Judges Commons^™

Telling Through Type: Typography And Narrative In Legal Briefs, Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson

Publications

Most legal authors today self-publish, using basic word-processing software and letting the software’s default settings determine what their documents will look like when printed. As these settings are not optimized for legal texts, they do so at their peril. The default font Times New Roman, for example, as Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook warns, is "utterly inappropriate for long documents [such as] briefs."

Commentators have started urging a more deliberate approach to legal typography. Their suggestions, however, have been content-neutral, intended for all legal texts and focused on goals such as legibility and readability.

Typography, however, has much greater potential. The …

Treaties As Law And The Rule Of Law: The Judicial Power To Compel Domestic Treaty Implementation, William M. Carter Jr.

Articles

The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution, federal statutes, and ratified treaties part of the "supreme law of the land." Despite the textual and historical clarity of the Supremacy Clause, some courts and commentators have suggested that the "non-self-executing treaty doctrine" means that ratified treaties must await implementing legislation before they become domestic law. The non-self-executing treaty doctrine has in particular been used as a shield to claims under international human rights treaties.

This Article does not seek to provide another critique of the non-self-executing treaty doctrine in the abstract. Rather, I suggest that a determination that a treaty is non-self-executing …

Standing, On Appeal, Amy J. Wildermuth, Lincoln L. Davies

Articles

Scholarly criticism of standing doctrine is hardly new, but a core problem with standing jurisprudence remains overlooked: How do parties challenging administrative decisions factually prove that they have standing on appeal when appellate courts normally do not conduct fact finding? This Article attempts to tackle that problem. It combines a four-pronged normative procedural justice model with an empirical study of appellate cases to conclude that (1) although this issue arises in a relatively narrow set of cases, the number of such cases is growing and (2) existing judicial solutions to the problem are deficient. Thus, after exploring several options — …

Constitutional Constructions And Constitutional Decision Rules: Thoughts On The Carving Of Implementation Space, Mitchell N. Berman

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judicial Elections As Popular Constitutionalism, David E. Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most important recent developments in American legal theory is the burgeoning interest in "popular constitutionalism." One of the most important features of the American legal system is the selection of state judges – judges who resolve thousands of state and federal constitutional questions each year – by popular election. Although a large literature addresses each of these subjects, scholarship has rarely bridged the two. Hardly anyone has evaluated judicial elections in light of popular constitutionalism, or vice versa.

This Article undertakes that thought experiment. Conceptualizing judicial elections as instruments of popular constitutionalism, the Article aims to show, …

Constitutional Expectations, Richard A. Primus

Articles

The inauguration of Barack Obama was marred by one of the smallest constitutional crises in American history. As we all remember, the President did not quite recite his oath as it appears in the Constitution. The error bothered enough people that the White House redid the ceremony a day later, taking care to get the constitutional text exactly right. Or that, at least, is what everyone thinks happened. What actually happened is more interesting. The second time through, the President again departed from the Constitution's text. But the second time, nobody minded. Or even noticed. In that unremarked feature of …

A Review Of Richard A. Posner, How Judges Think (2008), Jeffrey S. Sutton

Michigan Law Review

I was eager to enter the judiciary. I liked the title: federal judge. I liked the job security: life tenure. And I could tolerate the pay: the same as Richard Posner's. That, indeed, may have been the most flattering part of the opportunity-that I could hold the same title and have the same pay grade as one of America's most stunning legal minds. Don't think I didn't mention it when I had the chance. There is so much to admire about Judge Posner-his lively pen, his curiosity, his energy, his apparent understanding of: everything. He has written 53 books, more …

Time And The Courts: What Deadlines And Their Treatment Tell Us About The Litigation System, Catherine T. Struve

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Appearances: What Caperton V. Massey Should Have Said, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

In June of 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that an elected judge must recuse himself from a case that involves a major campaign contributor. In Caperton v. A. T. Massey Coal Co., a coal company had been hit with a $50 million jury verdict. While appealing this verdict, the company's CEO, Don Blankenship, spent $3 million to help a challenger, Brent Benjamin, who had no judicial experience, defeat the incumbent, West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw. Blankenship funded political attack ads by a political organization (And for the Sake of the Kids) that …

The Legacy Of A Supreme Court Clerkship: Stephen Breyer And Arthur Goldberg, Laura Ray

Laura K. Ray

No abstract provided.

