Federal Courts
Book Review
Interpreting the Court’s Fine Print
Vol. 109 No. 3 (2026) | To Know Courts Is to Love Them?Historian Peter Charles Hoffer traces how U.S. Supreme Court footnotes evolved from routine citations into a consequential form of judicial communication. How does the highest court in the land use […]
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Disfavored Precedent as a Challenge for the Lower Federal Courts
by Curtis A. Bradley and Tara Leigh Grove
Vol. 109 No. 3 (2026) | To Know Courts Is to Love Them?Lower Federal Courts Face Recurring Uncertainty When the U.S. Supreme Court Weakens but Does Not Overrule Precedent. We Offer a Decisional Authority Model to Guide Lower Courts in Handling Such […]
The Storied Third Branch
Courts in the Wild: Magistrate Judges in U.S. National Parks
Vol. 109 No. 2 (2025) | Communicating to the PeopleAs any lawyer in the federal courts knows, magistrate judges fulfill many critical roles. One unique and lesser known of those roles is the work of magistrate judges in our […]
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Asking All the Right Questions: Benefits of Juror Questionnaires and Attorney-Conducted Voir Dire
by Stephen R. Bough and Kaitlin Minkler
Vol. 109 No. 1 (2025) | Celebrating a Decade at DukeThe Seventh Amendment guarantees litigants a right to trial by jury, and, for more than 200 years, the voir dire process has been used in the United States to ensure […]
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Reviving Rules 16 and 26
Vol. 109 No. 1 (2025) | Celebrating a Decade at DukeRule 16 (on pretrial conferences and scheduling) and Rule 26 (on disclosures and discovery) give judges important tools to improve case management. Here’s how they should use them. Click here […]
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Staying Safe: Five Steps Judges Can Take Now
by Ron Zayas
Vol. 109 No. 1 (2025) | Celebrating a Decade at DukeJudges have always been subject to scrutiny, second-guessing, and threats. But as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. noted in his 2024 year-end report, the U.S. Marshals Service has reported […]
A Finer Point
The Chief Justice’s Ceremonial(ish) Inauguration Role
Vol. 108 No. 3 (2025) | Problem-Solving CourtsPictured Above: President William McKinley’s inauguration was the first recorded on film; here he is sworn in by Chief Justice Melville Fuller with outgoing President Grover Cleveland at right. March […]
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The New Administrative State?
by Stuart Benjamin, David Doniger, Catherine Eagles and Jennifer Zachary
Vol. 108 No. 3 (2025) | Problem-Solving CourtsHow Recent Supreme Court Decisions May Shape Regulation, Deference, and the Role of the Courts When it comes to administrative agencies, the U.S. Supreme Court has been busy. Last term, […]
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Inside the JPML
Vol. 108 No. 2 (2024) | Judges Under Siege?How the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Keeps the Federal Courts’ Massive MDL Docket on Track The world knows multidistrict litigations (MDLs) by the names of the cases’ defendants and […]
Book Review
Thirteen Fiefdoms: Inside the United States Courts of Appeals
Vol. 108 No. 2 (2024) | Judges Under Siege?If asked, most people — even most lawyers — would probably say that the Supreme Court is the primary arbiter of legal questions in the United States. And in a […]