsburg, a champion of women’s rights as both lawyer and Justice, the multi-time survivor of cancer, the Court’s tiny, surprising, and notorious rock star, passed away at a precarious moment. Aside from the existential challenge presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation was 46 days from a presidential election. Given that the responsibility of nominating Supreme Court Justices fell …

Transforming Affirmative Action Jurisprudence: Applying Eidelson's Theory On The Supreme Court Of India, Sawinder Singh

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

This paper compares the affirmative action jurisprudence developed by the Indian Supreme Court with United States affirmative action jurisprudence in the context of the philosophy of equality developed by Harvard Law School Professor Benjamin Eidelson. It evaluates the potential of Eidelson's claim that if the U.S. Supreme Court accepts his philosophy, it may incrementally allow the Court to adopt a more favorable attitude towards the affirmative action policies. The question raised here is whether Eidelson's approach can provide a constitutionalfoundation capable of giving us a consistently benevolent interpretation of affirmative action policies, as he hoped. This article concludes that, at …

Introductory Essay For The Issue Devoted To The Appointment Of Amy Coney Barrett To The U.S. Supreme Court, David Rudenstine

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Retiring Life Tenure: On Term Limits And Regular Appointments At The Supreme Court, Tyler Cooper, Amanda Dworkin, Dylan Hosmer-Quint, Amanda Pescovitz

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

I Choose, You Decide: Checking The Judiciary From Within, Jeremy N. Sheff

Cardozo Law Review

Efforts to rein in partisanship (or the perception thereof) on the Supreme Court tend to focus either on what Ryan Doerfler and Samuel Moyn call “personnel reforms”—changes to the selection, appointment, or tenure of Justices—or on what they call “disempowering reforms”—changes that divert some of the judiciary’s authority to the political branches, for example via jurisdiction stripping. I propose a different—and perhaps complementary—reform, which would achieve some of the goals of both types of reform without requiring a constitutional amendment. I propose that the selection of a case for the Supreme Court’s discretionary appellate docket should be performed by a …

Against Court Packing, Or A Plea To Formally Amend The Constitution, Jill M. Fraley

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recovering The Race Analogy In Lgbtq Religious Exemption Cases, Kyle C. Velte

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

A 6-3 Supreme Court Could Allow The Government To Openly Discriminate In Its Policies, Katherine A. Shaw, Leah Litman

Online Publications

Over the past few days, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear challenges to hot-button Trump administration policies involving the border wall, an attempt to exclude noncitizens from the census breakdown used for allocating seats in Congress and limits on who can apply for asylum from Mexico.

Return Of The King: Corruption Backsliding In America, Pedro Gerson

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The United States appears to be going through a crisis of corruption. However, it is hard to know whether this is a matter of appearance or if the country is at risk of high levels of corruption making a comeback. The Article applies the equilibrium model of corruptionthe leading social science account of how corruption operates-to the current U.S. system, and shows that the United States may indeed be backsliding. The potential for corruption to creep back up is due to more than the political moment. Rather, it is the result ofpolitics combined with the relatively powerless institutional controls for …

Implied Presidential And Congressional Powers, David M. Driesen, William C. Banks

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.