Monday, May 13, 2019
Ginsburg wields the assignment power
A 5-4 majority in Apple v. Pepper held that iPhone users can sue Apple for anti-trust violations resulting from its App Store monopoly. Justice Kavanaugh wrote for himself, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan. People will be talking about that line-up and Kavanaugh splitting on a text-based antitrust case.
That line-up means Ginsburg assigned the opinion as senior-most associate justice in the majority (the Chief and Thomas, the two more senior to her, dissented). This is the second time Ginsburg assigned the opinion, the first coming last Termin Sessions v. Dimaya. Note that Ginsburg made the strategic assignment move here-she gave the opinion to the unexpected member of the majority as a reward and to keep him in the fold.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 13, 2019 at 12:00 PM in Howard Wasserman, Judicial Process, Law and Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)
SCOTUS overrules more precedent, no textual support to be found
The buzzwords that Republicans and judicial conservatives insist make their approach the only legitimate and constrained are textualism and respect for stare decisis. It is hard to take that seriously after today's decision in Franchise Tax Bd. v. Hyatt, holding that the Constitution requires that a state enjoy sovereign immunity in the courts of another state and overruling 1979's Nevada v. Hall. Justice Thomas wrote for himself, the Chief, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh; Breyer dissented for the other four.
There is no textual basis for this (there really is none with all of state sovereign immunity); the majority instead relies on what is implicit in the structure and the "implicit ordering of relationships within the federal system." As for respect for stare decisis, the majority disposes of that in less than two full slip-opinion pages. Justice Breyer closes his dissent with a portentous "[t]oday’s decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the Court will overrule next."
Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 13, 2019 at 11:34 AM in Civil Procedure, Constitutional thoughts, Howard Wasserman, Judicial Process, Law and Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)
Predicting SCOTUS on universal injunctions (Updated)
Noah Feldman predicts that SCOTUS will reject the Trump Administration's calls to reign-in universal injunctions, basically arguing that taking the power to issue non-particularized injunctions from lower courts makes more work for SCOTUS. Josh Blackman responds in a Twitter thread.
I agree with Josh that Noah makes his category error here:
If the justices were to hold that the lower courts lack the power to issue nationwide injunctions, then there would be only one way for the courts to block a law nationwide: The Supreme Court would have to issue the injunction itself. After all, it’s the only court with a truly national jurisdiction.
That wouldn’t give the justices any extra power, because they can already issue nationwide injunctions. But it would give the justices more work.
* * *
The upshot is that, if they prohibit nationwide injunctions by the lower courts, the justices will be agreeing to place themselves more in the spotlight, without the plausible deniability that allows them to leave injunctions in place.
SCOTUS does not have any greater power to issue a universal/non-particularized injunction than a district court. The limit on non-particularized injunctions comes from Article III's case-or-controversy requirement, which limits SCOTUS as much as it limits lower courts. If a lower court issues a particularized injunction and SCOTUS affirms, that does not create a universal injunction--it creates an Article-III-final particularized injunction, one that the executive no longer can avoid. As Josh notes, it also creates binding precedent that lower courts must follow to resolve other cases involving other parties and will use as the legal basis for later, also-particularized injunctions. But the SCOTUS decision in Case # 1 does not alone get us there.
Feldman envisions SCOTUS using the lower courts to avoid taking responsibility for universal injunctions--allowing some to remain in effect while overturning those they do not like. If lower courts cannot issue universal injunctions, SCOTUS would be forced to issue them. But this proceeds from several false premises, First, that a SCOTUS-affirmed injunction can have broader judgment (as opposed to precedential) effect than a lower-court injunction. Second, that if SCOTUS "really did not like" a particularized/non-universal injunction it would not overturn it just as quickly when asked to do so by the government.
Update: One additional point I neglected earlier: Noah begins by minimizing this as a legal-academic debate that had no practical resonance before Vice President Pence raised it in a Fed Soc speech last week. But that is not accurate. The scope issue was raised in U.S. v. Texas (DAPA) and was briefed, at the Court's request in Trump v. Hawaii, triggering a question from Gorsuch (his "cosmic injunction" line) and a concurrence from Thomas arguing that injunctions should remain particularized to the parties. He is write that legal scholars are playing a role here--but the government has been engaged on the subject at least as long.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 13, 2019 at 10:25 AM in Civil Procedure, Constitutional thoughts, Howard Wasserman, Judicial Process | Permalink | Comments (1)
Thursday, May 09, 2019
SEALS Prospective Law Teachers Workshop
Each year, SEALS hosts a Prospective Law Teachers Workshop (PLTW), which provides intensive opportunities for VAPs, fellows, and practitioners to network and participate in mock interviews and mock job talks—prior to the actual teaching market. The Workshop also includes a luncheon and 1-on-1 sessions for candidates to receive faculty feedback on their CVs. This year’s Prospective Law Teachers Workshop will be held at Boca Raton Resort & Club in Boca Raton, Florida on Tuesday, July 30, and Wednesday, July 31, 2019. If you are interested in participating specifically in the Prospective Law Teachers Workshop, please send your CV, and a brief statement explaining your interest, to Professor [email protected]. Please also indicate when you are hoping to go on the teaching market. Applications are due by June 1, 2019. Past PLTW participants have secured tenure-track appointments at an impressive array of law schools.
