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Marin K Levy

@marinklevy

24 May

On this week’s episode of Judicial History, I give you intrigue, I give you animosity btw judges, I give you a cameo by Alexander Burr, I give you romance . . . er, sorry, there’s no romance. But who needs romance when we have . . .⭐️The Origin Story of Visiting Judges⭐️

(⚖️🧵)

Let’s begin by setting the scene . . . 🎭

Each year most COAs are “visited” by other judges—district judges, other circuit judges, and judges from the Court of International Trade. These judges “sit by designation” and last year helped to decide over 3,000 cases. (!) 🤯 (2/x)

How did this fascinating practice begin? How is it that a judge who is nominated & confirmed for one particular seat can sit on another court and decide a case for that court? (E.g., how does Judge Rakoff, a judge from SDNY, decide cases for the 9th Circuit?)

- HOW? -

(3/x)

Read 15 tweets

Marin K Levy

@marinklevy

15 Apr

Who is in the mood for a little judicial administration history? Everyone? Just as I suspected.

In light of the new bill to expand SCOTUS, a *big* thread on the relationship between the # of Supreme Court seats and the # of circuits. (⚖️🧵) (1/x)

Once upon a time, in 1789, Congress said "let there be courts." And so it came to be that we had 6 Supreme Court Justices and 3 Circuits – the Eastern, Middle, and Southern. (And then Congress rested. 💤) (2/x)

Now you might be thinking to yourself, 6 does not equal 3. 🙅‍♀️ To you I say, patience, my pet.

As you know, back in the bad old days of the federal courts, the Justices had to ride Circuit – and so 2 justices were assigned to each Circuit. But that math soon changed.... (3/x)

Read 16 tweets

Marin K Levy

@marinklevy

11 Apr

@TheAtlantic

@TheAtlantic has a new article, suggesting we should worry about the courts of appeals in 20 years b/c many Trump appointees will be Chief Judges and might manipulate panel assignments (creating more 2R/1D panels). This piece is *deeply problematic* and misreads my scholarship.🧵

https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/1380998286581059599

The article begins by noting that in 2040 / 2041, many of the Chief Judges of the courts of appeals will be judges who were appointed by President Trump. That is an observation I and others have made. And that is important in some respects. (2/x)

As I talk about in my forthcoming article, "The Office of the Circuit Chief Judge," the Chief Judge has a number of important responsibilities. And that includes approving the calendar. This does not mean we should expect a whole swath of judges to manipulate that calendar. (3/x)

Read 7 tweets

Marin K Levy

@marinklevy

10 Apr

A few quick thoughts on this rainy Friday night about the Biden Supreme Court Commission . . . (and because the little ones are in the bath and my time is short, this will be *real quick*). (Mini ⚖️Commission 🧵, 1/8-ish)

I've said before that I think the idea of a Commission is a great one. I appreciate that there are those who want action now, but I think there is great sense in bringing together thoughtful and knowledgeable people to exchange ideas, come to their own conclusions & report out. 2

(And on this point – I would very gently ask the critics who are suggesting that this group was formed “in order to do X” or “not to do X” to take a (comfortable) seat. This is an independent group of scholars and practitioners and former judges. Kindly let them do their job.)

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Marin K Levy

@marinklevy

2 Mar

Who wants to talk about the history of law clerking? Everybody? Good. Let’s pull up a chair for a little judicial administration history….⚖️🧵 (1/x)

According to the late (Second Circuit (❤️) Judge) J. Daniel Mahoney, the "institution of clerking" (don’t you love that phrase?) began over a century ago. It is largely undisputed that the first jurist to utilize legal assistants was one Horace Gray. (2/x)

Who was Horace Gray and why did he feel the need to employ a law clerk? Well, in 1873 he became the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court of Errors (which could be the subject of its own twitter thread…) and found that his workload had increased considerably.

Read 13 tweets

Marin K Levy

@marinklevy

30 Nov 20

@joshchafetz

Following up on an insight from the great @joshchafetz (naturally), a quick thread on what I see as one of the blind spots of the legal academy, concerning methodologies… (🧵1/9)

I’ve always started from the position that the primary goal of the legal academy – as with the rest of the academy – is the production of knowledge. If that’s so, then it would seem we should value a number of different methodologies and approaches… (2/9)

It is important that we acquire more information about how the world works from empiricists – both quantitative and qualitative. It’s important to know how the world once worked from legal historians. (3/9)

Read 10 tweets

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