Putting Buck V. Bell In Scientific And Historical Context: A Response To Victoria Nourse ,
2012
Pepperdine University
Putting Buck V. Bell In Scientific And Historical Context: A Response To Victoria Nourse , Edward J. Larson
Pepperdine Law Review
In this article written for a law-review symposium in response to a presentation on the infamous 1927 U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Buck v. Bell, Edward J. Larson argues that, at the time that the case was decided, eugenics was on the incline, not the decline. In the 1920s, the American scientific and medical community broadly backed eugenic remedies for various forms of mental illness and retardation. Legislatures, lawyers, and jurists took their cue from this scientific and medical consensus. Absent any question that the statute at issue in Buck v. Bell was validly passed by the Virginia legislature or …
Buck V. Bell: A Constitutional Tragedy From A Lost World,
2012
Pepperdine University
Buck V. Bell: A Constitutional Tragedy From A Lost World, Victoria Nourse
Pepperdine Law Review
The article focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell, which dealt with the forced sterilization of people deemed unfit, such as intellectually disabled or mentally retarded individuals. Topics include the enforceability of unconstitutional judicial decisions, eugenic sterilization, and the application of substantive due process.
A Reluctant Apology For Plessy: A Response To Akhil Amar,
2012
Pepperdine University
A Reluctant Apology For Plessy: A Response To Akhil Amar, Barry P. Mcdonald
Pepperdine Law Review
A response to the article "Plessy v. Ferguson and the Anti-Canon," by Akhil Amar, published in the November 2011 issue of the "Pepperdine Law Review," is presented. Topics include an examination of Justice Henry Billings Brown's decision in the case, the constitutionality of segregating U.S. citizens by race, and the impact of public opinion on U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Plessy V. Ferguson And The Anti-Canon,
2012
Pepperdine University
Plessy V. Ferguson And The Anti-Canon, Akhil Reed Amar
Pepperdine Law Review
The article focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson, which dealt with the constitutionality of racial segregation in the U.S. Topics include the application of precedent in controversial U.S. Supreme Court cases, when the U.S. Constitution can overrule a court decision, and dissenting judicial opinions.
Coming To Terms With Dred Scott: A Response To Daniel A. Farber,
2012
Pepperdine University
Coming To Terms With Dred Scott: A Response To Daniel A. Farber, Paul Finkelman
Pepperdine Law Review
When thinking about Dred Scott, the issue is not how do we “rehabilitate” the opinion. The goal of scholarship here is to understand the opinion, place it in the context of its own time, and explain its enduring significance. After that, we may praise or damn it, and rehabilitate it or condemn it. No one today likes the Dred Scott opinion or the result. But, this article argues that Professor Daniel A. Farber is so incensed by the opinion that he vastly overstates its historical significance including incorrectly blaming Chief Justice Taney for causing the Civil War. This article rejects …
Anti-Canonical Considerations,
2012
Pepperdine University
Anti-Canonical Considerations, Edward J. Larson
Pepperdine Law Review
No abstract provided.
Check One And The Accountability Is Done: The Harmful Impact Of Straight-Ticket Voting On Judicial Elections,
2012
Georgetown University Law Center
Check One And The Accountability Is Done: The Harmful Impact Of Straight-Ticket Voting On Judicial Elections, Meryl Chertoff, Dustin F. Robinson
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
States that elect judges are heir to a populist tradition dating back to the Jacksonian era. In the spectrum between independence and accountability, these states emphasize accountability. Systems vary from state to state, and even within states there may be geographic diversity or different selection systems for different levels of courts. Elections can be partisan or non-partisan, contested, or, as in merit-selection states, retention. Some states have dabbled in public financing of judicial elections. Reformers are most critical of contested partisan elections. Those are the elections where the most money is spent, the nastiest ads aired, and the dignity of …
The Propriety Of Jury Questioning: A Remedy For Perceived Harmless Error,
2012
Pepperdine University
The Propriety Of Jury Questioning: A Remedy For Perceived Harmless Error, Laurie Forbes Neff
Pepperdine Law Review
No abstract provided.
A Tribute To Judge Lazer,
2012
Touro Law Center
Leon Lazer: The Giant Among Us,
2012
Touro Law Center
Leon Lazer: The Giant Among Us, Howard Glickstein
Touro Law Review
No abstract provided.
Bribery In The Judiciary: Rethinking Recusal And Judicial Elections In The Wake Of Caperton V. A.T. Massey Coal Co.: A Jewish Law Perspective,
2012
Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center
Bribery In The Judiciary: Rethinking Recusal And Judicial Elections In The Wake Of Caperton V. A.T. Massey Coal Co.: A Jewish Law Perspective, Jacob Z. Weinstein
Touro Law Review
No abstract provided.
The Role Of Case Complexity In Judicial Decision Making.,
2012
University of Louisville
The Role Of Case Complexity In Judicial Decision Making., Laura P. Moyer
Faculty and Staff Scholarship
The literature on ideology and decision making offers conflicting expectations about how judges’ ideology should affect their votes in cases that raise many legal issues. Using cases from the U.S. Courts of Appeals, I examine the strength of ideology as a predictor of sincere voting in single and multi-issue cases and test whether the same effect for ideology can be seen for liberal and conservative judges. For all judges, ideology yields a larger effect as the number of issues increases; however, conservative judges are much more likely than liberal judges to cast sincere votes at all levels of complexity.
