Finding info about circuit courts Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm going to be interning for a Circuit Court judge (not 9th, 7th nor 2nd district) and I'm trying to find information on the Court and the Judge. Mainly if the circuit is mostly liberal, conservative, etc. and the same with my judge, there just doesnt seem to be a lot of info outside of the bigger circuits.

Thanks!

[traydeuce]

This won't matter to you, or at least it won't matter in the way you think it does. Odds are most of your internship will involve habeas/sentencing, so what actually matters is how your judge feels about that - which does not necessarily map onto left-right dichotomies. That said, just PM me with your judge/circuit and I'll probably be able to speak to him/her and the circuit, having spent an enormous amount of time basically researching every coa judge out there for my clerkship apps. (I could suggest you look at almanac of the judiciary but it's pretty worthless.)

[JusticeHarlan]

If you have the time/inclination/neurosis, you can run a terms and connectors search on Westlaw to find opinions written by your judge.

[IAFG]

If you have the time/inclination/neurosis, you can run a terms and connectors search on Westlaw to find opinions written by your judge.

Yup, just ju(name) after you narrow by the circuit.

[traydeuce]

If you have the time/inclination/neurosis, you can run a terms and connectors search on Westlaw to find opinions written by your judge.

A pretty tough way for a 1L to figure out his judge's leanings. Even your average, say, 6th circuit liberal is going to reach what one could call a conservative result much more often than not. Maybe the quickest way to do this is to search for your judge's dissents [Frankfurter /s dissenting] and see where they come out. The harder a case (and the fact that a case isn't unanimous usually suggests it's a hard case), the more a judge's leanings emerge.

[JusticeHarlan]

If you have the time/inclination/neurosis, you can run a terms and connectors search on Westlaw to find opinions written by your judge.

A pretty tough way for a 1L to figure out his judge's leanings. Even your average, say, 6th circuit liberal is going to reach what one could call a conservative result much more often than not. Maybe the quickest way to do this is to search for your judge's dissents [Frankfurter /s dissenting] and see where they come out. The harder a case (and the fact that a case isn't unanimous usually suggests it's a hard case), the more a judge's leanings emerge.

You can just do DIS(lastname) to get dissenting opinions.