Antonin Gregory Scalia was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Court's conservative wing. For catalyzing an originalist and textualist movement in American law,he has been described as one of the most influential jurists of the twentieth century,and one of the most important justices in the Supreme Court's history. Scalia was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018 by President Donald Trump,and the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University was named in his honor.
Rex Edwin Lee was an American lawyer and academic who served as U.S. Solicitor General from 1981 to 1985. He was responsible for bringing the solicitor general's office to the center of U.S. legal policymaking. Lee argued 59 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,Lee was an alumnus and the tenth president of Brigham Young University (BYU). Lee was also the founding dean of BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School (JRCLS).
Grutter v. Bollinger,539 U.S. 306 (2003),was a landmark case of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning affirmative action in student admissions. The Court held that a student admissions process that favors "underrepresented minority groups" does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause so long as it takes into account other factors evaluated on an individual basis for every applicant.
Harry Andrew Blackmun was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1970 until 1994. Appointed by Republican President Richard Nixon,Blackmun ultimately became one of the most liberal justices on the Court. He is best known as the author of the Court's opinion in Roe v. Wade,which prohibits many state and federal restrictions on abortion.
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld,542 U.S. 507 (2004),is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court recognized the power of the U.S. government to detain enemy combatants,including U.S. citizens,but ruled that detainees who are U.S. citizens must have the rights of due process,and the ability to challenge their enemy combatant status before an impartial authority.
The J. Reuben Clark Law School is the graduate law school of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo,Utah. Founded in 1973,the school is named after J. Reuben Clark,a former U.S. Ambassador,Undersecretary of State,and general authority of the institution's sponsoring organization,The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Roper v. Simmons,543 U.S. 551 (2005),was a landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 18. The 5–4 decision overruled Stanford v. Kentucky,in which the court had upheld execution of offenders at or above age 16,and overturned statutes in 25 states.
John Michael Luttig is an American lawyer and a former United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Stenberg v. Carhart,530 U.S. 914 (2000),was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court dealing with a Nebraska law which made performing "partial-birth abortion" illegal,without regard for the health of the mother. Nebraska physicians who performed the procedure contrary to the law were subject to having their medical licenses revoked. The Court struck down the law,finding the Nebraska statute criminalizing "partial birth abortion[s]" violated the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution,as interpreted in Planned Parenthood v. Casey and Roe v. Wade.
John Glover Roberts Jr. is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases,including Shelby County v. Holder,National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius,King v. Burwell,Department of Commerce v. New York,and Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California. He has been described as having a conservative judicial philosophy but has shown a willingness to work with the Supreme Court's liberal bloc,and since the retirement of Anthony Kennedy in 2018 has come to be regarded as a key swing vote on the Court. Roberts presided over the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump in early 2020;however,he declined to preside over the second impeachment trial of Trump,who was impeached as president,but whose term had expired by the time of the trial.
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld,548 U.S. 557 (2006),is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that military commissions set up by the Bush Administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay lack "the power to proceed because its structures and procedures violate both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the four Geneva Conventions signed in 1949." Specifically,the ruling says that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions was violated.
A dissenting opinion is an opinion in a legal case in certain legal systems written by one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the court which gives rise to its judgment. When not necessarily referring to a legal decision,this can also be referred to as a minority report.
Textualism is a formalist theory in which the interpretation of the law is primarily based on the ordinary meaning of the legal text,where no consideration is given to non-textual sources,such as intention of the law when passed,the problem it was intended to remedy,or significant questions regarding the justice or rectitude of the law.
Paul George Cassell is a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Utah,who is currently the Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and University Distinguished Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah. He is best known as an expert in,and proponent of,victims' rights.
Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn,563 U.S. 125 (2011),is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving taxpayer standing under Article Three of the United States Constitution.
Connick v. Thompson,563 U.S. 51 (2011),is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court considered whether a prosecutor's office can be held liable for a single Brady violation by one of its members on the theory that the office provided inadequate training.
In Maryland v. King,569 U.S. 435 (2013),the United States Supreme Court decided that a cheek swab of an arrestee's DNA is comparable to fingerprinting and therefore,a legal police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
Utah v. Strieff,579 U.S. ___,136 S. Ct. 2056 (2016),was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States limited the scope of the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary rule.
Law and corpus linguistics (LCL) is a new academic sub-discipline that uses large databases of examples of language usage equipped with tools designed by linguists called corpora to better get at the meaning of words and phrases in legal texts. Thus,LCL is the application of corpus linguistic tools,theories,and methodologies to issues of legal interpretation in much the same way law and economics is the application of economic tools,theories,and methodologies to various legal issues.
Lafler v. Cooper,566 U.S. 156 (2012),was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court clarified the Sixth Amendment standard for reversing convictions due to ineffective assistance of counsel during plea bargaining. The Court ruled that when a lawyer's ineffective assistance leads to the rejection of a plea agreement,a defendant is entitled to relief if the outcome of the plea process would have been different with competent advice. In such cases,the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment requires the trial judge to exercise discretion to determine an appropriate remedy.