Continue reading "SEALS Prospective Law Teachers Workshop"
Posted by Administrators on May 9, 2019 at 09:30 PM in Teaching Law | Permalink | Comments (0)
Empathy, LGBT rights, and employment discrimination
Rick Bales (Ohio Northern) predicts that SCOTUS will hold 6-3 that Title VII prohibits discrimination against LGBT employees as a form of sex discrimination. He predicts that the "defectors" will be the Chief and Kavanaugh--the Chief to avoid the institutional damage from a high-profile decision that appears politically motivated and Kavanaugh as a way to show himself as less political and because such a decision might reflect the empathy he espouses.
Posted by Administrators on May 9, 2019 at 08:18 PM in Employment and Labor Law, Howard Wasserman, Law and Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)
More on Kavanaugh and empathy
Thanks to Paul for parsing Kavanaugh's Senate testimony. I stand corrected as to Kavanaugh--his comments on Monday were consistent with his testimony, suggesting a sincere belief that judges should think about and understand all sides of an issue and the effects of judicial decisions. My mistake in lumping Kavanaugh in with the standard reaction to the idea of empathy among Republicans in Congress and many conservative commentators.
Working off what Paul provides, let me add the following:
• "Empathy" as a concept in judging is non-ideological. One can listen to all sides and consider the effects of decisions and reach a range of results across an ideological spectrum. It does not reflect or demand a commitment to any party or position. It is surprising that the concept continues to generate so much opposition.
• The questions from Sasse and Graham show a continued inability (or refusal) to recognize the distinction between empathy and sympathy (Graham even uses the wrong word).
• I am not surprised that no Democrats addressed this in either direction, because they have run from empathy from the minute Obama mentioned the concept and the public discussion immediately misunderstood the word and what he meant.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 9, 2019 at 01:13 AM in Howard Wasserman, Judicial Process, Law and Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
A Few More Details on Kavanaugh and "Empathy"
I was spurred by Howard's post below, and the interesting comments on that post, to go through transcripts of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. It's hard to search for synonyms for (some form of) "empathy," such as, in Boolean-speak, "listen /s others." But I did search for "empath!," "civility," "discourse," and even "listen /s others." On a whim, I searched for "shoes"--which was actually a fairly productive search!
The search results are decidedly imperfect. I encourage others to do a better job. (I certainly did not watch or listen to the hearings in real time, and others might draw on their recollections, and then follow up to correct the inevitable errors in their memories.) But here's what I found:
1) "Empathy" comes up several times in the confirmation hearings. At least two friends of Kavanaugh's who testified spoke about Kavanaugh as empathetic, and one told the committee she believed Kavanaugh "has exposed himself to a wide range of people" from "a variety of backgrounds," and that he would "listen empathetically and hear their voices."
2) The number of senators I found discussing empathy is extremely small and exclusively Republican. The most prominent discussion comes from Senator Sasse. He criticizes popular invocations of "empathy" as a desired judicial quality, arguing that Congress "constantly abdicates its responsibility" to listen to, represent, and correct the concerns of citizens, and that calls for judicial empathy often amount to a call for the judiciary to do what Congress so often fails to do. He argues that the role of a judge is not "to exercise empathy" but "to follow written laws."
3) A search for "shoes" actually yields several interesting results. Kavanaugh talks at the hearings about the importance of "standing in the shoes of others," and understanding that we could each be homeless or disadvantaged. Kavanaugh also mentions his mother's judicial career as a major influence, and says, "She taught me that good judges must always stand in the shoes of others." One of the supporters I mentioned earlier discusses receiving advice from Kavanaugh during law school about the importance of standing in the shoes of others and "understand[ing] the issue from all points of view."
