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During the second day of confirmation hearings for Samuel
Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, Senator Mike DeWine
(R-Ohio) made note of the Seton Hall Circuit Review,
a legal journal started by Seton Hall University School of
Law students in 2005. Then on day four of the hearings,
Alito remarked that teaching at Seton Hall Law had provided
him with valuable experience in the benefits of diversity.
“A couple of years ago, as an adjunct law professor at Seton
Hall Law School, I taught a seminar on civil liberties and
terrorism,” said Alilto. “And the first time I conducted the
class, we had a class with people of extremely diverse
backgrounds relating to this issue. There was a student who
had been in the special forces in Bosnia. There was a
student who was a Muslim from the Middle East. There were a
number of students who had been personally affected, in one
way or another, by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center. There were students who felt very strongly about
civil liberties. And having these people in the class with
diverse backgrounds and outlooks on the issues that we were
discussing made an enormous contribution to the class.”
DeWine’s comments about the Seton Hall Circuit Review
were made while questioning Alito about the "incredible
shrinking" number of cases on the Supreme Court docket. "As
we all know, a circuit split occurs (when) two or more
federal courts of appeals disagree on the issue of federal
law," said DeWine. "As of late, circuit splits have become
so pervasive that the Seton Hall Law School came out last
year with a new law review dedicated exclusively to that
issue."
Third-year
Law School student Austin Berry, founder and editor-in-chief
of Seton Hall Circuit Review, explains that the
journal "was founded on the recognition that thousands of
cases are appealed to the Supreme Court, but only a handful
are ever reviewed, leaving the reins of judicial power in
the hands of circuit judges."
Alito, who
has taught a number of courses at Seton Hall Law, wrote the
foreword for the Spring 2005 inaugural issue. "It will come
as no surprise that a court of appeals judge welcomes the
arrival of a new journal devoted to the study of the courts
of appeals," wrote Alito in his foreword. "Each year the
courts of appeals decide more than 30,000 appeals, and fewer
than 100 of these cases are reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Thus, for the overwhelming majority of federal litigants,
the court of appeals represents the court of last resort."
The
Seton Hall Circuit Review can be found online at
http://law.shu.edu/journals/circuitreview/index.html. |
