Topic 10: Judicial and Jury Discretion

Who are judges?

• Traditionally middle or upper class

• History of party identification

• Almost all started as lawyers

How do federal judges get there?

nominated by the president, confirmed by the senate

How do state and local judges get there?

Variety

• Appointed by governor then confirmed in election, they run in an election right off the bat, etc.

• In Fl the judges are appointed by governor and then they get put on ballot for reappointment

How are courts passive?

They just apply to law to each case, they don’t actively seek out opportunities for law making like legislators

How do courts make law?

They make law by applying law to the particular situation (making a precedent)

How is the court organized in states?

• Courts of limited jurisdiction

• Trial courts

• Intermediate courts of appeals

• Court of last resort

Courts of limited jurisdiction

Municipal courts, police magistrates, family court, and traffic court

Trial courts

District court, circuit court ; hear most civil and criminal cases ; where juries are typically brought into

Intermediate courts of appeals

Responsible for reviewing those cases that were decided at the trial court level due to appeals

How many states have intermediate courts of appeal

20/50

Court of last resort

State Supreme court, Superior court ; last place to appeal so long as theres no federal or constitutionality issues

How is the court organized federally?

• Article 1 courts

• Bankruptcy courts

• District courts

• Court of appeals

• US Supreme court

Article 1 courts

Legislative courts ; typically created by legislature and they review agency decisions ex. IRS decision appeal

Bankruptcy courts

Self explanatory

How many federal district courts?

94

Federal district courts

See issues of dispute being resolved ; single judge resides over each court ; juries used in making decisions about 50% of the time

How many federal court of appeals

13

Federal court of appeals

Determine if the law was applied correctly, reviewing district court decisions ; panel of 3 judges

US Supreme Court

1 chief justice, 8 associate judges ; Reviewing cases of federal interest, sometimes original jurisdiction ex. states suing each other ; decide which cases by rule of 4

Rule of 4

4/9 judges need to agree to hear the case, granting it certiorari

Dispute

a conflict of claims or rights; an assertion of right, claim or demand on one side, met by contrary claims on the other

Judges have discretion in

• Regulating the trial court

• Sentencing

• Lawmaking (passive)

• Bifurcation

• Special verdicts

• Whether or not to allow evidence

Stare decisis

Stand by what has been decided

Following precedents enables

• predictability, certainty, continuity

• Helps to minimize our biases affect on our decisions

• Continuity - have laws apply in similar ways

Problems with discretion in lawmaking

• Judicial formulations of rules are often revised, which may lead to conflict

• A judge may be confronted with a case for which there is no precedent

• Precedents are a weaker and less authoritative source of law than a statute

Critical legal studies movement

law is not a science, cant really derive the new law by looking at the old laws because the law could apply in several different ways

Frye v US (1923)

In order for evidence to be admitted, it needs general acceptance from the field it came in

Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharamaceutricals

• Pregnant woman takes pill from this company, and she believes it caused the birth defects in her child, said they needed compensation for side effect that wasn’t communicated

• The evidence that they had for it didn’t have general acceptance yet, so it wasn’t admitted

  • To gain acceptance it needs to be old science 2-10 years old

Airplanes distrubing the peace (1920s)

Judges searched for analogies in property law that seemed applicable (livestock disturbing the peace)

Judges are not required to follow precent if:

• There are 2 conflicting precedents - choose 1

• It conflict with a constitutional right - plessy v ferguson

• It conflicts with a stronger precedent

Bifurcation

Split the trial into 2, can be for capital punishment or for both (combo) a criminal and civil case

What has auto-bifurcation

Capital punishment cases

Special verdict example

Guilty through mental illness

What plays a role in judicial sentencing

• Precedents

• Prosecution recommendation

• Victim impact statements

• Race, sex, age, socioeconomic and criminal background of the defendant law

Who do we value our system of jurisprudence?

• “Basic to our system of jurisprudence”

• Protection against arbitrary rule

• Reflection of our own beliefs about the exercise of official power

Constitution provides the right to trial for all criminal cases and

Civil cases involving more than $20

Function of juries

• Issues of law; once they decide which det of facts they want to use, they set up these facts against the law in this case

• Issues of fact ; interpreting and deciding between competing and conflicting interpretations of events

• Inject community sentiment

The jury as a political institution

• Places the direction of society in the hands of the governed

• Further evidenced by the jury’s involvement in civil justice

Jury nullification

the right of juries to nullify or refuse to apply law in criminal cases despite facts that leave no reasonable doubt the law was violated

When is jury nullification problemtic?

When the defendant is plainly guilty, but the jury disagrees with the law for reasons of bias or feelings about the defendant