An amicus curiae is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on whether to consider an amicus brief lies within the discretion of the court. The phrase is legal Latin and the origin of the term has been dated to 1605–1615. The scope of amici curiae is generally found in the cases where broad public interests are involved and concerns regarding civil rights are in question.
Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for state officials to compose an official school prayer and encourage its recitation in public schools, due to violation of the First Amendment. The ruling has been the subject of intense debate.
Hamline University is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities. The university is named after Bishop Leonidas Lent Hamline of the United Methodist Church. As of 2017, Hamline had 2,117 undergraduate students and 1,668 graduate students.
William Mitchell College of Law was a private, independent law school located in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, from 1956 to 2015. Accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), it offered full- and part-time legal education in pursuit of the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree. On December 9, 2015, Hamline University School of Law merged into William Mitchell College of Law, and became the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the law school of Northwestern University, a private research university. The law school is located on the university's Chicago campus. Northwestern Law is among the top ten most selective law schools.
Hamline University School of Law was a private law school affiliated with Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The School of Law was founded in 1972 as the Midwestern School of Law by a group of legal professionals. In 1976, Midwestern School of Law was absorbed by Hamline University as its own School of Law.
In law, intervention is a procedure to allow a nonparty, called intervenor to join ongoing litigation, either as a matter of right or at the discretion of the court, without the permission of the original litigants. The basic rationale for intervention is that a judgment in a particular case may affect the rights of nonparties, who ideally should have the right to be heard.
The Hamline Law Review was the flagship academic journal of the School of Law at Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota. The law review was published three times annually by the students of Hamline University School of Law. The Hamline Law Review was established in 1978. In 2007, it was in the top 20% of the Most Cited Law Reviews, based upon the number of times its articles have been cited by other journals. The journal ceased publication in 2015 when the Hamline School of Law merged with the William Mitchell College of Law to form Mitchell Hamline School of Law. The journal was succeeded by the merged Mitchell Hamline Law Review.
The University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law is a scholarly journal focusing on issues of business law, corporate governance, securities regulation, capital markets regulation, the law of mergers and acquisitions, and employment law. The Journal is published four times annually by an organization of second and third year law students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. The journal is one of six major scholarly journals at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and one of the top five most cited business law journals in the United States.
Douglas K. Amdahl was an American lawyer and judge from Minnesota. He served as Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court from December 1981 to January 1989.
Sara Rosalie Wahl was an American lawyer and judge and the first woman to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Peter Bowman "Bo" Rutledge is the Dean and the Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, Georgia. An American attorney, academic and a specialist in international business transactions, international dispute resolution, litigation, arbitration, and the U.S. Supreme Court, he served as a law clerk for Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1998.
Ellen J. Kennedy is the founder and Executive Director of World Without Genocide, a human rights organization headquartered at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, St. Paul, MN.
Maynard E. Pirsig, LLD, was an American legal scholar. He was a professor, and dean, of the University of Minnesota Law School; a Minnesota Supreme Court justice; director of the Minnesota Legal Aid Society, and an advisor for the Indonesian, Puerto Rican, and El Salvadoran legal systems. He defined Legal Ethics in the 1974 Encyclopedia Britannica. His law books were widely used in schools across the country, including his casebook Judicial Administration--which Pirsig used for the United States' first law reform course, early 1930s. He was mentored by Everett Fraser, Roscoe Pound, and Felix Frankfurter.
The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) has been a standing body of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993 that directs the activities of the House Office of General Counsel. BLAG can direct the General Counsel to participate in litigation or file an amicus curiae brief in cases involving the interests of the House or BLAG can call for legislation or a House resolution authorizing the General Counsel to represent the House itself. BLAG comprises five members of House leadership:
Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick, 559 U.S. 154 (2010), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving copyright law. The Court held that failure to register a copyright under Section 411 (a) of the United States Copyright Act does not limit a Federal Court's jurisdiction over claims of infringement regarding unregistered works.
In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and interpreting law. Although appellate courts have existed for thousands of years, common law countries did not incorporate an affirmative right to appeal into their jurisprudence until the 19th century.
Mitchell Hamline School of Law is a private law school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and offers full and part-time legal education for its Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree.
Jonathan F. Mitchell is an American attorney, academic, and former government official. From 2010 to 2015, he was the Solicitor General of Texas. He has argued five cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. He has served on the faculties of Stanford Law School, the University of Texas School of Law, the George Mason University School of Law, and the University of Chicago Law School. In 2018, he opened a private solo legal practice in Austin, Texas.
Mark C. Gordon is an American academic administrator, lawyer, and former government official. He served as the president of Defiance College from 2009 to 2015 as well as the first dean and president of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