4) This search also yields a colloquy, again with a Republican senator. This time it is Senator Graham. He asks Kavanaugh, who has spoken about standing in the shoes of others, "Is it fair to say that your job as a judge is to not so much stand in the shoes of somebody you're sympathetic to but [to] stand in the shoes of the law?" Kavanaugh replies, "You're in the shoes of the law but with awareness of the impacts of your decisions....That's the critical distinction. You can't be unaware. When you write an opinion, how's it going to affect people?" He then emphasizes the importance of explaining oneself in a judicial opinion in a way that is not too full of oneself as a judge but rather makes an effort to show the litigant that one understands his or her situation.
5) A search for words like "civility" and "discourse" yields a lot of irrelevant results and a few relevant ones. The most relevant example is this statement from Kavanaugh: "I think civility and collegiality help make a good judge. A good judge understands that real people are affected in the real world."
Again emphasizing the imperfection of the search strategy and my willingness to be corrected by better research, I would make the following observations, which I offer neither in support of nor in criticism of Howard's post or of either Kavanaugh or his (stated or revealed) approach to judicial decision-making, but to offer additional details to Howard's post and perhaps lend further perspective:
1) Kavanaugh's discussion of something like "empathy" at the circuit conference was not new. He made the point about the importance of standing in the shoes of others several times during the (widely publicized and televised) confirmation hearings, and emphasized--as others discussing judicial empathy have before--the importance not only of listening to and attempting to understand others, but of attempting to explain one's decision to the parties, and perhaps especially the individual and/or disadvantaged litigant, in a way that may go for or against the legal claim involved but shows that one understands the litigant's perspective.
2) There was very little discussion of empathy on the part of Republican senators. This might support Howard's question whether some Republican senators (insofar as they are part of the incredibly broad and non-specific group Howard is implicitly discussing: people who opposed Obama's use of the word "empathy" and/or those who think of Kavanaugh as "the darling of the Republican judiciary") don't care all that much about the use of a word like "empathy" as such. On the other hand, Kavanaugh himself speaks in terms of standing in the shoes of others, not in terms of empathy. And at least one Republican Senator (Sasse) directly and critically addressed the idea of judicial empathy, while another (Graham) asked about it and put forward a critical distinction between standing in the shoes of others as a judge and "standing in the shoes of the law," to which Kavanaugh's response signaled partial disagreement or at least clarification: namely, that a judge. ought to stand "in the shoes of the law" but with awareness of the impact of one's decision on people in the real world.
3) I could find no Democratic senators addressing any of these points in the hearing transcripts. That doesn't mean no one did; it just means I couldn't find any evidence that they did in my rather limited searches. I found no Democratic senators referring to and praising Kavanaugh's discussion of standing in the shoes of others, none criticizing it, and none engaging in a colloquy with him about it, perhaps to clarify what he meant by it and how it would work in his judicial decision-making. This might support a similar proposition to the one Howard speculated about. It might suggest that support for "Obama's use of the term" was fair-weather support, not a matter of deep interest or "grounded in principle." Or it might not. Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee are a tiny subset of the indistinct and undefined group of people who supported Obama's use of the word empathy, and should not lightly be assumed to be representative of that wider mass of people. They are also political actors, who might agree with or approve of what Kavanaugh said on the subject at the hearings but not say so publicly, for political reasons. If that is seemingly not a response that is "grounded in principle," neither does it prove that they have no principled interest in judicial empathy. (But that would suggest, by the same token, that there might be Republican senators on the committee who disagreed with Kavanaugh's perspective, and have what is indeed a principled opposition to that view, but said nothing, again for political reasons.).
I don't know whether this changes Howard's view. Since he spoke speculatively, if perhaps suggestively, I won't assume he has a strong or settled view on these questions. I am disinclined to lump large masses of people together, and thus disinclined to assume based on limited evidence that all Republicans or all Democrats (a grouping in which, in truth, I have very little interest) share the same view, that all people who have spoken about judicial. empathy have the same view, or that speech or silence from any one individual within this vast group indicates much if anything about the views of others within that vast group. Such an approach seems to me to lack empathy, among other problems. So I would probably worry about the last two paragraphs of Howard's post with or without this additional research.
But I would hope the research does add a little extra depth to Howard's discussion and speculation. Perhaps it will move him to second-guess or deepen his speculation. Perhaps it will also convince him that the question about the presence or absence of principled views on judicial empathy extends beyond opponents of that word or concept, and includes its supporters, who also should be subjected to critical inquiry.
In my view, a tentative set of propositions that combines a certain amount of both charity and realism would be that there are indeed those who, on principled grounds, are supportive of or opposed to the idea or label of judicial "empathy"; that there are nuanced differences among them about what empathy entails and what role it plays in judging; that in the heat of the moment, many of those people--particularly but not exclusively elected officials--will not speak about empathy at all, favorably or critically, if it is politically inconvenient to do so, which may suggest not a lack of principle (although that's a possibility) but a lack of fortitude or integrity; and that a very small but not non-existent number of people will do so.
