Albany Law Review articles from March 2004

Albany Law Review archives from March 2004

With courage and passion: the inspired leadership of chief justice Shirley S. Abrahamson.
March 22, 2004... To write of the many accomplishments of Shirley S. Abrahamson as a legal scholar, jurist, and chief justice in a short essay is to look at a masterpiece through a microscope. Each squint reveals a splash of the depth and substance of this...

A dedication to Shirley S. Abrahamson.
March 22, 2004... In July of 2004, Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson of Wisconsin will succeed me as President of the Conference of Chief Justices ("CCJ") and Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Center for State Courts ("NCSC"). The Conference of...

Shirley S. Abrahamson: an exemplar of the American Law Institute.
March 22, 2004... The authors of this addition to the chorus of voices singing the praises of Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson share a mutual vantage point for viewing her achievements. (1) In view of our common observation platform--the American Law...

Expressive liberties in the state courts: their permissible reach and sanctioned restraints.
March 22, 2004... I. A BRIEF RETROSPECTIVE Freedom of expression has enjoyed a long history and, on significant occasions, an exalted status in the evolution of constitutional principles and the safeguards designed to prevent their abridgment. From early...

Now you see it, now you don't, privacy and search and seizure in the Florida constitution: trying to make sense out of a tangled mess.
March 22, 2004... We also agree with the state that our right-of-privacy provision, article I, section 23, (1) of the Florida Constitution, does not modify the applicability of article I, section 12, (2) particularly since the people adopted section 23 prior to...

Human rights in America, 1776-1849: rediscovering the states' contribution.
March 22, 2004... WHY RIGHTS OF MAN? Individual possession of rights beyond the reach of any governmental power was not an invention of the American Revolution. The perception of being situated in a centuries-old common law tradition, reaching back at least...

Eroding the public's confidence in judicial impartiality: first amendment federal jurisprudence and special interest financing of judicial campaigns.(Perspectives: Judicial Elections Versus Merit Selection)
March 22, 2004... The tension between the popular election of judges and the performance of the judiciary's core functions--impartiality and dedication to the enforcement of the rule of law regardless of the perceived popular will--has long been the subject of...

Virtuous judges and electoral politics: a contradiction?(Perspectives: Judicial Elections Versus Merit Selection)
March 22, 2004... Judge Thomas J. Spargo serves as a fascinating poster-child in the debate on what's wrong (or right) with judicial elections. Judge Spargo, campaigning for re-election as Justice of the Berne Town Court in upstate New York, was accused of...

Judicial diversity: where independence and accountability meet.(Perspectives: Judicial Elections Versus Merit Selections)
March 22, 2004... A judge's lack of predisposition regarding the relevant legal issues in a case has never been thought a necessary component of equal justice.... Indeed, even if it were possible to select judges who did not have preconceived views on legal...

Examining the decline in support for merit selection in the states.(Perspectives: Judicial Elections Versus Merit Selections)
March 22, 2004... Popular support for constitutional change from judicial elections to merit selection systems has declined significantly over the past three decades. (1) The last state to adopt a merit selection system by constitutional amendment was New Mexico...

The futile quest for a system of judicial "merit" selection.(Perspectives: Judicial Elections Versus Merit Selections)
March 22, 2004... It is a mistake... to try to establish and maintain, through ignorance, public esteem for our courts. --Judge Jerome Frank (1) I. INTRODUCTION The challenge in designing the optimal selection system for judges is that judicial...

Rethinking politics and judicial selection during contentious times.(Perspectives: Judicial Elections Versus Merit Elections)
March 22, 2004... Students of judicial selection are living through interesting times. Consider, for example, the continuing skirmishes on the same-sex marriage front in the culture wars. In November 2003 (and again in February 2004), the Massachusetts Supreme...

The competitiveness of female candidates in judicial elections: an analysis of the North Carolina trial court races.(Perspectives: Judicial Elections Versus Merit Selections)
March 22, 2004... The extent to which state judgeships are accessible to women raises important concerns about using elections as a method of judicial selection. Even though the judicial selection debate has centered on whether the selection process should...

Terri Schiavo and the law.
March 22, 2004... This is not a law review article. Rather, it is a brief description of the legal battle over whether to remove the feeding and hydration tube which is keeping Terri Schiavo alive. The battle of and for "public opinion," (1) which has also been...

A divided court in more ways than one: the Supreme Court of Delaware and its distinctive model for judicial efficacy, 1997-2003.
March 22, 2004... I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the nation's focus on judicial affairs tends to concentrate on the most identifiable level, namely the Supreme Court of the United States. Most notably within the past year, the Supreme Courts' decisions in...

Why you should not judge a book by its cover: looking beyond party affiliations to discern patterns in judicial decisionmaking in the North Carolina Supreme Court: an analysis of voting trends in criminal and tort cases from 1995-2002.
March 22, 2004... I. INTRODUCTION The people of North Carolina have the power to elect the justices who sit on the state's Supreme Court. (1) Between 1995 and 2002, the registered voters of the state used this power to transform the court from one dominated...

The untouchables: the impact of South Carolina's new judicial selection system on the South Carolina Supreme Court, 1997-2003.
March 22, 2004... I. INTRODUCTION Although South Carolina has perennially been considered one of the nation's most rebellious states, the South Carolina Supreme Court has historically been extremely deferential to precedent. (1) However, in 1997, the South...