Judges Commons^™

Open Secret: Why The Supreme Court Has Nothing To Fear From The Internet, Keith J. Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

The United States Supreme Court has an uneasy relationship with openness: it complies with some calls for transparency, drags its feet in response to others, and sometimes simply refuses to go along. I argue that the Court’s position is understandable given that the internet age of fluid information and openness has often been heralded in terms that are antithetical to the Court’s operations. Even so, I also argue the Court actually has little to fear from greater transparency. The understanding of the Court with the greatest delegitimizing potential is the understanding that the justices render decisions on the basis of …

Supreme Court Of The United States, October Term 2012 Preview, Georgetown University Law Center, Supreme Court Institute

Supreme Court Overviews

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Forbearance, A. Christopher Bryant

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This essay begins by developing the concept of constitutional forbearance and exploring the role it plays in the craft of good judging. This first Part also illustrates what is meant by constitutional forbearance by recovering a forgotten but illustrative example from a century ago. Part II then argues that the need for forbearance has at present become unusually acute. Finally, in Part III this essay identifies some of the qualities of the Obama care cases that make them such singular opportunities for the exercise of this much needed judicial virtue and answers some anticipated objections to thinking about the cases …

Foreword, John E. Murray Jr.

Duquesne Law Review

The John and Liz Murray Awards for Legal Scholarship are designed to recognize intellectual engagements with legal theory that enhance legal doctrine and practice to meet the continuous changes in society. There are three awards including an award recognizing unique and invaluable scholarly contributions of an individual legal scholar. The choice of the first recipient of this award required preciously little deliberation. Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit was the obvious choice.

Celebrating Contributions Of Opinions Authored By Chief Judge Randall R. Rader In Patent Infringement Cases, Katherine E. White

Law Faculty Research Publications

Chief Judge RaderÕs judicial opinions contribute significantly to patent infringement jurisprudence. He writes from a teacherÕs perspective, providing context and a clear lens through which legal issues may be examined. His deep reverence for the rule of law pervades his opinions, as he injects a cadre of principles governing his approach. Each opinion builds a foundation made of consistency and clarity in upholding the fundamental purposes underlying the patent grant.

Judicial Opinions And Appellate Advocacy In Federal Courts - One Judge's Views, Richard A. Posner

Duquesne Law Review

I have been a federal court of appeals judge for thirty years, and naturally over this long span of time I have formed judgments about how federal court of appeals judges should go about deciding cases, what their judicial opinions should be like (which raises the issue of how judges should use staff, consisting mainly of law clerks), and how lawyers should brief and argue cases in these courts. My purpose in this article is to distill my beliefs concerning opinions and advocacy into practical advice for federal court of appeals judges, their law clerks, and the lawyers who practice …

Another Judge's Views On Writing Judicial Opinions, Beverly B. Martin

Duquesne Law Review

The privilege of being a federal circuit judge allows, and indeed obliges, a judge to bring scrutiny and truth to the disputes she considers. Certainly, a judge's determination of what is truth is most clearly and effectively communicated by the judge's own telling of how she arrived at that truth. So Judge Posner's advocacy for judges writing their own opinions makes good sense. Indeed, it is hard to imagine any judge taking the other side of that argument. I certainly will not do that here. But if I am obliged to tell the truth, I must confess that I do …

Limitations (A Response To Judge Posner), Chad M. Oldfather

Duquesne Law Review

Among the advice that Judge Posner offers to his fellow judges is the suggestion that they remain mindful of their limitations:

"I suggest that when trying to make up his mind about which way to vote, the judge remind himself of his limitations (limitations that all judges have)-the limitations of his knowledge of the law, the limitations of his knowledge of the case at hand, the limitations of his knowledge of the real-world context of the case, and the limitations (or distortions) of his thinking that result from the biases that all judges bring to judging. Not that it is …

In Good Conscience: Expressions Of Judicial Conscience In Federal Appellate Opinions, Sarah M.R. Cravens

Duquesne Law Review

Justice Holmes, an icon of both the theory and the practice of the appellate judicial role, once famously said that the job of the judge is not to "do justice" but simply to apply the law. Along similar lines, law professors are forever reminding our students that when referring to judicial opinions, they ought to say that courts "hold" or "state" or "reason," but not that they "feel" or "believe." But, of course, judges are human, so we know that they do feel and believe things. They have convictions and commitments that are important to them, both personally and in …

Judicial Perspective And Mentorship At The Supreme Court: A Review Essay On In Chambers: Stories Of Supreme Court Law Clerks And Their Justices, Edited By Todd C. Peppers And Artemus Ward, Harvey Gee

