Supreme Court of the United States Commons^™

How Traditional And Social Media Shapes Public Perception Of United States Surpeme Court Decisions On Civil Liberties, Leila P. Martin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study examines how traditional and social medai shape public perception of U.S. Supreme Court decisions on Civil liberties, focusing on four landmark cases: Dobbs v. Jackson, District of Columbia v. Heller, Materpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and Obergfell v. Hodges. Using Entmans framing theory, the research analyzes how tone, language, emphasis, and ideological slant differ across media platofrms and how these frames infleunce public attitudes, insitutional trust, and civic understanding. A mixed-methods design combines archival media analysis, national polling data from Pew Rsearch Center and gallup, and an independent survery to asses how media narratives, rather than …

Who Decides The Dead? Interpreting Washington’S Disposition Of Remains Statute, Wyatt Young

Seattle University Law Review

Washington’s disposition-of-remains statute, RCW 68.50.160, is designed to honor a decedent’s expressed wishes regarding the control and disposition of their body after death. Yet recent litigation reveals a critical gap between the statute’s intent-centered design and its practical enforceability. In Larotonda v. Blackburn, a trial court acknowledged that irreparable harm would occur if a decedent’s burial wishes were ignored but nonetheless denied relief on the grounds that the individual designated to carry out those wishes lacked standing. The result was a legal paradox: a statute that recognizes decedent autonomy in theory but withholds any meaningful mechanism for its enforcement …

Converting Buildings Is Hard: Why Seattle’S Municipal Government Should Streamline Commercial-To-Residential Conversions, Tyler M. King

Seattle University Law Review

The conversion of commercial buildings into housing is a promising solution to the growing housing crisis in many urban areas. However, despite its potential benefits, the process of repurposing commercial spaces is often stymied by complex zoning codes, high conversion costs, and bureaucratic hurdles. This Article argues that the local and state governments in Seattle should adopt more streamlined policies and offer greater incentives to developers to facilitate these conversions. By reforming zoning regulations and providing targeted financial support, municipalities can reduce the barriers to conversion and unlock the potential of underutilized commercial properties. This article examines the legal and …

Legal Malpractice In Washington: Use Of The Rules Of Professional Conduct, Angelo Tadrous

Seattle University Law Review

Legal malpractice claims are difficult to prove. They are difficult to prove because many jurisdictions require that a plaintiff prove that, but for the lawyer’s misconduct, the client would have fared better. Thus, in a malpractice suit, a plaintiff must try a case within a case. Despite this difficulty, many jurisdictions prohibit the use of the Rules of Professional Conduct when litigating a malpractice case. Washington State is one of these jurisdictions. The Washington Supreme Court held in Hizey v. Carpenter that the Rules of Professional Conduct may not be referred to during trial. This Note argues that this prohibition …

Getting Money Out Of Politics By Putting Money Into Politics: A Few Modest Proposals To Reform Seattle’S Democracy Voucher Program, Decker O’Donnell

Seattle University Law Review

Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program offers an unconventional response to the growing influence of money in American elections: rather than restricting political spending, it seeks to amplify the participation of ordinary voters by providing publicly funded vouchers that residents may assign to participating candidates. This Article examines the program’s development, operation, and constitutional foundation within the modern campaign-finance framework established by Buckley v. Valeo and subsequent Supreme Court decisions. It argues that democracy vouchers provide a constitutionally viable means of broadening participation in campaign financing while mitigating the influence of wealthy donors. The Article identifies two weaknesses in the current system: …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Experiences Of Black Students In Criminal Justice Programs And Its Implications On Social Justice, Demetrius C. Dacres

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study examined the experiences of Black students who graduated with degrees in criminal justice within the last five years, as well as professors serving criminal justice programs. In this study, Black students are defined as those who identify as Black or African American, and the research focused on a criminal justice higher education institution’s educational program in the Northeast. This qualitative phenomenological study drew on Lent’s Social Cognitive Career Theory and Tinto’s Student Integration Model to investigate how Black students experienced criminal justice programs and the resources and strategies they utilized to navigate and adapt. The study addressed a …

Enforcement Mechanisms For Supreme Court Ethics Codes: Applying State Models To Scotus, Katherine Nipper

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cross-Talk, The Honorable Raymond J. Lohier, John Q. Barrett, Noa Ben-Asher, Margaret E. Mcguinness, Mark L. Movsesian, Michael A. Perino

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

You know what is interesting? This has been on my mind for a long time as my law clerk, Colin, knows. What you have all described in different ways, maybe with the exception of the religious rights case, but I will get to that, is a Supreme Court that either is, or perceives itself to be, unchecked by Congress and at times unchecked by the President, largely for reasons that we can discuss.

Private Securities Enforcement And The Roberts Court, Michael A. Perino

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Thank you, Judge Lohier, thank you Professor Subotnik, and thank you to everyone who put this scholarship symposium together. I am acutely aware that I am the last panelist, on the last panel, on Friday afternoon, and so, I am going to try my best to keep my comments to the allotted ten minutes.

It is important to keep two key points in mind if we are going to talk about the Roberts Court’s approach to private securities enforcement. First, the Roberts Court contains no securities experts. In fact, except for Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William O. Douglas, …

Some Brief Thoughts On The Ten Commandments In The Schools, Mark L. Movsesian

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Thank you, Judge, and I want to thank Eva for inviting me to participate and all of you for being here this afternoon.

My area of scholarly expertise is the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. That is what I write about. So far, the Supreme Court has not taken any cases on the Religion Clauses this term, which is a little unusual. The Court has decided several important cases in this area in the last decade or so, and maybe the Court has decided to take a break this term. We will see.

