Scholarly Legal Monographs: Advantages of the Road Less Taken

Although many of Professor Bernard J. Hibbitts\u27s criticisms of law reviews in the accompanying article may be excessive, Hibbitts\u27s arguments for the advantages of self publication on the Web are provocative. Although I do not believe that self publication is likely to replace law reviews during the foreseeable future, Hibbitts almost surely is correct in predicting that increasing numbers of law professors will use the Web as an alternative to traditional modes of publication. Hibbitts, however, has overlooked another alternative to the traditional law review books. This is not surprising, since legal academics traditionally have disseminated their scholarship through law reviews rather than university presses or other publishers of scholarly books. At least until recently, scholarly monographs among law professors have been rare. Since I have published three scholarly books, in addition to various law review articles, the editors of the Akron Law Review have asked me to prepare a brief essay on the relative advantages and disadvantages of publishing books as opposed to law review articles

Participation by the Public in the Federal Judicial Selection Process

The firestorm ignited by the 1987 nomination of Robert H. Bork provided a vivid reminder that public opinion and organized interest groups can have a potent and even decisive impact upon the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices and other federal judges. Al-though the Constitution vests the prerogative of nomination in the President and the power of confirmation in the Senate, the public also is a partner in the selection process in ways that often extend far beyond the citizenry\u27s election of its President and representatives in the Senate.Public opinion has influenced the judicial selection process throughout the history of the Republic, although public participation in that process has been sporadic. The sharp contrast between the public controversy over the recent Rehnquist and Bork nominations and the widespread public silence concerning the Scalia and Kennedy nominations suggests that organized interest groups are not likely to have a significant role in every nomination. A clear trend, however, exists to-ward an increased public awareness of the importance of federal judicial nominations and a growing public participation in the selection process.... In analyzing the role of the public in the federal judicial selection process, Part II of this Article first will explore the historical development of public participation in the nomination and confirmation processes. Part III will demonstrate that the increasing importance of public participation is consistent with the growth of participatory democracy, and it will explain why the excesses of the campaigns for and against Bork should not discredit the need for a broad public role in the judicial selection process. Part IV of the Article will argue that the Supreme Court\u27s decision in the Association of the Bar case (ABA case)was decided wrongly because the application of the Federal Advisory Committee Act was consistent with the language and intention of that statute and would not have violated the doctrine of separation of powers. In Part V the Article also will contend that the ABA should continue to have an important role in the judicial selection process but that the ABA needs to reform some of its rating procedures for judicial candidates. Finally, Part VI of the Article will assert that the internal revenue laws should not be designed to discourage public participation in the federal judicial selection process. Accordingly, the Article will argue that the recent IRS actions misinterpret the Internal Revenue Code and represent bad public policy and that the Code should be amended to eliminate the restrictions created by the ABA case

The Legal Career Of John Quincy Adams

The article will discuss Adams\u27s legal education, his early legal practice, his reasons for declining an appointment to the Supreme Court, and his role as counsel in various cases decided by Supreme Court. Adams\u27s legal education provides insight into the nature of legal training in late eighteenth century America and the legal profession during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Finally, Adams\u27s career at the Bar provides a means of evaluating various theses that have been advanced concerning the influence of legal training on the performance of presidents in office

The Contemporary Significance of Meyer and Pierce for Parental Rights Issues Involving Education

Despite their ringing declarations about human rights, Meyer and Pierce were both formally decided largely on the basis of property rights -- the liberty of the schools to conduct a business, the right of private school teachers to follow their occupation, and the freedom of the schools and the parents to enter into contracts. Although the Court easily could have decided the cases on the bases of freedom of religion or freedom of speech, the Court had not yet incorporated any part of the Bill of Rights into state law, and it was not prepared to begin the process of incorporation in these cases