Legal interpretation begins with a legal text. At least in theory it does. While in practice this is not always the case, textualism has become synonymous with conservatism in recent Court eras primarily due to Justice Scalia’s reliance on the language of statutory texts. In practice, a textualist approach is not limited by judicial ideology and…
Tag: Henson v. Santander
Crunching Data From this Past Term
It has been almost two months since the completion of the Supreme Court’s 2016 term. Scholars and analysts have pored over Court’s decisions. SCOTUSBlog released its Stat Pack which contains many interesting statistical trends and details from the term. Each term, a group of professors now organized through the Washington University in St. Louis School of…
Developing the Court’s Precedent 2016
Through the course of a single term, the Supreme Court went from a “boring” eight member body to one apparently itching to take on polarizing political issues. This transformation took place in the Court’s first full term without Justice Scalia since 1986. Some (including Justice Breyer) speculated that Scalia’s absence would have a large impact…
Justice Gorsuch: What We Know and What We Should Expect
Justice Gorsuch is just over two months into his tenure on the Supreme Court. There are many unknowns regarding how he will judge at this level. The cases he will decide on the Supreme Court are predominately different from those he saw on the 10th Circuit. There is also an intuition that circuit court judges’…
A New Way of Defining Oral Argument Terrain
Oral arguments are one of the more empirically studied areas of Supreme Court decision making. This may make intuitive sense. Oral arguments are one of the few moments where the justices’ decision making process transpires before members of the public. Audio of these arguments is recorded and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Video…well…
The New Normal: Justice Gorsuch’s First Week of Supreme Court Oral Arguments
In some ways, this was just another week for the Supreme Court. The Court released decisions with the Court’s right splitting with the Court’s left. Orders were set forth in many petitions pending before the Court. The Justices heard seven oral arguments. But there was a new voice in the proceedings. A voice that sought…
How Will Gorsuch Decide on Cases from the Supreme Court’s April Calendar?
Recently confirmed Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch will be thrown into the middle of the 2017 oral argument season with the Court’s April hearings calendar beginning on April 17th. One of the first questions that has already generated speculation is how Gorsuch will rule on cases this Term. This post adds some insight into how…
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