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Frank Hoover Easterbrook (born 1948) is Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Court of Appeal, Court of Appeals, and Appellate Division redirect here for a list of specific courts using those titles see Court of Appeal The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is a federal court with Appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts He has been Chief Judge since November 2006, and has been a judge on the court since 1985. Easterbrook is noted for his use of economic analysis of law, his legalist approach to judicial interpretation, for his clear writing style, and for being one of the most prolific judges of his generation. Law and Economics, or economic analysis of law is an approach to Legal theory that applies methods of Economics to law Legalism, in the Western sense is an approach to the analysis of legal questions characterized by abstract logical reasoning focusing on the applicable legal text such as a Easterbrook is one of the most prolific and most cited appellate judges in America. [1]

Contents

Early career

Chief Judge Easterbrook was born in Buffalo, New York on September 3, 1948, the son of George Easterbrook, a dentist, and Vimy Easterbrook. Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Events 36 BC - In the Battle of Naulochus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Admiral of Octavian, defeats Sextus Pompeius Year 1948 ( MCMXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. His undergraduate education was at Swarthmore College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received his degree with high honors. Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1500 students The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic Honor society with the mission of "fostering and recognizing excellence" in the Undergraduate Liberal arts He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Chicago Law School (where he was an editor of the law review with Douglas H. Ginsburg and a member of the Order of the Coif) in 1973, and then clerked for Judge Levin Hicks Campbell on the First Circuit. Juris Doctor (abbreviated JD or JD, from the Latin, Teacher of Law) is a first professional graduate degree and Professional The University of Chicago Law School, having recently celebrated its centennial in the 2002-2003 school year has established itself as a high profile part of the University of The University of Chicago Law Review is a law journal published by the University of Chicago Law School and was founded in 1933 Douglas Howard Ginsburg (born May 25, 1946) is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Order of the Coif is an Honor society for United States law school graduates Levin Hicks Campbell (born 1927 in Summit New Jersey) is an American federal Appellate Judge, serving on the United States Court The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is a federal court with Appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts

In 1974, along with Danny Boggs and Robert Reich, he joined the Solicitor General's office as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and was promoted in 1978 to Deputy Solicitor General for the Justice Department. Danny Julian Boggs (born October 23, 1944 in Havana, Cuba) is the Chief Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Robert Bernard Reich (born June 24, 1945) is an American politician academic writer and political commentator The United States Solicitor General is the individual appointed to argue for the Government of the United States in front of the Supreme Court of the United States The solicitor general at the time was Robert Bork, and Easterbrook has wryly reminisced that when he joined the Solicitor General's office, "The Washington Post noted that around the same time the SG's Office had hired three lawyers either fresh from clerkships or lacking the customary appellate experience. Robert Heron Bork (born March 1, 1927) is a conservative American legal scholar who advocates the judicial philosophy of Originalism. None of us had clerked on the Supreme Court. The Post concluded that good lawyers were no longer willing to work for the SG and attributed this to Bork's role in firing Archibald Cox as Watergate special prosecutor. The paper thought that dark days lay ahead for the Office with a second-rate staff. The three bottom-of-the-barrel selections were Robert Reich (later Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration), Danny Boggs (now Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit), and me. Robert Bernard Reich (born June 24, 1945) is an American politician academic writer and political commentator Danny Julian Boggs (born October 23, 1944 in Havana, Cuba) is the Chief Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth "[2]

Easterbrook joined the faculty of the University of Chicago Law School in 1978 (and is still a senior lecturer there today), and was a principal at Lexecon from 1980 until his judicial appointment. The University of Chicago Law School, having recently celebrated its centennial in the 2002-2003 school year has established itself as a high profile part of the University of Easterbrook argued twenty cases before the Supreme Court while in the Solicitor General's office and in private practice, including several landmark antitrust cases.

Nomination and judicial career

Chief Judge Easterbrook was nominated to the court by Ronald Reagan in August 1984 to a new seat created by 98 Stat. 333, 346; the U.S. Senate did not act on his nomination that year, and he was re-nominated in Reagan's second term on February 25, 1985. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives Events 138 - The Emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius, effectively making him his successor Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) He was confirmed by the Senate on April 3, 1985, and received his commission the next day. Events 1043 - Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) The American Bar Association gave Easterbrook a low "qualified/not qualified" rating, presumably due to his youth and relative inexperience. The American Bar Association ( ABA) founded August 21 1878 is a voluntary Bar association of Lawyers and law students which is not specific In 2001, this rating was claimed by the George W. Bush administration as evidence of liberal bias in the ABA in its historic announcement that it would no longer confer with the ABA in selecting judicial nominees. George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States.

Among Chief Judge Easterbrook's most prominent opinions are:

Easterbrook attempts to make difficult legal issues more readily understandable through incisive and vivid writing. As a young judge in one of his early opinions, Kirchoff v. Flynn, 786 F. 2d 320 (CA7 1986), a lawsuit over an arrest for feeding pigeons in a park, Easterbrook used such language as "trundled to the squadrol" to describe an arrest; and states of the pigeon-feeder that she "will never be confused with the 30th Earl of Mar, whose hobby was kicking pigeons. " He describes a controversy over whether a police officer, or the plaintiff's own bird, had attacked the plaintiff thusly: "[Plaintiff] says that he was clobbered by a pair of handcuffs; [the officer] maintains that the [plaintiffs]' red macaw drew the blood when it landed on [plaintiff]'s head during the fracas and started pecking. " In a footnote Easterbrook added "Predatory birds rarely attack large animals whose eyes they can see, 11 Harv. Med. School Health Letter 8 (Feb. 1986), and perhaps William's eyes got distracted, to his macaw's glee. " This serves as an example of Easterbrook's sophisticated deftness with language and breadth of knowledge. This deftness sometimes, however, results in passages from his opinions that require dictionaries in order for a layman to understand, such as in Frantz v. U. S. Powerlifting Federation, 836 F. 2d 1063 (7th Cir. 1987), where he wrote, "The absence of ineluctable answers does not imply the privilege to indulge an unexamined gestalt. "

