Crash Course: Judicial Review

Here is the latest feature in the PBS series on Government. These videos cover a lot of ground in a short clip.  Maybe too long to show in class, but not too long for an out-of-class assignment.

Crash Course: Judicial Decisions

Another video from the PBS Crash Course Series on Government. I am assigning some of these as in, "They will be on the test."

Thought Provoking Law Quote: What is the Statutory Interpretation Process?

The quote below from respected legal commentators on procedure is somewhat disheartening to those who seek absolute predictability and objectivity in the legal system.  As we know, those qualities run only so deep.

“Do not expect anybody’s theory of statutory interpretation, whether it is your own or somebody else’s, to be an accurate statement of what courts actually do with statutes. The hard truth of the matter is that American courts have no intelligible, generally accepted, and consistently applied theory of statutory interpretation.”

-          Professors Hart and Sacks writing in The Legal Process.

In the case below, the Rule of the Last Antecedent may resolve the dispute, "if the Supreme Court decides to apply it."  Or the court may apply the Series Qualifier Cannon, which requires exactly the opposite interpretation from the Rule of the Last Antecedent. Or perhaps after failing to find clarity in the plain meaning of the text, the legislative intent or the public policy, the Court will just say, "Oh, the hell with it!" and apply the Rule of Lenity.  Or, maybe they won't. 

What is the difference between a statue and a statute?

Judicial Selection by Election and the Rule of Law

A recent federal lawsuit challenges the Alabama electoral process for selection of state judges.  The allegation is that statewide judicial selection assures the failure of minority candidates for the bench. Think Progress reports:

The lawsuit notes that since 1994, every African American candidate that has run for any of the three top courts has lost to a white candidate. Only two black judges have ever been elected to the state Supreme Court, and zero have served on either the Court of Criminal Appeals or the Court of Civil Appeals in the entirety of the state’s history.

State Judicial elections were employed from the very founding of the nation as a way to ensure judicial accountability and counter elitism and political cronyism in judicial selection.  But judges are supposed to be accountable to the rule of law, not to popular sentiment. The string of videos of campaign ads below raise significant questions about judicial fidelity to the rule of law. They seem to use code phrases and images to portray a fidelity to political ideology or religious principles or popular "values."  Some promise "proper" interpretation of the Constitution - whatever that means.

What does it take to get elected to a judicial position?  Is the belief that judges adhere to a "rule of law" just a quaint relic of judicial philosophy?  Or is law inherently constituted of a judge's background, beliefs, upbringing, prejudices, "values," religion, education, political ideology and world view?  Do we know this, implicitly, and cling publicly to the "rule of law" to maintain legitimacy? What do we deduce from these ads?

"Proper" Constitutional Interpretation:

Judges and Faith and Values:


 Judges and Church Participation:






Judges and Life Experience: