1. What two factors taken together are the most important considerations for the Supreme Court in deciding whether to grant a petition for writ of certiorari or not? (2 points)
Conflict among the circuit courts or (less commonly) some other conflict like between a circuit court and a state court of last resort in some significant federal legal question (1 point)
The importance of the legal issue or case (1 point). You should
receive an additional half point bonus if you note there is an important
distinction between legal cases and issues. That is, the Supreme
Court is more interested in important legal issues and takes cases that
present these issues (that is why they become important cases).
2. Why is age an important factor in the determination by the President of whom to nominate to the Supreme Court? (2 points)
Age is an important factor because justices, once confirmed, are on the Court for life and can therefore last a very long time. Presidents, therefore, want a nominee who is young enough to stay on the Court for as long as possible to maximize the influence of the President's appointment power (1 point).
At the same time, the Senate is rightly concerned with the competence
of the nomination and will not confirm a 30 year old nominee–even though
such a nominee would maximize the President's influence on the Court.
As a result, the nominee must be of a stature in the legal profession that
the nomination will be taken seriously. Such stature is almost always
acquired only with age. Nominees, therefore, must be old enough to
have acquired a certain professional attainment (1 point).
3. What is the Judicial Conference and what responsibilities does it have? (2 points)
The Judicial Conference is the "principle policymaking body" of the judicial branch of the federal government (O'Brien, page 99).
The Judicial Conference is made up of the Chief Justice of the United
States, the Chief Judge from each Circuit Court of Appeals, and a District
Court judge from each of the regional circuits. It meets twice yearly
to discuss such issues as a code of ethics (which the Supreme Court is
not bound to) and proposals from Congress.
4. Name the four Federal District Courts in California and where they are headquartered. (4 points)
Northern District Court of California–San Francisco
Eastern District Court of California–Sacramento
Central District Court of California–Los Angeles
Southern District Court of California–San Diego
One half point for naming each of the courts and one half point each
for naming each of the cities.
5. What is a per curiam opinion? (2 points)
A per curiam opinion is "‘by the court,' an unsigned opinion of the court" usually very brief–often no more than an order by the Court.
It has lesser precedential value than a full signed opinion, but still
binds lower federal courts.
6. The Chief Justice has many different responsibilities. What are the responsibilities of the Chief Justice Rehnquist among the justices of the Supreme Court? (4 points)
This question specifically asks the responsibilities of the Chief Justice among the justices. That means only those responsibilities the Chief Justice has in conjunction with his duties among the other justices receive credit.
When in the majority, the Chief Justice assigns the Opinion of the Court.
When in the dissent, the Chief Justice assigns the dissenting opinion
(this is a little more complicated, but I gave full credit for this)
The Chief Justice prepares the Discuss List.
The Chief Justice prepares the Dead List.
The Chief Justice chairs all conference discussions.
The Chief Justice chairs all oral arguments.
(1 point each to a maximum of 4).
7. How may a vacancy to the Supreme Court occur? (4 points)
Death in office
Retirement
Resignation
Impeachment that has been convicted by the Senate
(1 point each)
Bonus: Congress may enlarge the size of the Court thereby creating a
vacancy–such as Roosevelt's court packing scheme (1 point).
8. How may a Supreme Court opinion be overturned or altered? (2 points)
For a case where the Supreme Court is interpreting the United States Constitution, an opinion may be overturned by a later Supreme Court opinion or by Constitutional Amendment (1 point).
For a case where the Supreme Court is interpreting a statute, an opinion
may be overturned by a later Supreme Court opinion or by amending the statute
(1 point).
9. How many total law clerks are there for the October 1999 term and please list how many clerks each justice has? (4 points)
There are a total of 35 clerks (1 point).
Rehnquist and Stevens have 3 each (1 point).
O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg, and Breyer have
4 each (1 point).
White (retired) has 1 (1 point).
10. How have the nature and frequency of dissenting opinions changed over time? What are the implications of this change for the Court's influence? (3 points)
Dissents were relatively infrequent prior to the New Deal court. Since that time, there has been a significant increase in the frequency of dissenting opinions. (1 point).
More recently, dissenting opinions have become much more institutionalized. Under Rehnquist, the senior justice in dissent has come to assign the dissenting opinion to a justice (O'Brien, p. 312). This has institutionalized the practice of a dissenting opinion as part of the Court's decision (1 point).
The implications of these changes have been mixed. On the one hand, dissenting opinions undercut the Opinion of the Court and can often complicate the Court's ability to implement its decision (1 point).
On the other hand, dissenting opinions often give voice to the complexity
of many of the cases the Supreme Court decides. Dissents, therefore,
allow the Court to save some face when it makes egregious mistakes.
It also allows all sides of an issue to be heard often leading to a more
complete and thorough hashing of the issue and, often, a better Opinion
of the Court (1 point).
11. Name the four most recent justices and whom they replaced. (4 points)
In reverse seniority:
Breyer replaced Blackmun
Ginsburg replaced White
Thomas replaced Marshall
Souter replaced Brennan
(1 point for each pair, half point for each name provided it is in proper
order).
12. When the Court is in session holding oral arguments, when do the justices meet for conference? During the later months of the term and the Court is no longer in session for oral arguments, when do the justices meet for conference? (3 points)
When the Court is in session holding oral arguments, the justices meet in conference on Wednesday afternoons and all day Friday (1 point each).
When the Court is no longer hearing oral arguments, the justices meet
for conference on Thursdays (1 point).
13. Why are so few cases from the Circuit Courts granted cert. by the Supreme Court? (2 points)
So few cases are granted cert. by the Supreme Court from Circuit Court decisions because the vast majority of the petitions from Circuit Courts lack any merit. Most of the cases should not be appealed to the Supreme Court and lack a serious federal question that the Supreme Court would consider important enough to consider (1 point).
According to Table 2-1 (among the posted overheads), the Circuit Courts
also produced over 26,000 decisions on the merits in 1997. That means
that even if all of these cases merited review, the Supreme Court has time
to consider a minuscule percentage of all these cases. As it stood,
the Supreme Court decided 76 cases from the Circuit Courts that year, leaving
a review percentage of 0.3%. To sum up, so few cases are granted
cert. because the Supreme Court only considers roughly 100 cases a year
and therefore can only consider a small fraction of the thousands of appeals
no matter how meritorious (1 point).
14. You are looking at the Supreme Court justices from the first row in the public bench in the courtroom at the Supreme Court. Name the order in which the justices are sitting from left to right. (2 points)
Ginsburg, Souter, Scalia, Stevens, Rehnquist, O'Connor, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer
(2 full points for the correct order, none for the incorrect order).
EXTRA CREDIT (one point each)
1. Name any case the Supreme Court is hearing for the current term.
The most common cases mentioned were Dale v. Boy Scouts of America (or
BSA), Dickerson v. United States, and Stenberg v. Carhart. You had
to have both names correct to receive credit. You did not receive
credit for writing "partial birth abortion case" or other such remarks.
2. Name a reporter that covers the Supreme Court as a "beat" and for what news organization.
The most common were Nina Totenberg (National Public Radio); Linda Greenhouse
(New York Times); David Savage (Los Angeles Times). You received
half a point for identifying a reporter without the correct news organization.
You received no credit for identifying a news organization without a reporter.
3. Where did Clarence Thomas grow up?
Pin Point, Georgia
Half a point for just "Georgia." Half a point for just "Pin Point."
4. What is the first thing the Justices do before oral argument and conference meetings?
They shake hands with every other justice.