Rule of Nine: Selecting and Deciding Cases
Selecting the cases for any given court year begins the summer before the Supreme Court's term begins. Law clerks assigned to each justice reduce the number of petitions that will be placed on the discuss list. If four justices agree to take a case,...
Rule of Nine: Supreme Court Vacancies
A president's opportunity to appoint someone to the Supreme Court extends his or her influence long past the presidential term. The selection of a nominee is primarily influenced by ideological compatibility, identity politics, and competence. On a ...
Rule of Nine: Lower Court Nominations
The selection of lower court nominees has its own set of problems. Although the president is generally not as involved in the process, it is becoming more difficult to recruit legal talent because of the income differential. As prestigious as a judi...
Rule of Nine: Qualifications for the Federal Bench
Legal scholars are asked to comment on qualifications and characteristics they think are important for nominees to the federal bench. Douglas Kmiec favors nominees who are "learned in the law and...capable, based on experience and temperament and in...
Rule of Nine: Cases Heard by the U. S. Supreme Court
Except for cases of original jurisdiction, cases heard by the Supreme Court must first go though the state and federal courts. Only 1% of petitions for certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to review a lower court case decision, will be selected by t...
Legal Precedent: Proper Role of the Judiciary
The word "activist," often used in reference to court decisions, can have quite different meanings. The Warren court, for example, departed in many ways from decisions of the past and was critical to the struggle for inclusion by communities of colo...
Legal Precedent: Executive and Legislative Influence Over Federal Judiciary
Both Congress and the President can exert influence over the federal judiciary by rewriting legislation Congress feels the court misinterpreted, enforcing court decisions, or exercising the power of appointment and confirmation. The fact that the Co...
Legal Precedent: Facts, Laws, and Original Intent
In any legal case a basic distinction is drawn between facts, the relevant circumstances of a legal dispute, and applicable laws. The court must consider common law, judge-made law, legislative statutes, and the Constitution which as the higher law ...
Legal Precedent: Judge's Political Beliefs, A
Judges "try to make decisions based on what they see as the law," Eugene Volokh states. "The difficulty is that sometimes the law is quite ambiguous, so the law will bind with the judge's own personal views." Judges may be the center of attention by...