As I said, the research was tentative and incomplete, and so are these propositions, although they seem reasonable enough. And I emphasize again, given the difficulty of having disinterested and academic discussions in a rather politicized era, including doing so among legal academics, some of whom may inadvertently overestimate the importance of their public pronouncements about these issues and/or succumb to a tendency to reduce a discussion to the politically relevant but intellectually shallow question whether one is "for" or "against" someone or something, that none of this should be taken as indicating either praise for or criticism of Kavanaugh, or as assuming that what a judicial nominee--or a senator!--says or doesn't say on a public occasion is strong evidence of what that person believes, cares about, or will actually do in practice.
Posted by Paul Horwitz on May 8, 2019 at 09:34 AM in Paul Horwitz | Permalink | Comments (1)
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
Call for Papers: Second Annual Chicagoland Junior Scholars Conference
The Northern Illinois University College of Law will host the Second Annual Chicagoland Junior Scholars Conference at Loyola University Chicago School of Law on Friday, September 27, 2019. This conference will offer junior scholars (those who have spent 7 years or fewer as full-time professors) the opportunity to present their works-in-progress, to receive feedback from their colleagues, including senior faculty, and to network with other legal scholars from the Chicago area and beyond. Articles may be presented at various stages of development. If you are interested in presenting a paper at the conference, please submit a working title and abstract of 200-300 words to LeAnn Baie ([email protected]) no later than June 28, 2019. Selected authors will be notified by July 15, 2019. Final papers will be due no later than September 6, 2019. There is no registration fee for this conference. Meals will be provided. Email Prof. Sarah Fox at [email protected] with questions.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 7, 2019 at 10:36 PM in Teaching Law | Permalink | Comments (0)
It is the empathy, stupid
Yesterday, I attended the 7th Circuit Bar Association Conference and the Judicial Conference of the 7th Circuit (a combined event that appears unique). I moderated a discussion on jurisdictionality (with Scott Dodson of Hastings and Jessica Berch of Arizona State) and watched an excellent panel on judicial independence and the rule of law. I also attended the dinner, which was keynoted by a conversation among Justice Kennedy, Justice Kavanaugh, 7th Circuit Chief Judge Diane Wood, and Northern District of Illinois Judge Gary Feinerman (who clerked for Kennedy the same term as Kavanaugh).
At one point in the discussion, Kavanaugh discussed the importance for judges to listen and to put themselves in someone else's shoes. They must hear and understand the positions of parties, attorneys, or fellow judges, in order to understand where they are coming from and the position they are urging. This is part of essential-but-vanishing "civility" in public discourse.
Wait, though. There is an English word for adopting another's perspective so you can understand their position (although Kavanaugh did not use it)--empathy. When President Obama suggested that empathy was an essential quality for judges, he was lambasted as urging lawlessness and the remark used as a basis for opposing his judicial nominees. Yet here was the darling of the Republican judiciary insisting that this is a necessary quality for him, as a judge, and for public debate more broadly.
Makes you wonder if the opposition to Obama's use of the term was not grounded in principle.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 7, 2019 at 02:59 PM in Howard Wasserman, Judicial Process | Permalink | Comments (8)
JOTWELL: Mulligan on Spencer on personal jurisdiction in federal court
The new Courts Law essay comes from Lumen Mulligan (Kansas), reviewing A. Benjamin Spencer, The Territorial Reach of Federal Courts, Fla. L. Rev. (forthcoming), which argues for federal courts exercising jurisdiction based on national contacts through a self-executing Fifth Amendment Due Process.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on May 7, 2019 at 11:44 AM in Article Spotlight, Civil Procedure | Permalink | Comments (0)
Monday, May 06, 2019
Granting Certiorari from District Court Opinions
One issue that may arise over the next year is the Supreme Court's discretion to grant review directly from a district court opinion. This power is exercised sparingly. (How sparingly I do not know.) The reason this may become an issue is that there are many lawsuits now pending (or soon to be filed) that challenge various decisions by the Trump Administration. A principal goal of the Administration seems to be delaying any resolution of these matters until after the next election. If the litigation proceeds in the ordinary way, that goal may well be achieved. Four Justices, however, can make that more difficult by an expedited grant of certiorari.
Is this a good idea? Or when it is a good idea?
Posted by Gerard Magliocca on May 6, 2019 at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)