The Steps to the Supreme Court

Peter Irons

Description

A guide to the American legal system, told through the story of two actual court cases

The Steps to the Supreme Court takes a lively, narrative approach to the subject by following two real cases--one civil, one criminal--as they work their way through the system all the way up to the Supreme Court. Written by a member of the Supreme Court bar, this book brings the legal system to life in a practical, accessible, and compelling way.

• Covers the key legal terms, principles, and processes you need to have a basic grasp of the American legal system
• Tracks the criminal case involving the murder trial of Paul House and follows the defendant from the night of the murder through his conviction, appeals, and final chance for exoneration at the hands of the Supreme Court
• Follows a civil case concerning the Ten Commandments being displayed on public property, following the parties from the time the plaintiffs filed their complaints through the Supreme Court decisions and back to the aftermath in the lower courts as they wrestle with a divided complex ruling
• Written by the author of A People's History of the Supreme Court, and other classic works on the American justice system

Preface "How Did You Get Here?" vii

Introduction "The Judicial Power of the United States": How Our Courts Were Framed and How They Function 1

Part I "No Reasonable Juror": The Death-Row Ordeal of Paul House

1 The Murder of Carolyn Muncey 27

2 The Murder Trial of Paul House 43

3 Paul House's Appeals in the Tennessee State Courts 69

4 Paul House's Federal Habeas Corpus Petition and Hearing 75

5 Paul House Seeks Relief from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals 103

6 Paul House's Appeal to the United States Supreme Court 111

7 The House Case Returns to the Federal and State Courts 127

Part II "An Establishment of Religion": The Ten Commandments and Crosses in the Courts

8 A Tale of Two Cities and Two Cases 141

9 The Hearings and the Opinions in the McCreary County and Van Orden Cases 167

10 The Supreme Court Appeals in the Ten Commandments Cases 175

11 The Impact of Justice Breyer's Concurrence on Pending Ten Commandments Cases 193

12 The Infl uence of Politics in Religion Cases: The Mt. Soledad Cross Case 213

13 Religious Politics, Judicial Snarls, and the Mojave Desert Cross Case 241

Conclusion 253

Appendix of Supreme Court Opinions 257

I. Opinions in House v. Bell 257

II. Opinions in McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky 280

III. Opinions in Van Orden v. Perry 305

Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading 325

Index 329

Sujets

• Judicial Branch
• American Government
• Political Science
• Law of the United States
• Peter H. Irons
• Supreme Court of the United States
• Cour suprême
• Cour suprême des États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 16 mars 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781118138069
• Langue: English

Extrait

Contents
Preface: How Did You Get Here?
Introduction: The Judicial Power of the United States : How Our Courts Were Framed and How They Function
Part I: No Reasonable Juror : The Death-Row Ordeal of Paul House
Chapter 1: The Murder of Carolyn Muncey
The Turning Points in a Criminal Case
Chapter 2: The Murder Trial of Paul House
Setting a Time Frame for Carolyn Muncey s Disappearance
Billy Ray Hensley Takes a Glance Down Ridgecrest Road
Paul House s Phony Alibi and the Discovery of His Blood-Spotted Jeans
Nailing Down the Time Frame and the Cause of Carolyn Muncey s Death
The 93 Percent Probability That Carolyn Muncey s Blood Was on House s Jeans
Paul House s Defense against the Murder Charge
Closing Arguments from the Lawyers
Judge Porter s Charge, the Jurors Verdict, and the Sentencing Hearing
Chapter 3: Paul House s Appeals in the Tennessee State Courts
Chapter 4: Paul House s Federal Habeas Corpus Petition and Hearing
Little Hube Muncey s Abuse of Carolyn, His Concocted Alibi, and His Confession
Little Hube s Semen and Carolyn Muncey s Blood
Prosecutorial Misconduct, Ineffective Counsel, or Both?
The State s Lawyers Counter the Claims of a Flawed Trial
Little Hube Muncey and Paul House Finally Take the Stand
Judge Jarvis Delivers His Verdict
Chapter 5: Paul House Seeks Relief from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Eight Judges Uphold Judge Jarvis s Denial of Habeas Relief
Seven Judges Dissent from the Majority s Ruling
Chapter 6: Paul House s Appeal to the United States Supreme Court
Oral Argument in the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court Decides the House Case
Chapter 7: The House Case Returns to the Federal and State Courts
The Final Rounds in the Federal and State Courts
An Evaluation of the House Case
Part II: An Establishment of Religion : The Ten Commandments and Crosses in the Courts
Chapter 8: A Tale of Two Cities and Two Cases
The Ten Commandments Case from Austin, Texas
Filing the Complaints in the Kentucky and Texas Cases
A Side Trip to a Law School Classroom
Chapter 9: The Hearings and the Opinions in the McCreary County and Van Orden Cases
Van Orden s Day in Federal Court
The Counties Appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Van Orden s Appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
Chapter 10: The Supreme Court Appeals in the Ten Commandments Cases
Oral Argument in the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court Opinions in the Ten Commandments Cases
Chapter 11: The Impact of Justice Breyer s Concurrence on Pending Ten Commandments Cases
The Eagles Monument in Plattsmouth, Nebraska
Another Eagles Monument in Everett, Washington
The Lord Had Burdened My Heart -The Ten Commandments Monument in Haskell County, Oklahoma
We All Love Jesus Christ -The Ten Commandments Display in Grayson County, Kentucky
Chapter 12: The Influence of Politics in Religion Cases: The Mt. Soledad Cross Case
The Legal Challenge to the Easter Cross
Putting the Easter Cross to a Vote
A Second Effort to Sell the Easter Cross
A Third Effort to Sell the Easter Cross
Asking Congress to Save the Easter Cross
The Cross Case Moves to State Court
Back to Congress with Another Plan to Save the Cross
Back to the Federal Courts with a New Lawsuit
Chapter 13: Religious Politics, Judicial Snarls, and the Mojave Desert Cross Case
The Supreme Court Looks at the Land Swap Deal
An Evaluation of the Ten Commandments and Cross Cases
Conclusion
Appendix of Supreme Court Opinions
I. Opinions in House v. Bell
II. Opinions in McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky
III. Opinions in Van Orden v. Perry
Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading
Index
Also by Peter Irons
The New Deal Lawyers
Justice at War: The Story of the Japanese American Internment Cases
The Courage of Their Convictions: Sixteen Americans Who Fought Their Way to the Supreme Court
Justice Delayed: The Record of the Japanese American Internment Cases (edited, with an introductory essay)
Brennan Vs. Rehnquist: The Battle For the Constitution
A People s History of the Supreme Court
Jim Crow s Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision
Cases and Controversies: Civil Rights and Liberties in Context (edited casebook)
War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution
God on Trial: Dispatches From America s Religious Battlefields

