Porto prepares students for case analysis and debate through systematic instruction in legal language and the legal method. The author's clear, conversational writing style gives students a "shirt-sleeves" approach to legal terminology and reasoning, helping to alleviate students' apprehensions about learning the complex language and sentence structure of legal documents.

The Craft of Legal Reasoning

Porto, Brian L.

Jillson, Calvin C.

Harcourt College Pub.

This dynamic new judicial process text is a practical, comprehensive, and engaging introduction to our judicial system. May It Please the Court is unique in two important ways: 1) it offers students an insider's view of the courts not found in other texts, and 2) it gives equal attention to the effects of both political and legal influences, respectively, on judicial decisions. Other texts stress the impact of political influences on the judicial process, but understate the impact of legal influences: this text shows that the judicial process operates at the intersection of law and politics, and that it is necessary to understand both law and politics in order to know how courts work. The author, Brian Porto, is a practicing lawyer as well as a political scientist and brings his years of real-world experience to bear on his text. As a result, May It Please the Court offers a realistic view of the courts, including their day-to-day procedures, and

May It Please the Court: Judicial Processes and Politics in America

Criminal Law

Pearson

May It Please the Court: Judicial Processes and Politics In America

This practical, comprehensive, and engaging introduction to the American judicial system is designed primarily for undergraduate students in criminal justice, liberal arts, political science, and beginning law. It differs from other texts not only by delivering an insider’s view of the courts, but also by demonstrating how the judicial process operates at the intersection of law and politics. Unlike the many dull and inaccessible texts in this field, May It Please The Court conveys the human drama of civil and criminal litigation. With an updated epilogue, case studies, and discussion questions, this third edition is a robust resource for criminal justice students.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Routledge

Despite their clarity and sophistication, most judicial process texts currently available have two significant limitations. First, they understate the effects of legal factors such as stare decisis on judicial decision-making and second, they fail to convey the human emotions involved in litigation. Reflecting the author’s experience as a political scientist, law student, judicial clerk, practicing attorney, and law professor, May It Please the Court: Judicial Processes and Politics in America, Second Edition redresses this imbalance by giving well-deserved attention to legal influences on judicial decisions and to the human drama of litigation. Each chapter reflects the book’s premise that the judicial process operates at the intersection of law and politics, and this theme guides the discussions. The coverage in the book is far-reaching, exploring numerous topics, including the structure of federal and state courts, the selection and removal of judges, and the legal profession’s history and culture. It discusses two hypothetical cases, outlining their trial and appellate proceedings. It also presents an engaging debate about the legitimacy and the utility of judicial policy making. New to this edition: <ul>
<li>Expanded appendices, including a discussion of computerized legal research</li> <li>New illustrative cases, documents, and web references</li> <li>All chapters updated to reflect changes since the first publication in 2001</li> </ul> The final chapter summarizes the theme of the book, noting that courts not only enforce norms and resolve disputes, but also, as a coequal branch of government, shape the fundamental power relationships that drive American politics. The chapter ends by observing that the judicial process offers a window on the entire American political system. This book clarifies the view from that window.

May It Please the Court: Judicial Processes and Politics in America, Second Edition

Business & Money

Economics

CRC-Press

Rhetoric, Persuasion, and Modern Legal Writing: The Pen Is Mightier

Classical, rhetorical techniques can enhance the persuasiveness of Supreme Court opinions by making their language clear, lively, and memorable. This book focuses on three techniques, "invention" (creation of arguments), "arrangement" (organization), and "style" (word choice) in the work of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Robert Jackson, Hugo Black, William Brennan, and Antonin Scalia, respectively. The justices featured here contributed to the Court's rhetorical legacy in different ways, but all five rejected the magisterial opinion style of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in favor of a more personal and conversational format. Because of this, their opinions have endured, at least in part, and while modern speakers may not recall the authors, they understand and embrace the ideas expressed in their legal writings and continue to apply it to current debates. This book can be used by practicing lawyers as well as academics not only to study legal writing techniques but also as a tool to improve their own.

Legal Education

Lexington Books

May It Please the Court, Third Edition

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Books by Porto, Brian L.