Word: amicus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Almost since its founding in 1870, the Justice Department has been the leading filer in federal courts of amicus briefs aimed at social changes-from trustbusting to school desegregation. Since the N.A.A.C.P. began leading the way in 1909, more and more minority groups have also found in court a chance for expression that eludes them at the ballot box. In 1945, the American Jewish Congress started a legal arm that has since filed scores of amicus briefs not only concerned with Jewish causes but also with the rights of Catholics, Negroes and Puerto Ricans. No amicus quite matches...
Roman Catholic clergy, whose flock comprises 46% of the state's population, is theoretically of no concern to the court-but a little counterpressure never hurts. Last week it came from an unexpected source. The Catholic Council on Civil Liberties offered an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief attacking the law and implying that it might trouble even Pope Paul...
Judicial Lobbying. At first glance, C.C.C.L. might seem devoid of any right to argue a case to which it is not remotely a party. Originally, an amicus was simply a bystanding lawyer who offered a judge neutral legal advice. But as more and more private lawsuits began to affect public interests, amid became advocates, largely in appellate courts, for otherwise unrepresented third parties-business, labor, the states, even Congress. Today, amicus briefs may sometimes dwarf the arguments of nominal litigants-and be welcomed by courts as clarifiers of widely competing interests...
Important Irrelevancies. But the court does welcome artful amid and occasionally solicits Government briefs that truly ventilate legal issues. If the main parties lack legal talent, the court's ultimate opinion may even sound remarkably like the amicus brief-a type of plagiarism that amicus groups prize and proudly report to their members. Most often, amid do the valuable chore of arguing novel or shaky points that litigants either dare not or do not think to embrace. Even when they are initially rejected, such arguments are thus recorded and may later bear fruit. In 1950, for example, the N.A.A.C.P...
...court does, however, accept some amicus briefs without the litigants' consent. Last week's liberal Catholic brief requested court approval, for example, because Connecticut withheld consent...