When Sonia Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme Court, I did an analysis of her habeas corpus cases. I focused on those because (1) it is the area I know the most about; and (2) it is an area where federal judges very often chafe at the governing act of Congress, so a propensity to evade a law one dislikes is likely to show up there. (It was a positive review, BTW.)
With the mention of Judge Ann Claire Williams as a possibility, I decided to take a preliminary look at her habeas cases. I will do a more thorough analysis if she is, in fact, the nominee.
There are a large number of noncapital habeas petitions denied on the merits with no oral argument and only a memorandum opinion. This is to be expected. Justice Jackson noted over half a century ago that the Supreme Court "has sanctioned progressive trivialization of the writ until floods of stale, frivolous and repetitious petitions inundate the docket of the lower courts and swell our own. Judged by our own disposition of habeas corpus matters, they have, as a class, become peculiarly undeserving." The situation has only gotten worse since then. I haven't been through this pile of Judge Williams' cases, and I expect it would tell us little if I did.
Capital cases, most of which are habeas cases, are also a good place to look, as no other area of criminal law generates so much judicial activism. I haven't been all the way through the stack yet, but about halfway through I haven't found any howlers. Nothing like, e.g., Judge Sidney Thomas's opinion in the Summerlin case, noted here.
There seems to be a fairly high number of reversals, but some of these cases involve truly ugly facts. See, e.g., Bracy v. Schomig, 286 F.3d 406 (CA7 2002) (en banc) (judge taking bribes in other cases). Judge Williams does not resolve every issue the way I would, but I have not yet found anything that causes real concern. Stay tuned.
With the mention of Judge Ann Claire Williams as a possibility, I decided to take a preliminary look at her habeas cases. I will do a more thorough analysis if she is, in fact, the nominee.
There are a large number of noncapital habeas petitions denied on the merits with no oral argument and only a memorandum opinion. This is to be expected. Justice Jackson noted over half a century ago that the Supreme Court "has sanctioned progressive trivialization of the writ until floods of stale, frivolous and repetitious petitions inundate the docket of the lower courts and swell our own. Judged by our own disposition of habeas corpus matters, they have, as a class, become peculiarly undeserving." The situation has only gotten worse since then. I haven't been through this pile of Judge Williams' cases, and I expect it would tell us little if I did.
Capital cases, most of which are habeas cases, are also a good place to look, as no other area of criminal law generates so much judicial activism. I haven't been all the way through the stack yet, but about halfway through I haven't found any howlers. Nothing like, e.g., Judge Sidney Thomas's opinion in the Summerlin case, noted here.
There seems to be a fairly high number of reversals, but some of these cases involve truly ugly facts. See, e.g., Bracy v. Schomig, 286 F.3d 406 (CA7 2002) (en banc) (judge taking bribes in other cases). Judge Williams does not resolve every issue the way I would, but I have not yet found anything that causes real concern. Stay tuned.
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