Duquesne Law Review

In their recently released book, In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices ("In Chambers"), editors Todd Peppers and Artemus Ward offer a collection of previously published articles and new unpublished essays on select justices and their clerks to illuminate how the personal relationships between justices and clerks impact the Court. Contributors include distinguished law professors, judges, academics, and legal correspondents. Peppers and Ward are certainly qualified to talk about the Supreme Court clerkship institution. Six years ago, Peppers released Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk …

Veterans Court: Towards The Implementation Of A Collaborative Justice Model In San Luis Obispo County, Daniel Smee

Continuing Education (CAPSTONE)

Veterans’ treatment courts represent an emerging trend across the country of collaborative justice designed to deal with criminal justice issues stemming from problems linked to military service. This approach places the veteran in VA (Veterans Affairs) treatment programs as a diversion from incarceration. There are few such courts in California (nine) largely in non-rural counties. This study investigated two rural counties, Tulare and Santa Barbara with Veterans courts to develop a model for such a court in San Luis Obispo County. Early recidivism data at the one-year point for Tulare County showed a zero percent rate of criminal behavior (12 …

Fill The Bench And Empty The Docket: Filibuster Reform For District Court Nominations, Jeremy Garson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Judges are, without question, vital to our justice system. They interpret, adapt, and apply the law. They resolve disputes for the parties to the case at issue and provide guidance to others in analogous situations. They are the gears that keep the wheels of justice moving. Unfortunately, in the case of our federal courts, many of these gears are missing. Eighty-three of our 874 federal judgeships are vacant, including thirty-four that have been declared “judicial emergencies.” Our Constitution vests the President with the power to nominate federal judges and the Senate with the power to confirm or reject them, and …

Session I: The Legacy Of Justice Arthur Goldberg, 29 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 285 (2012), Samuel R. Olken, Gerald Berendt, Gilbert A. Cornfield, Gilbert Feldman, David Stebenne, Milton I. Shadur

UIC John Marshall Journal of Information Technology & Privacy Law

No abstract provided.

Legal Affinities: Explorations In The Legal Form Of Thought, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Working Paper Series

This is my Introduction to Legal Affinities: Explorations in the Legal Form of Thought (forthcoming 2012) (co-edited with H. Jefferson Powell and Jack Sammons), a volume of essays dedicated to exploring the work of Joseph Vining. The Introduction introduces Vining’s phenomenology of law and surveys the themes and topics developed by the volume’s eight authors: Joseph Vining, Judge John T. Noonan, Jr., Rev. John McCausland, H. Jefferson Powell, Jack Sammons, Steve Smith, James Boyd White, and Patrick Brennan.

Free Speech For Judges And Due Process For Litigants: The Elimination Of First And Fourteenth Amendment Mutual Exclusivity In Siefert V. Alexander, 46 J. Marshall L. Rev. 333 (2012), Margaret Mares

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gingrich, Desegregation, And Judicial Supremacy, Joel Alicea

Scholarly Articles

Those who oppose judicial supremacy follow in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln himself.

The Training, Appointment, And Supervision Of Islamic Judges In Singapore, Muhammad Haniff Hassan, Sharifah Thuraiya Su'ad Ahmad Alhadshi

Washington International Law Journal

Syariah court judges and the decisions they make clearly have an effect on the interpretation and application of Islamic law in contemporary Muslim societies, and the educational background of those who staff these courts obviously informs the way they understand, interpret, and apply the law. To date, however, little research has been done on the educational processes by which Islamic court judges are trained to think about Islamic law. Likewise, the means by which Islamic court judges are appointed and regulated has received little scholarly attention. This article offers a descriptive overview of the training, work, and professional regulation of …

The Training, Appointment, And Supervision Of Islamic Judges In Malaysia, Najibah M. Zin

Washington International Law Journal

Shari‛a court judges and the decisions they make clearly have an effect on the interpretation and application of Islamic law in contemporary Muslim societies, and the educational background of those who staff these courts obviously informs the way they understand, interpret, and apply the law. To date, however, little research has been done on the educational processes by which judges who serve on Islamic courts are trained to think about Islamic law. Likewise, the means by which Islamic court judges are appointed and regulated has received little scholarly attention. This article offers a descriptive overview of the training, work, and …

Legal Ethics For The Millennials Avoiding The Compromise Of Integrity, Helia Garrido Hull

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

From The Bench To The Screen: The Woman Judge In Film, Laura Krugman Ray

Cleveland State Law Review

Although there has been a dramatic increase in the number of women judges over the past half century, their cinematic counterparts have failed to reflect that change. This Article explores the paradoxical relationship between social reality and its representation on screen to identify a lingering resistance to the idea of women exercising judicial power. The Article first examines the sparse history of women judges as central characters in films of the 1930s, finding the tension in those films between judicial authority and domestic happiness. It then turns to Hollywood’s romantic comedies of the 1940s, which resolved that tension through the …