Friday, December 27, 2019

Definition and Examples of Writ of Certiorari

In the U.S. court system, a â€Å"writ of certiorari† is an order (writ) issued by a higher or â€Å"appellate† court to review decisions made by a lower court for any irregularities in legal process or procedures. Key Takeaways: Writ of Certiorari A writ of certiorari is a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal from a lower court.The word certiorari comes from a Latin word meaning â€Å"to be more fully informed.†The act of â€Å"granting certiorari† means the Supreme Court agrees to hear a case.Certiorari must be requested by submitting a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court.The Supreme Court grants only about 1.1% of the thousands of petitions for certiorari submitted each term.Denying a petition for certiorari has no effect on the lower court’s decision or the laws involved.Granting a petition for certiorari requires the affirmative votes of at least four Supreme Court justices. The word certiorari (sersh-oh-rare-ee) comes from a Latin word meaning â€Å"to be more fully informed† or â€Å"to be made certain in regard to.† The act of issuing a writ of certiorari, called â€Å"granting certiorari, often abbreviated as â€Å"granting cert,† compels the lower court to deliver all records of its proceedings in a case. Among a sea of largely obscure Latin legal terms, certiorari is of particular importance to Americans because the U.S. Supreme Court, due to its limited original jurisdiction, uses it to select most of the cases it hears.   The Supreme Court’s Writ of Certiorari Process Most cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court begin as cases decided by a trial court, such as one of the 94 U.S. District Courts. Parties dissatisfied with the trial court’s decision have the right to appeal the case to a U.S. Court of Appeals. Anyone dissatisfied with the ruling of the Court of Appeals can then ask the Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals’ decision and procedures. Supreme Court review of a Court of Appeals’ decision is requested by filing a â€Å"Petition for Writ of Certiorari† with the Supreme Court. The Petition for Writ of Certiorari must include a list of all parties involved, the facts of the case, the legal questions to be reviewed, and reasons why the Supreme Court should grant the petition. By granting the petition and issuing a writ of certiorari, the Court agrees to hear the case. Forty copies of the printed petition in bound booklet form are delivered to the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court and distributed to the justices. If the Court grants the petition, the case is scheduled for a hearing. The Supreme Court has the right to deny the Petition for Writ of Certiorari, thus refusing to hear the case. Rule 10 of the Rules of the Supreme Court specifically states: â€Å"Review on writ of certiorari is not a matter of right, but a judicial discretion. A petition for writ of certiorari will be granted only for compelling reasons.† While the full legal effect of the Supreme Court’s refusal to grant certiorari is often debated, it has no effect on the decision of the Court of Appeals. In addition, refusal to grant certiorari does not reflect the Supreme Court’s agreement or disagreement with the lower court’s decision. The Supreme Court’s refusal to grant certiorari creates no binding legal precedent, and the lower courts decision remains in effect, but only within that court’s geographical jurisdiction. Granting a Petition for Writ of Certiorari requires the positive vote of only four of the nine justices, rather than the five-vote majority required in actual case decisions. This is known as the â€Å"rule of four.† Brief Background of Certiorari Before 1891, the Supreme Court was required to hear and issue a decision on almost every case that was appealed to it by the local courts. As the United States grew, the federal judicial system was strained and the Supreme Court soon had an insurmountable backlog of cases. To address this, the Judiciary Act of 1869 first increased the number of Supreme Court Justices from seven to nine. Then, the Judiciary Act of 1891 shifted responsibility for most appeals to the newly created circuit courts of appeals. Since then, the Supreme Court only hears appealed cases at its discretion through the granting of a writ of certiorari. Reasons the Supreme Court Grants Petitions for Certiorari In deciding which petitions for certiorari it will grant, the Supreme Court strives to hear cases in which its ruling will affect the interpretation and application of the laws involved throughout the United States. In addition, the Court prefers to hear cases in which its ruling will provide definitive guidance for the lower courts. While there are no hard-and-fast rules, the Supreme Court tends to grant petitions for certiorari for: Cases that will resolve clear conflicts of law: Anytime a number of lower courts issue conflicting decisions involving the same federal law or interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, such as gun control and the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court may choose to hear and decide a related case in order to ensure that all 50 states operate under the same interpretation of the law.Cases that are important or unique: The Court will decide to hear unique or momentous cases such as U.S. v Nixon, dealing with the Watergate scandal, Roe v. Wade, dealing with abortion, or Bush v. Gore, involving the contested 2000 presidential election.Cases in which a lower court disregards the Supreme Court: When a lower court blatantly ignores a previous Supreme Court ruling, the Supreme Court may decide to hear a case in order to correct or simply override the lower court’s ruling.Cases that are simply interesting: Being human, the Supreme Court justices will sometimes choose to hear a case simply b ecause it involves a favorite area of law. When it comes to petitions for writ of certiorari, the Supreme Court gets many, but grants few. The vast majority of petitions are denied. For example, of the 8,241 petitions filed during its 2009 term, the Court granted only 91, or about 1.1 percent. On average, the Court hears from 80 to 150 cases each term. Recent Example of Certiorari Granted: Roe v. Wade In its landmark decision in the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a woman’s right to have an abortion was protected by the Due Process of Law Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In deciding to grant certiorari in Roe v. Wade, faced a thorny legal issue. One of the Court’s rules for granting certiorari requires that the appellant, the person or persons appealing the case, have â€Å"standing† to do so—meaning that he or she would be directly affected by the Court’s decision. By the time the lengthy Roe v. Wade appeal finally reached the Supreme Court, the appellant, a Texas woman (â€Å"Jane Roe†) who had sued after having been denied the right to have an abortion under Texas law, had already given birth and surrendered the child for adoption. As a result, her legal standing in the case was uncertain. In granting certiorari, the Supreme Court reasoned that because of the lengthy appeals process, it would be impossible for any expectant mother to have standing, thus preventing the Court from ever ruling on abortion or reproductive rights issues. Feeling the law involved merited review, the Court granted the petition for certiorari. Recent Example of Certiorari Denied: Broom v. Ohio In 2009, Ohio corrections officials spent two hours trying—but failing—to execute Romell Broom by lethal injection. In March 2016, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state could proceed with a do-over second attempt to execute Bloom. With no other higher court available, Broom and his lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block any further execution attempts. In the Broom v. Ohio petition for certiorari, Broom’s lawyers based their request on the argument that a second execution would violate the assurance against cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. On December 12, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court, refusing to hear the case, denied the petition for certiorari. In denying Bloom’s petition for certiorari, the Supreme Court stated its belief that any pain Bloom might have experienced during the failed execution attempt failed to amount to â€Å"constitute cruel and unusual punishment.† In taking this rather unexpected action, the justices reasoned that since thousands of people are subjected to multiple needle-sticks every day as part of medical procedures, this was neither cruel nor unusual. Sources Definition of certiorari in English. English Oxford Dictionaries. OnlineFederal Courts Role and Stricture. USCourts.gov. OnlineSupreme Court procedure. The SCOTUS Blog. OnlineThe Evarts Act: Creating the Modern Appellate Courts. USCourts.gov. OnlineSupreme Court Case Selections Act. Public Law 100-352, at 102 Stat. 662. June 27, 1988

