Litigation
Cal. Litig. 2018, Volume 31 Number 2
Content
- Blood From a Stone: the Ongoing Judicial Crisis in the Eastern District of California Enters its Final Stage
- Book Review - Impeachment: a Citizen's Guide by Cass R. Sunstein To End a Presidency: the Power of Impeachment by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz
- Editor's Foreword: the East, is (in. the) Red!
- From the Section Chair
- Golden Opportunities for the Golden State: the Rise of International Arbitration in California
- How Jurors View Attorneys: It All Starts With Voir Dire
- Left at the Altar: Scotus Promises to Clarify its Cryptic Marks Rule for Divining the Precedential Impact of Plurality Decisions — But Doesn't
- Masthead
- Opening Statements: "It Was a Dark and Windy Night ..."
- Past Chairs of the Litigation Section
- Past Editors-in-Chief
- Table of Contents
- The Intersection of Bankruptcy and Civil Litigation: Know Enough to Avoid Peril!
- Book Review - the Judge: 26 Machiavellian LessonsBy Ronald K.L. Collins & David M. Skover
Book Review – The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons By Ronald K.L. Collins & David M. Skover
Reviewed By Lawrence LaPorte
Immediately after President Donald Trump’s July 9, 2018, nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, millions of dollars of television advertising began to run in swing states across the nation in an attempt to sway public support—and by extension vulnerable senators up for re-election—for or against the nominee. According to both political parties, the stakes are high, as the next Justice will replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, the current "swing vote" on the Court. Presaging a potential raucous political battle, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer promised to "oppose Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination with everything I have." The confirmation hearings before the Judiciary Committee and sunsequent Senate vote could quickly become the most politically polarizing since the 1987 Robert Bork hearings. The current political theater could easily, if not inevitably, devolve into an all-out circus, as the confirmation hearings are scheduled to occur in September, before the November midterm elections.
[Page 40]
While committee hearings are nominally designed to discern a nominee’s judicial philosophy as it relates to important legal issues, there are no doubt committee members, especially those up for re-election, who will find it difficult to stay focused on mundane issues like the role of stare decisis. The opportunity to score points on political issues that spill over into the federal courts may prove too enticing. But Kavanaugh’s testimony will no doubt provide some indication of how he would likely vote on the important legal issues of our time. For citizens and senators alike seeking to divine how the nominee may decide future cases, one recent book, The Judge, 26 Machiavellian Lessons, is insightful and informs the reader, perhaps more deeply than any other source, on how a future Justice Kavanaugh might vote on key cases and therefore tilt the balance of the current Supreme Court.