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Thermtron: The Unsexy Case the Current Court Should Overturn (Statutory Stare Decisis Be Damned)
No full textSince 1887, Congress has created an impenetrable dike wall to stop appellate review of remand orders in 28 U.S.C. § 1447(d), which provides: “An order remanding a case to the State court from which it was removed is not reviewable on appeal or otherwise . . . .” Then, in 1976, the Supreme Court held “that § 1447(d) does not mean what it says” and, thereby, punctured not a tiny hole, but a big one in Congress’s dike wall that had been impenetrable for nearly 90 years. While you won’t find Thermtron—an unsexy jurisdictional case—on any list of the worst Supreme Court decisions, Thermtron was and is (in a word) disastrous, and the time is ripe to overturn it (statutory stare decisis be damned). Not only is it almost universally agreed that Thermtron was “egregiously wrong as a matter of law” when decided, the fallout from Thermtron has been and still is uncontainable. The Supreme Court has stepped in nine times to interpret § 1447(d), and, despite nine opinions on the applicability and meaning of § 1447(d) post-Thermtron, there are still serious circuit splits and confusion. This Article outlines the many current splits and state of confusion in the inter mediate courts. It also conducts a deep dive into the most recent circuit court of appeals cases—those from January 1, 2022, to February 1, 2025—with the goal of understanding how intermediate appellate courts are presently dealing with the Thermtron fallout, and also specifically why and how § 1447(d) issues are still arising. It concludes that the vast majority of the cases where the courts of appeal are reviewing remand orders lack even a good-faith basis for appeal, such that the Thermtron effect has been (and still is) that defendants are delaying justice with “routine” review of remand orders opposite Congress’s intent. This Article then, applying the Supreme Court’s most recent opinion involving statutory stare decisis, argues that Thermtron should be overturned because it is the poster child for a case worthy of departing from statutory stare decisis. Last, this Article conducts an analysis of the current Court and argues that, if presented squarely with the question as to whether this Court should overturn Thermtron, it is likely that the answer would be “yes” for a majority of the Court
The Blackstone ratio, modified
No full textIn his discussion of evidentiary policies, Blackstone famously noted that ‘it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer’ (Blackstone 1769). The conventional wisdom among lawyers, judges as well as academics holds that accepting this statement as a maxim necessitates the adoption of pro-defendant evidentiary rules. It is also commonly believed that costs associated with false convictions being greater than those associated with failures to punish offenders due to the presence of punishment costs provides a utilitarian rationale for Blackstonian principles. After formalizing Blackstone ratios (either as marginal rates of substitution or, alternatively, as the ratio between quantities of errors), I show these conventional views are incorrect. I then propose a simple modification of the Blackstone ratio, which shifts the focus from aggregate outcomes to consequences for individuals within the criminal justice system. This modification better aligns commonly held views about the Blackstone ratio with its actual implications and justifications
Disposing of Misdemeanors: An Empirical Perspective
No full textWhile the U.S. Supreme Court has characterized the criminal legal system as a “system of pleas,” new empirical evidence suggests that, at least for misdemeanors, it is more accurately described as a system of dismissals. This Article draws on New York’s Pretrial Release Dataset, a unique publicly available administrative dataset that, to date, includes over 1.3 million criminal cases with 112 variables, of which 914,521 are misdemeanors. No other state in the country has made comparable criminal case-processing data publicly accessible at this scale. Using this dataset, the Article examines criminal case processing in ways that were not previously possible, shedding new light on plea bargaining, prosecutorial actions, and case outcomes. The data reveal that nearly 60 percent of misdemeanor cases statewide are dismissed, with dismissal rates reaching as high as 73 percent in some counties, particularly in New York City—findings that fundamentally challenge prevailing assumptions about the centrality of plea bargaining in misdemeanor adjudication. The Article analyzes dismissal rates and reasons for dismissal across counties and offense types, explores whether different forms of legal representation affect outcomes, and documents racial and ethnic disparities. Finally, it demonstrates how administrative data can be used to model misdemeanor case processing and to better inform practicing lawyers about strategic decision-making, including when to advise clients to delay accepting plea offers. These findings underscore the need for greater data transparency, improved prosecutorial screening, and more informed lawyering, with implications for misdemeanor reform well beyond New York
WOCC Women\u27s History Month Book Display 11
No full textClose up of book display created by Women of Color Collective in the law library March 2025 highlighting the book And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou.
“I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it\u27s like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again.” Maya Angelou\u27s poetry - lyrical and dramatic, exuberant and playful - speaks of love, longing, partings; of Saturday night partying, and the smells and sounds of Southern cities; of freedom and shattered dreams. ISBN: 978-0349013572.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/womens-history-month-2025-photos/1011/thumbnail.jp
WOCC Women\u27s History Month Book Display 06
No full textClose up of book display created by Women of Color Collective in the law library March 2025 highlighting the book Fighter in Velvet Gloves: Alaska Civil Rights Hero Elizabeth Peratrovich by Annie Boochever, Roy Peratrovich, Jr.
“No Natives or Dogs Allowed,” blared the storefront sign at Elizabeth Peratrovich, then a young Alaska Native Tlingit. The sting of those words would stay with her all her life. Years later, after becoming a seasoned fighter for equality, she would deliver her own powerful message: one that helped change Alaska and the nation forever. In 1945, Peratrovich stood before the Alaska Territorial Legislative Session and gave a powerful speech about her childhood and her experiences being treated as a second-class citizen. Her heartfelt testimony led to the passing of the landmark Alaska Anti-Discrimination Act, America’s first civil rights legislation. Today, Alaska celebrates Elizabeth Peratrovich Day every February 16. ISBN: 978-1602233706https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/womens-history-month-2025-photos/1006/thumbnail.jp
WOCC Women\u27s History Month Book Display 03
No full textClose up of book display created by Women of Color Collective in the law library March 2024 highlighting the book Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall, Hugo Martinez.
Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour-de-force that tells the “powerful” (The New York Times Book Review) story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall’s efforts to uncover the truth about these women warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record. ISBN: 978-1982115180.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/womens-history-month-2025-photos/1003/thumbnail.jp
Constitution Day Sept 2025 Book Display 01
No full textCollection of books on display commemorating the celebration of Constitution & Citizenship Day on display in the law library September 2025.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/constitution-day-2025-photos/1000/thumbnail.jp
Dia De Los Muertos 2025 Display 04
No full textClose-up of the Ofrenda on the display honoring the Day of the Dead.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/los-muertos-2025-photos/1003/thumbnail.jp
Pro Bono Week Oct 2025 Book Display 06
No full textClose-up shot of the book, Legal Aid in the United States by Emery A. Brownell in display for National Pro Bono Week in the law library October 2025.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/pro-bono-week-2025-photos/1006/thumbnail.jp
Indigenous Women Book Display 2025 08
No full textClose up of book display created by Women of Color Collective in the law library October 2025 highlighting the book Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec.https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/indigenous-women-2025-photos/1005/thumbnail.jp