Transcript: The Case For National Political (Rather Than State Or Judicial) Regulation Of Healthcare,
2012
Cleveland State University College of Law
Transcript: The Case For National Political (Rather Than State Or Judicial) Regulation Of Healthcare, Abigail R. Moncrieff
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
One place where judges are becoming increasingly involved is in dormant Commerce Clause cases, and it would have been possible to issue the exact same holding in Sorrell by using dormant commerce analysis. To make the exact same challenge (it would have been up to the litigants, but) it would have been possible to present a similar challenge on dormant Commerce Clause grounds and to have said that this creates uneven regulation for pharmaceutical companies that need to craft different marketing approaches for different states according to different rules about what kinds of data they're allowed to use and not …
Stare Decisis In The Inferior Courts Of The United States,
2012
Cleveland State University
Stare Decisis In The Inferior Courts Of The United States, Joseph Mead
Law Faculty Articles and Essays
While circuit courts are bound to fallow circuit precedent under "law of the circuit" the practice among federal district courts is more varied and uncertain, routinely involving little or no deference to their own precedent. I argue that the different hierarchical levels and institutional characteristics do not account for the differences in practices between circuit and district courts. Rather, district courts can and should adopt a "law of the district" similar to that of circuit courts. Through this narrow proposal, I explore the historical stare decisis practices in federal courts that are not Supreme.
Pardon Me - The Need For A Fair And Impartial Judiciary,
2012
Mississippi College School of Law
Pardon Me - The Need For A Fair And Impartial Judiciary, Jim Rosenblatt
Journal Articles
The pardons issued by former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour shortly before he left office created a swirl of controversy in Mississippi that played out in the national media. The Governor's Mansion, the Hinds County Courthouse, the State Capitol, and the Gartin Justice Building were frequent backdrops for media stories that took place over a two-month period reporting on "Pardongate." Several elements combined to make these pardons controversial and to make the issue such good fodder for the media.
Building The Federal Judiciary (Literally And Legally): The Monuments Of Chief Justices Taft, Warren And Rehnquist,
2012
Yale Law School
Building The Federal Judiciary (Literally And Legally): The Monuments Of Chief Justices Taft, Warren And Rehnquist, Judith Resnik
Indiana Law Journal
The “federal courts” took on their now familiar contours over the course of the twentieth century. Three chief justices—William Howard Taft, Earl Warren, and William Rehnquist—played pivotal roles in shaping the institutional, jurisprudential, and physical premises. Taft is well known for promoting a building to house the U.S. Supreme Court and for launching the administrative infrastructure that came to govern the federal courts. Earl Warren’s name has become the shorthand for a jurisprudential shift from state toward federal authority; the Warren Court offered an expansive understanding of the role federal courts could play in enabling access for a host of …
Women In Robes,
2012
Cornell Law School
Women In Robes, Sital Kalantry
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
This article presents statistics on the number of women in the judiciary and argues for gender parity to further equality, enhance courts' legitimacy, and strengthen the rule of law.
"Was It Something I Said?": Losing The Majority On The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada, 1984-2011,
2012
Osgoode Hall Law School of York University
"Was It Something I Said?": Losing The Majority On The Modern Supreme Court Of Canada, 1984-2011, Peter J. Mccormick
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
Appeal court judges do not just vote and run; they vote and then they explain, at length, why theirs is the most reasonable position. Since the core of explanation is persuasion, this means that between the initial conference vote and the final decision, some of the judges sometimes change their minds; and this in turn means that sometimes an initial majority becomes a minority and vice versa, something which often leaves clear footprints in the written record. This paper demonstrates that this happens more often than we might think—some 255 times for the last three Chief Justiceships, or roughly once …
Civility And Collegiality—Unreasonable Judicial Expectations For Lawyers As Officers Of The Court?,
2012
University of Georgia
Civility And Collegiality—Unreasonable Judicial Expectations For Lawyers As Officers Of The Court?, Lonnie T. Brown
Scholarly Works
It is a well-settled and often-recited fact that lawyers are “officers of the court.” That title, however, is notoriously hortatory and devoid of meaning. Nevertheless, the Eleventh Circuit recently took the somewhat unprecedented step of utilizing the officer-of-the-court label to, in effect, sanction an attorney for the purportedly uncivil act of failing to provide defendant attorneys with pre-suit notice. While the author applauds the court’s desire to place greater emphasis on lawyer-to-lawyer collegiality as a component of officer-of-the-court status, the uncertainty the decision creates in terms of a lawyer’s role will potentially force litigators to compromise important client-centered duties. This …
Two Cheers For The Constitution Of The United States: A Response To Professor Lee J. Strang,
2012
1567
Two Cheers For The Constitution Of The United States: A Response To Professor Lee J. Strang, Patrick Mckinley Brennan
Working Paper Series
This article is an invited response to Professor Lee Strang’s article Originalism and the Aristotelian Tradition: Virtue’s Home in Originalism, 80 Fordham L. Rev. 1997 (2012). Strang defends original public meaning originalism from a virtue theoretic perspective that he traces to the “central Western tradition” and ultimately to Aristotle. I reply that those committed to that tradition do better (1) to reject original pubic meaning originalism, (2) to embrace some version of original intent originalism, and (3) to defend the original intent meaning of the U.S. Constitution only with important reservations and on certain conditions. The original sin of …