But some important church-and-state issues …

Change And Continuity: Foreign Affairs And Procedure At The Supreme Court 2024–25, Margaret E. Mcguinness

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Law School is a wonderful occasion to discuss how research and teaching form us as professors within the St. John’s community. I teach, research, and write about international law, international human rights, diplomacy, and the ways in which international law becomes law in the United States. I also teach civil procedure and international litigation. These two strands of my work allow me to think about the complex interplay between international law and domestic court procedure. I also have professional experience in each of these areas: First, as a career diplomat for …

Three Decades Of Supreme Court Copyright Decisions: A Peek Behind The Scenes, Jonathan Band

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This article discusses the revelations in the case files of eight Supreme Court Justices concerning eighteen copyright-related decisions issued by the Court between 1973 and 2005. The papers show the Court as a profoundly human institution, with the Justices often struggling to craft opinions that could gain the support of a majority. The Justices clearly cared about the copyright merits, but they were also willing to compromise to achieve a certain result. In several cases, the final opinion was anything but inevitable. This was particularly so with Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984), …

The Ten Commandments Cases And The Move Towards The Concrete In Establishment Clause Jurisprudence, Eric Rassbach

Journal of Catholic Legal Studies

(Excerpt)

First of all, thank you very much, Professor Movsesian, the Mattone Center, and St. John’s for inviting me here to speak today on what I believe is a very important issue. I will also say that I share Chris’s opinion that it’s great to work with him. He actually wrote a very compelling brief in our case at the Supreme Court called Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC back in 2012. That was the only brief mentioned by Justice Breyer during the argument, and it was also the only one cited in the Court’s unanimous decision. So, …

Soft Establishment, Religious Education, And Stone V. Graham, Christopher C. Lund

Journal of Catholic Legal Studies

The Supreme Court has said the Establishment Clause should be interpreted in light of history and tradition. This Essay adds to the historical conversation by highlighting an overlooked dimension of religious establishment. Many recent decisions and commentary treat coercion as the central feature of establishment, often drawing on Michael McConnell’s identification of six common features of religious establishments. But McConnell’s categories were never meant to be exhaustive, and coercion alone cannot explain important parts of the historical record.

Religious education was central to religious establishment. Established religions took deliberate measures to secure the intergenerational transmission of the faith, a task …

Procedural Drift: How Judicial Restraint Enables Legalized Backsliding, Dessie Otachliska

Washington and Lee Law Review

This Article introduces Procedural Drift, a new theory of constitutional erosion in which legality itself enables democratic decline. Legal forms remain intact, but their constraining force quietly recedes as procedural doctrines withdraw courts from sites of contestation. Executive power expands not by defying law, but by strategically complying with it—exploiting judicial restraint to evade review.

Building on Bruce Ackerman’s theory of constitutional moments and Kim Lane Scheppele’s concept of autocratic legalism, this Article develops a U.S.-specific account of democratic backsliding that is lawful, gradual, and institutionally embedded. It traces how judicial restraint—operating amid partisan alignment and epistemic fragmentation—erodes legal checks …

Unfriending The Kids: The Problematic Race To Childproof Social Media, Randolph A. Robinson Ii

Cleveland State Law Review

A growing number of states have recently enacted new laws with the goal of protecting young people from potential harm allegedly caused by social media use. These laws are diverse in their approaches but broadly seek to limit youth access to social media platforms by imposing age verification and parental consent requirements. These laws directly implicate the First Amendment rights of both young users who will no longer be able to access speech or speak on social media platforms as well as adult users who must now submit to age verification to access these quintessential forums for political discourse.

These …

An Era Of Silent Overruling: Lack Of Transparency In The Supreme Court And The Expanding Unworkability Doctrine, Sydney Washburn

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note examines the Supreme Court’s growing practice of “silent overruling," the effective displacement of precedent without explicit acknowledgment, and argues that this phenomenon threatens transparency, stability, and public trust in the judiciary. While the doctrine of stare decisis is intended to promote consistency and predictability, the Court has increasingly relied on the vague and discretionary “unworkability” doctrine to justify departing from precedent without clearly articulating its reasoning. Focusing on the Court’s recent decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, this Note argues that the Court silently overruled Robinson v. California while purporting not to reconsider it. In …

Studying Noncitizens: Immigration, The University, And The First Amendment, Peter Margulies

Cleveland State Law Review

From its campaign against anti-war protesters in World War I to the present, the government has tried to restrict the pure political speech of noncitizens, defined as noncitizens’ expression of views about the structure and policies of the U.S. government and governments of foreign nations. Threats to academic freedom are also a hallmark of government action in this domain. Taking a page from this book, the Trump administration has targeted noncitizen students who participated in campus protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza after Hamas’s brutal attacks on October 7, 2023.

The Trump administration’s effort has viewpoint discrimination at its …

Brief Amicus Curiae Of Administrative And Constitutional Law Professors In Support Of Petitioners, Robert Glicksman, Richard Pierce, Alan B. Morrison, Jeffrey Lubbers, Peter L. Strauss

Amicus Briefs & Court Filings

INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT: The ninety-six temporary agricultural workers employed by respondent were allowed to come to the United States solely because Congress established the program that governs their employment. As petitioners’ brief demonstrates, in order for respondent to be eligible to bring in foreign workers, it had to submit an application to the Department of Homeland Security. As part of that process, respondent had to establish that it would not employ non-citizen workers to displace domestic workers. Included in the required showing is an agreement by respondent to pay both domestic and foreign workers the same pay, so …

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Seattle University Law Review

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