Thursday, December 19, 2019

The Relationship of Death and Man’s Irrationality in Hamlet

Yusheng Qin 10/18/10 English IV The Relationship of Death and Man’s Irrationality in Hamlet William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a famous tragedy that follows the title character Hamlet’s wavering path of revenge. Early in the play, Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost, who tells Hamlet that his brother Claudius murdered him. Throughout the play, Hamlet is torn between his obligation to avenge his father and his uncertainty about this formidable task. Hamlet also experiences this indecisiveness when he contemplates suicide during several points in the play. Though he expresses disgust over Claudius’s inferiority to his father and his hasty marriage with Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, Hamlet more strongly detests his own†¦show more content†¦Ultimately, it was the lack of action on Hamlet’s part that led to the string of deaths at the end of the play. The rationale behind Hamlet’s deliberate delay in taking revenge against Claudius mainly stems from his fear of death and its consequences. Unlike Laertes, Hamlet meticulously examines the impact of his actions, which proved to only exacerbate the outcome. Throughout the play, Hamlet seemed to display an almost morbid obsession with death. For example, when Hamlet is asked to reveal Polonius’ body’s location, he replies â€Å"At supper ... Not where he eats, but where he is eaten.† Hamlet describes the life-cycle of human existence rather pragmatically; man eats in life and is eaten in death. The frailty of human existence haunts Hamlet constantly. In the iconic graveyard scene when Hamlet’s holding Yorick’s skull, he says â€Å"Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they not stop at a beer-barrel?† In these lines, Hamlet explores the brevity and futility of the human condition and the inevitability of death. Hamlet’s speech in the graveyard scene sharply contradicts with his previous notions about the afterlife. This is another example of Hamlet’s inconsistency in his logic. In Act I scene 2, Hamlet, out of deep depression, says â€Å"O, thatShow MoreRelatedGender Stereotypes in Othello Essay2033 Words   |  9 Pagesgender roles and stereotypes. Othello’s â€Å"conflicts are resolved, his needs to idealize and degrade her to maintain their love intact are momentarily reconciled only when he kills her† (Neely). Shakespeare mocks society’s extreme measures by suggesting death as the sole option for Othello when he fails to understand that Desdemona may not fit female stereotypes. Without the ability to label her, Othello fails to â€Å"assert Desdemona’s chastity and corruptibility simultaneously† and â€Å"murders Desdemona to redeemRead More Content, Themes, Diction and Imagery of Eliots Poems Essay4170 Words   |  17 Pagesque stion †¦, (10). 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Tuesday, December 10, 2019