Public Confidence And Judicial Campaigns, Michael R. Dimino

Michael R Dimino

Judicial Disqualification In The Aftermath Of Caperton V. A.T. Massey Coal Co., Ronald D. Rotunda

Ronald D. Rotunda

Does Due Process require a judge to disqualify himself if an individual spent independent funds to buy ads that criticized the judge's opponent in a judicial election? The Supreme Court said yes (5 to 4) in the Caperton decision, and thus has created more uncertainty in the law. Does it matter if the person who paid for the independent ads was not a lawyer or a party but was only an employee of the party? And, does it matter if that employee's financial interest in the law suit (if one were to pierce the corporate veil) is minor – substantially …

Winterthouhgts, Matilda Arvidsson

Matilda Arvidsson

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Representational Gender On Policy Preferences In U.S. Municipalities, Mirya R. Holman

Mirya R Holman

The research presented here explores the effect of gender and gender consciousness on the policy preference of local elected officials. Remedying a gap in the scholarship on women in local office, I examine the attitudes of mayors and council members on a variety of urban policy issues. First positing a gender gap theory of representative attitudes, I find almost no differences in policy preferences between men and women serving in local office. As an alternative, I posit and test a gender consciousness theory of policy preferences. Using open-ended survey data, I find that possessing a gender consciousness has a significant …

Judicial Decision Making About Forensic Mental Health Evidence, Richard E. Redding, Daniel C. Murrie

Richard E. Redding

Judges play a central role in decision making in the justice system. This chapter reviews the extant empirical research on judicial decision making in criminal, juvenile, and civil cases. We discuss judges’ decision making about forensic mental health evidence introduced in these cases, judicial receptivity to various kinds of evidence, and their understanding of clinical and scientific evidence as well as the ways they make rulings about such evidence. We focus on decision making at the trial court level, in those arenas that are most relevant to the forensic mental health practitioner (psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker) who is called …

The Citation Of Blogs In Judicial Opinions, Lee F. Peoples

Lee Peoples

No abstract provided.

Sex And The City: Female Leaders And Spending On Social Welfare Programs In U.S. Municipalities, Mirya R. Holman

Mirya R Holman

Scholars of urban politics have long argued that cities will shy away from extensive funding of social welfare programs, as fiscal realities make developmental policies far more attractive. Despite the arguments against municipal level funding of social welfare services, cities provide these programs. Why? One possible explanation is that local officials prefer funding welfare programs. The research presented here demonstrates that the gender composition of local elected bodies impacts the provision of welfare services. The presence of a female mayor has a large positive effect on the likelihood a city participates in funding welfare programs and the amount of monetary …

Das Virtudes Cívicas Clássicas Às Virtudes Pós-Modernas - Dos Tempos E Dos Modos, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Ao mesmo tempo que importa recuperar, na nossa memória e na educação, os grandes exemplos dos virtuosos heróis e sábios da Antiguidade Clássica, que a deseducação tem olvidado, não se pode esquecer que o mundo pós-moderno em que vivemos requer de nós aptidões, virtualidades, posicionamentos diferentes. Não para caminharmos no sentido de todos os demais, mas para respondermos com valor aos reptos do presente. Este artigo procura conciliar, pois, o legado clássico das virtudes cívicas, com algumas propostas inspiradas em autores recentes (como Italo Calvino e Alain Finkielkraut) para o séc. XXI

Direito, Utopia E Insularidade, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Não é por acaso que tantas utopias literárias se localizam ficcionalmente em ilhas. Não é por acaso que as utopias são uma espécie de descrição constitucional sem as amarras dos artigos de um código de direito político. Não é por acaso que as ilhas, parecendo uma prisão, rodeada de mar por todos os lados, são afinal sonhos de onde se pode sair, voando. Não só em sonhos oníricos, mas em sonhos que se podem tornar realidade. Este artigo desenvolve as ligações entre os aspectos literários, políticos e jurídicos das utopias na sua dimensão insular.

Virtude Da Constituição E Virtudes Republicanas, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

A virtude da Constituição é a sua essência e função. E a Constituição tem sempre uma virtude liberal-democrática, apesar de tudo. Conra tudo e contra todos, apesar por vezes mesmo de si própria e das intenções dos seus autores... Depois do “retorno” dos valores à política e ao Direito Constitucional, é a vez da volta das virtudes à discussão, designadamente pela via da ética constitucional ou republicana, de novo na ordem do dia em muitos países. Quais serão, então, as principais virtudes juspolíticas, constitucionais, ou republicanas? O presente artigo intenta também uma proposta de virtudes republicanas concretas para o nosso …