Sunday, November 4, 2012

Connecticut’s Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers

A Review of Judicial Review

By Bronson C. Stephens
Bronson Stephens, a 2012 graduate of Albany Law School, was a Senior Editor for the Center, as well as the Immigrants’ Rights/International Human Rights Project Director of the law school's Pro Bono Society.
This paper was written for the State Constitutional Adjudication Seminar, Spring 2012 semester.
Bronson has previously been published by the Center several times. (See, State High Courts Taking Their Rightful Place, April 15, 2012; Bankruptcy’s (Relatively) Even Keel at the Court: An analysis of nine justices’ voting patterns, 1992 – 2000, Feb. 22, 2012; Holmes and Cardozo on Judicial Decisionmaking: A Contrast to Scalia and Rehnquist, Nov. 13, 2011.)

This paper focuses on the non-majority opinions authored by Chief Justice Rogers during her tenure on the Connecticut Supreme Court. Through an analysis of the first seven opinions, attempts to shed light on her jurisprudence as the Chief Justice.

Chief Justice Rogers received her JD from Boston University in 1983.  After many years practicing law in the private sector, she was appointed to the Connecticut Superior Court in 1998 by Governor John Rowland.

Rogers served on the superior court bench until 2006, when Governor Mary Rell nominated Rogers to the appeals court, an appointment she held only briefly as Governor Rell appointed her to the Connecticut Supreme Court in 2007.

Although Justice Rogers was sworn to the bench in April of 2007, she did not author a separate opinion from the majority until August, 2008. She subsequently authored two more separate opinions in 2009, six in 2010, three in 2011, and released one more in 2012 by the time of this writing. The first seven of these opinions are considered in chronological order.*
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* Citations to references in this introduction are available in the paper.
To read the entire paper, open HERE.