In his worst moments, however, he has sometimes been described as caustic, arrogant, and rude. He is particularly demanding during oral argument. In Schlessinger v. Salimes (1996)[10], for example, he characterized the plaintiff's arguments as "goofy" and "nutty" before issuing a rule to show cause why the appellant and lawyer should not be sanctioned for frivolous appeal. His demeanor has won him enemies in the bar. In 1994, the Chicago Council of Lawyers published an "evaluation" of the Seventh Circuit[11] that evaluated all the judges and the court's procedures in general, but notably focused extensively on only two: Easterbrook and then-chief judge Richard Posner. Richard Allen Posner (born January 11 1939 in New York City) is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago The evaluation of Easterbrook contains an unusual number of grievances; and the Council did not specify authorship, so the criticism is anonymous. In a section devoted to Easterbrook's judicial demeanor[12], the report claims he "has consistently displayed a temperament that is improper for a Circuit Judge. While Judge Easterbrook has many good qualities, there is a widespread belief that he is arrogant and intolerant with those who do not match his own intellectual level. This problem seriously interferes with the performance of his duties. " The report continued to state Easterbrook "has been resoundingly and repeatedly criticized as being extremely rude to attorneys at oral argument" and that "some attorneys" said that due to the judge's demeanor they and their clients did not feel they got a fair hearing. The Council pointed to another opinion, Kale v. Obuchowski[13], which derided a lawyer's argument as "pettifoggery" and concluded "This is a frivolous, doomed and sanctionable appeal. " The Council argued that even if the lawyer's conduct was sanctionable "the language chosen does not enhance the administration of justice. "

However, this review by the Council was never repeated, lending partial support to the defenders of Easterbrook and Posner that the report was an opportunity for anonymous venting by lawyers who were unhappy with the results of Seventh Circuit decisions, in no small part thanks to the decisions of Reagan appointees Easterbrook and Posner. Posner has recently commented about the report, "You have here some anonymous people who are talking to the Chicago Council of Lawyers. How much credence should we put on these people?" he says. "They can be sore losers. They can be crybabies. "[14]

Academic work

Easterbrook's academic work focuses on corporate law, particularly the 1991 book The Economic Structure of Corporate Law, which he co-authored with Daniel Fischel. Corporate law (also "company" or "corporations" law is the Law of the most dominant kind of business enterprise in the modern world Daniel R Fischel (1950 -) is the emeritus Lee and Brena Freeman Professor of Law and Business and former Dean of University of Chicago Law School, and a co-founder Easterbrook's article The Proper Role of a Target's Management in Responding to a Tender Offer, 94 Harv. L. Rev. 1161 (1981) (also co-authored with Fischel) is the most heavily cited corporate law article in legal scholarship. Easterbrook has also written articles on antitrust law and judicial interpretation, including Abstraction and Authority, 59 U. Judicial interpretation is a theory or mode of thought that explains how the Judiciary should interpret the Law, particularly Constitutional documents Chi. L. Rev. 349 (1992); Statutes' Domains, 50 U. Chi. L. Rev. 533 (1983); and Textualism and the Dead Hand, 66 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1119 (1998).

Trivia

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Who would win a tournament of judges? - Stephen Choi, 11/10/03
  2. ^ 20 Questions for Circuit Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit - How Appealing, 8/2/04
  3. ^ American Booksellers Ass'n v. Hudnut, 771 F.2d 323 (7th Cir. 1985), affirmed summarily, 475 U.S. 1001 (1986)
  4. ^ Kirchoff v. Speculation abounded over potential nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States by George W Flynn, 786 F. 2d 320 (7th Cir. 1986)
  5. ^ In re Erickson, 815 F. 2d 1090 (7th Cir. 1987)
  6. ^ In re Sinclair, 870 F. 2d 1340 (7th Cir. 1989)
  7. ^ United States v. Van Fossan, 899 F. 2d 636 (7th Cir. 1990)
  8. ^ Miller v. South Bend, 904 F. 2d 1081 (7th Cir. 1990) (en banc) (dissenting), reversed, 501 U. S. 560 (1991)
  9. ^ United States v. Marshall, 908 F. 2d 1312 (7th Cir. 1990) (en banc), affirmed under the name Chapman v. United States, 500 U. S. 453 (1991)
  10. ^ Schlessinger v. Salimes, 100 F.3d 519 (7th Cir. 1996)
  11. ^ Evaluation of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit - Chicago Council of Lawyers
  12. ^ Judge Easterbrook's Judicial Demeanor
  13. ^ Kale v. Obuchowski, 985 F. 2d 360 (7th Cir. 1993)
  14. ^ Judging Richard - The Law School University of Chicago News 11/10/05
  15. ^ "Rising near the top of U.S. judicial hierarchy", Dan Herbeck, Buffalo News, 25 Dec 2006
  16. ^ Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse - Frank Easterbrook, 1996

External links

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