Judges Commons^™

A Call For Judicial Scrutiny: How Increased Judicial Discretion Has Led To Disparity And Unpredictability In Federal Sentencings For Child Pornography, Loren Rigsby

Seattle University Law Review

The United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) has made child pornography related crimes among the most harshly punishable federal offenses. Nevertheless, sentencing judges have regained the right to depart from the recommended Federal Sentencing Guidelines (Guidelines). The Guideline range for child pornography reflects sound and clear congressional intent to impose harsh penalties on defendants to deter, and ultimately eliminate, the market for child pornography. For this reason, this Comment argues that sentences that fall outside the Guidelines range should be reviewed with much greater scrutiny and should not be used solely to reflect a judge’s view that the advised sentence is …

Moral Foundation Theory And The Law, Colin Prince

Seattle University Law Review

Moral foundation theory argues that there are five basic moral foundations: (1) harm/care, (2) fairness/reciprocity, (3) ingroup/loyalty, (4) authority/respect, and (5) purity/sanctity. These five foundations comprise the building blocks of morality, regardless of the culture. In other words, while every society constructs its own morality, it is the varying weights that each society allots to these five universal foundations that create the variety. Haidt likens moral foundation theory to an “audio equalizer,” with each culture adjusting the sliders differently. The researchers, however, were not content to simply categorize moral foundations—they have tied the foundations to political leanings. And it is …

Behavioral Psychology Of Judicial Corruption: A Response To Judge Irwin And Daniel Real, The, W. Bradley Wendel

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Harvard And Yale Ascendant: The Legal Education Of The Justices From Holmes To Kagan, Patrick J. Glen

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

With the nomination of Elena Kagan to be a justice of the United States Supreme Court, it is quite possible that eight of the nine justices will have graduated from only two law schools—Harvard and Yale. This article frames this development in the historical context of the legal education of those justices confirmed between 1902 and 2010. What this historical review makes clear is that the Ivy League dominance of the Supreme Court is a relatively recent occurrence whose beginnings can be traced to Antonin Scalia’s 1986 confirmation. Prior to that time, although Harvard and Yale were consistently represented among …

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 …

The Subjects Of The Constitution, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Two centuries after Marbury v. Madison, there remains a deep confusion about quite what a court is reviewing when it engages in judicial review. Conventional wisdom has it that judicial review is the review of certain legal objects: statutes, regulations. But strictly speaking, this is not quite right. The Constitution prohibits not objects but actions. Judicial review is the review of such actions. And actions require actors: verbs require subjects. So before judicial review focuses on verbs, let alone objects, it should begin at the beginning, with subjects. Every constitutional inquiry should begin with a basic question that has been …

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 …

Is The Appearance Of Impropriety An Appropriate Standard For Disciplining Judges In The Twenty-First Century?, Nancy J. Moore

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Deliberation, Deference, And Discretion: Reflections On Decision Making At The Trial, Appellate, And Supreme Court, Rita B. Garman

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judicial Transparency, Judicial Ethics, And A Judicial Solution: An Inspector General For The Courts, Ronald D. Rotunda

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Judicial Independence And Accountability In An Age Of Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments, Teresa Stanton Collett

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The New Calculus Of Punitive Damages For Employment Discrimination Cases, Sandra Sperino

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

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 …