Copyright 2012 by Peter Irons. All rights reserved
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Published simultaneously in Canada
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Preface
How Did You Get Here?
There s an old story, perhaps apocryphal, about an exchange between former Justice Felix Frankfurter and a lawyer from Texas, making his first argument in the Supreme Court. Frankfurter asked, How did you get here? The puzzled lawyer paused and then replied, I took a train from Houston to Washington, and a cab from Union Station to the Court. After the courtroom laughter subsided, the red-faced lawyer realized that Frankfurter was asking how his case got to the Court, not about his own travel. Frankfurter, a stickler for procedural regularity, may have spotted a problem in the case record and wanted it clarified.
I ve tried to track this story down, with no success yet, but it does make a point that I ll develop in this book, whether it s true or not. Most people have no idea how the cases the justices decide each year-fewer than 2 percent of those they are asked to review-get to the Supreme Court for argument, a process that often takes four or five years between their initial filing in a state or federal court and their final decision.
Justice Frankfurter s question to the neophyte lawyer-if he really did ask it-was not meant to be facetious or badgering. Frankfurter was the acknowledged expert on Supreme Court procedure; as a Harvard Law School professor before he was named to the Court in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he had cowritten a classic book, The Business of the Supreme Court , and was a leading force behind congressional passage of the Judiciary Act of 1925. This law gave the justices discretionary jurisdiction over which cases they would hear and decide and freed them from a deluge of what Frankfurter called peewee cases that wasted the Court s time. As we will see throughout this book, the concept and exercise of discretion are essential at every stage of the legal process, allowing judges to focus on cases that raise important questions. There are still peewee cases, but few of them reach the Supreme Court or even come to trial.
By the end of our tour, we will have visited twenty courtrooms in thirteen states and the District of Columbia, in cases that were heard and decided by more than a hundred judges and argued by more than thirty lawyers on both sides. My role as your tour guide is to explain each step in the legal process and to leave you with a better understanding of both the strengths and the weaknesses of a system that affects the lives of every American. I have tried to explain legal terms and concepts in plain English, in case they may not be familiar to all readers, and I have placed many words and phrases in boldface type, both for emphasis and to assist readers, especially students, in taking notes (because certain words and phrases might appear in legal documents or on exams).
The aim of this book is to discuss a few cases, both civil and criminal, in enough depth so that readers can follow each step in the legal process and understand what lawyers and judges were doing and also to meet the people involved on both sides of these cases. I chose the Paul House murder case from Tennessee for several reasons. First, there is no more serious criminal offense than murder, and the charge against House, once I read the Supreme Court opinion on his c