On Death Essay Example For Students

On Death Essay Death is an aspect of life that everyone becomes acquainted with sooner or later. From my own experiences I am more familiar with death than I could ever want to be. Poetry is something that is very difficult for me to follow, but when it deals with concept that I am familiar with, then I am able to associate with the soul of the writer. Two poems that deal with the concept of death that I actually enjoyed reading and will compare to each other are Death be not proud by Dylan Thomas and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas. Firstly, in Death be not proud, Donne tells Death that it is not anything special. That Death is a low being that deals with the pitiful aspects of life: war, disease, and murder. Donne says that Death is nothing more than an aspect of life, just an event of the moment, one short sleep past, we wake eternally. Donne goes on to explain that we all will go through this door while on the way to another existence. In comparison, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Thomas is a battle cry against death. To fight against it until the last breath of life is gone. That to give up life is the cowards way. To his father, who is dying from a protracted illness, Dylan says to show his love, that it is all right to cry even though he has never seen his father show the weakness of crying, just so long as he continues to fight against the coming end. In both poems, the writers are against Death; however Donne writes of Death as a weak entity that has no real power, because after we die, we will never have to face the worry of Death. Thomas, however, writes as if he doesnt believe in any kind of hereafter. An example of this is the repeated cry Rage, rage against the dying of the light. These are two very different beliefs for an ineludible fact of life. Death is something that I have faced and will eventually succumb to; however, I believe as Donne does, that I can choose to not be afraid of the occasion, that I will move to something better, that death is not the dying of the light. But also, as Thomas believes, I will not go gentle in that good night! I will fight with every bit of strength that I have against it. We will all succumb to Death eventually, but I wont give in one minute earlier than I have to.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

