Josh Blackman is a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and the President of the Harlan Institute. Follow him @JoshMBlackman.
Josh Blackman
Latest from Josh Blackman
Progressive Groups to Senator Durbin: Judicial Conference "Watered Down" and "Bow[ed] Down" To Opposition
Now, for better or worse, the Judicial Conference has shown itself to be pliable by the political currents.
Breaking: Northern District of Texas Issues Nationwide Injunction Against Judicial Conference "Guidance" Document.
This court will not "make any change to our case assignment process at this time."
Video: ABA Midyear Meeting Panel on Viewpoint Diversity
Are the ABA and the legal profession doing enough to promote viewpoint diversity?
The Court Should Cast Doubt On Havens Realty "Diversion" Standing and Establishment Clause "Offended Observer" Standing
If Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine lacks standing, so should progressive groups.
SCOTUS: Unexplained Stays For Me, But Not For Thee
In the Trump immunity case, SCOTUS effectively granted a stay without considering the likelihood of success on the merits.
Tablet Magazine on Tillman: "A thinker whose mind hasn't been corrupted by politics."
Tillman on most things: "There are multiple aspects of the standard narrative ... that just don’t make any sense and that people just have mindlessly repeated for almost two centuries now,”
New Amicus Brief: Special Counsel Jack Smith Is Not An "Officer of the United States"
At most, Smith’s temporary position is properly characterized as a mere “employee.” To paraphrase Justice Scalia’s Morrison v. Olson dissent, this employee came as an employee.
Harlan Institute-Ashbrook Virtual Supreme Court Finalists
The top 8 teams presented oral argument in Moody v. NetChoice.
Progressive Lawyers Engage In Actual Judge Shopping In Alabama
"Surreptitious Steps" to draw a Carter appointee in a deep red state demonstrate why the Judicial Conference's policy would not work.
Justice Barrett's concurrence in McCraw will increase the number of emergency appeals on the Shadow Docket
The Shadow Docket giveth, The Shadow Docket taketh away
Who is responsible for the 5th Circuit's alleged "troubling habit of leaving 'administrative' stays in place for weeks if not months"?
The worst offender is not Jim Ho, but Carl Stewart.
The Sequel to Doe v. Mills: Justice Barrett Tightens The Screws On The Shadow Docket
The center of the Court wants to push back on temporary administrative stays and the Fifth Circuit.
The Priorities of the Judicial Conference of the United States
Rather than addressing bankruptcy and patent forum and judge shopping, on which there is a large bipartisan consensus, the Judicial Conference rushed through a botched proposal in response to political pressure and Twitter noise.
A Numbers Game: Who Would The Judicial Conference's New Policy Help And Who Would It Hurt?
It will be harder for conservative litigants in blue states and liberal litigants in red states to obtain statewide relief. It will be harder for conservative litigants in red states to obtain nationwide relief. Liberal litigants will have virtually unchanged odds to obtain nationwide relief.
Where does the Judicial Conference Get the Authority To Mandate Case Assignments?
A general power to issue orders to judicial employees does not trump a specific power for district courts to make their own rules about case assignments.
How Many Judges Sit In Single Judge Divisions?
And how many of those judges have issued national injunctions?
Senators McConnell, Cornyn, and Tillis Send Letters To Chief Judges About Judicial Conference "Policy"
"It is Congress that decides how cases should be assigned in the inferior courts and Congress has already spoken on this issue in an enacted statute."
The Judicial Conference's New "Policy" Demonstrates Why Judges Should Not Make Policy
The way to depoliticize the courts is to depoliticize the courts.
The Judicial Conference Legislates From The Shadow Docket
The Chief Justice and his associates target only one type of forum shopping in response to political criticism through a secret policy that will not be released for months.