What, historically, have been Apple’s competitive advantages free essay sample

Apple has used the following competitive advantage strategies: Apple uses its ability to design and develop its own operating system, hardware, application software and services to differentiate its brand from competitors. The Apple Inc. Company, with 2009 net sales of $42. 9 million, primarily competes in the PC, MP3 player, Portables, IPod, Handset, Peripherals, Software and service markets. Apple stands out for â€Å"typically designing its products from scratch, using unique chips, disk drives, and monitors. †1 In the MP3 player market, they differentiated their product early on by providing what competitors could not – storage of up to 1,000 songs vs. only an hour of music. Through technological advances by 2010 they held more than 70% of the MP3 market in the US. Overall, their product’s appeal has a lot to do with the company’s stated goal of providing customers with products that have superior ease of use, seamless integration and innovative design. Quality is also an Apple brand trademark that provides the company with an excellent reputation and is a differentiation advantage when compared to their competitors. We will write a custom essay sample on What, historically, have been Apple’s competitive advantages or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Incorporating all these strategies have allowed Apple to gain certain competitive advantages and benefit from a strong brand, a loyal customer base, innovative and quality products as well as exposure to fast-growing markets. 2. How sustainable is Apple’s competitive position in PC’s? Apple needs to revisit their competitive advantage strategy in the PC market. Sales of Apples computers the Macintosh (Mac) made up approximately 32. 3% of the companies net sales in 2009. That year, the company shipped over 12. 3 million units of desktop and laptop computers. Portables units sold about two times as fast as desktops. In 2009. total Mac net sales were $13. 8 billion dollars with a gross margin of 40%. In addition, Apple’s PC RD/Sales percentage was 3%. Apples worldwide market share of the PC market is 4. 2%. This position is last behind the clone PC market share of HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba at 5. 4%. Net sales per unit sold deteriorated in 2009 to its lowest level (trending data only went back to 2004. ) Although I expect that portables will benefit from increasedsales, the overall trend of decreased net sales will most likely continue. The competitor (Microsoft) launching of Windows 7, invigorated clone PC sales. â€Å"Microsoft shipped over 60 million units of the new OS in its first quarter of sales in the fall of 2009, generating almost $7 billion in revenue. † 2 My risk assessment as to Apple’s competitive position in the PC market is that it is at high risk. This assessment reflects my concern that Appleà ¢â‚¬â„¢s mindset to â€Å"create/design from scratch† all proprietary PC components may not be the best approach. Even a simple printer cable for the Mac is proprietary. â€Å"By 2010, the PC market will be approaching its market potential, with an estimated market demand for that year of 325 million units. This could change as the result of unusually large price declines, radically new computer technology, or other unpredictable developments. † 3 Opening up the company’s architecture to vendors (open architecture like the clone PC) and focusing in on the operating system like Microsoft could bring Apple the added boost it needs to compete with the clone PC in markets worldwide. Another factor contributing to my high risk assessment is the concern over the health of the company’s founder and CEO, Steve Jobs. Consequently, Apple should examine and update their strategy if they are to succeed in this changing PC market. 3. How sustainable is Apple’s competitive position in MP3 players? Apple’s competitive position in the MP3 players market is at a medium risk given the following: Sales of the iPod made up approximately 18. 86% of the companies net sales in 2009. They sold over 54. 1 million units of iPods. Although 2009 net sales per unit sold dropped to its lowest level in six years to $149/per unit from a high of $296/per unit, Apple’s iPod net sales totaled $8. 0 billion dollars. In 2010, Apple reportedly held more than 70% of the MP3 marketplace in the United States. Furthermore, analysts believe that the iPod’s â€Å"halo effect† benefited Apple’s Mac business. â€Å"For every $3 dollars spent on an iPod, according to one analyst, consumers spent another $1 on iPod add-on products. † 4 Apple earned an estimated 5% of the retail price on such items. Competitors in the MP3 market include SanDisk, Creative, and Samsung. Each had a market share below 10%. With the launch of iTunes, iPod sales shot up by an explosive rate. With the opening of App store in about 18 months, four billion applications had been downloaded by iPhone and iPod touch by users worldwide contributing to the $1 billion dollars in app sales for Apple. If cost-cutting efforts are implemented, they can offset the trend and anticipated decline in unit selling prices for iPods. However, Apples iPods competitive position is at medium risk as iPod units are declining largely due to Apples Inc.  large market share coupled with the market saturation in this area. Apple could face a decline in demand for the iPod as it holds such a large MP3 market share in a mainly mature market. This could mean Apple will face declining unit shipments and price pressures on the iPod. Apple has a differentiating competitive advantage in its application business. The App store is definitely very important to future sales growth. In summary, even though Apple is at a good position in the MP3 player market, they do need to consider strategy if they are to remain the leaders. 4. If you were Steve Jobs’ Marketing Manager, would you recommend developing another new product for the market or put more money into one of their four primary products. If you recommend an existing product, which one and why? Use marketing mix (5 P’s) in your answer. Product – I would recommend developing another new product for the market. Apple Inc. is good at innovating and should continue to innovate and spend in RD especially when they have such a strong bottom line cash position. This may open other markets to them as an adjacent-segment strategy or otherwise. Price – Some of their existing products (i. e. Mac, iPod, etc. ) will be facing ever increasing price pressures from market saturation and other factors. This makes it crucial to have other product offerings to complement the pipe line. Promotion – Apple Inc. should do a break-even analysis in terms of which products to continue to heavily promote. They should consider including innovative technological advances in their product offerings and promote those products. Place (distribution) – Broadening Apples distribution channel would bring in a larger customer base. Allowing superstores (Wal-Mart, Cosco), electronic retailers (Best Buy, Circuit City) and Web-based retailers to distribute Apple products would definitely increase sales. A different approach needs to be taken to reach a wider audience as convenience sometimes sells product. People – Similar to the iPod Business App stores, Apple could have Mac Business Centers to offer services and peripheral equipment and supplies. These centers could offer friendly, professional and competent service to continue delivering quality and customer satisfaction. Endnotes