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The Irrelevancy Of The Fourth Amendment In The Roberts Court, Thomas K. Clancy

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Since John Roberts Jr. became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, there has been a measurable decline in the number of cases addressing Fourth Amendment questions. This article examines the reasons for that decline and predicts the substantial elimination of Fourth Amendment litigation in the Roberts Court. The prediction is based on several premises, including the lack of interest of the Justices on the Court concerning search and seizures principles and two significant recent cases, Pearson v. Callahan and United States v. Herring, which presage a significant decline in the number of lower court cases addressing the merits of …

Mapp V. Ohio'S Unsung Hero: The Suppression Hearing As Morality Play, Scott E. Sundby

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The exclusionary rule is back under the judicial magnifying glass. Recent opinions, most notably by Justice Scalia, have sparked speculation that the Roberts Court is inclined to overrule Mapp v. Ohio and send Fourth Amendment disputes back to the realm of civil suits and police disciplinary actions. As the Court's rulings have made clear, any reevaluation of the exclusionary rule's future will be conducted under the now familiar rubric of whether the rule's "benefit" of deterring police misbehavior outweighs the "cost" of lost evidence and convictions.

This essay argues that if any such reevaluation does occur, the Court must take …

Fourth Amendment Federalism And The Silencing Of The American Poor, Andrew E. Taslitz

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In Virginia v. Moore, police officers searched Moore incident to an arrest for a minor traffic infraction for which Virginia statutory law in fact prohibited arrest. The officers found cocaine on Moore's person, arresting him for that crime too. The United States Supreme Court ultimately found that the arrest for the traffic infraction and the subsequent search were valid under the federal Constitution's Fourth Amendment. Central to the Court's reasoning was its insistence that the state statute was irrelevant. Any contrary conclusion, explained the Court, would wrongly make the Fourth Amendment's meaning vary from place to place. Professor Taslitz …

Melendez-Diaz And The Right To Confrontation, Craig M. Bradley

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In Crawford v. Washington, the Supreme Court overruled Ohio v. Roberts and adopted new law concerning the use of hearsay testimony at criminal trials. This was based on the Sixth Amendment's command that "In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him .. " On its face this provision seems to say that the accused has the right to cross-examine anybody who testifies for the prosecution at trial, whether as a live witness or through hearsay. The Supreme Court acknowledged much of this in Crawford, but …

Free Speech & Tainted Justice: Restoring The Public's Confidence In The Judiciary In The Wake Of Republican Party Of Minnesota V. White, Gregory W. Jones

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The United States Supreme Court's 2002 decision in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White was the first shot fired in an ongoing battle over judicial campaign ethics. The White decision invalidated a Minnesota Canon of Judicial Conduct prohibiting judicial candidates from announcing their views on disputed legal or political topics. Subsequent to White, numerous states have faced challenges to their judicial canons of conduct by groups advocating for an increased breadth of permissible speech in judicial campaigns. While White and its progeny have safeguarded the first amendment rights of judicial candidates, significant concerns have been raised regarding how best to …

Separating Church And State: Transfers Of Government Land As Cures For Establishment Clause Violations, Paul Forster

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The note examines one of the issues currently before the Supreme Court in Salazar v. Buono, the case concerning a Latin cross war memorial in the Mojave desert. The issue is whether the government may, by transferring land to private parties, cure Establishment Clause violations caused by permanent displays that contain religious imagery. The article surveys the Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudence as it applies to permanent displays, discussing the sometimes-used and sometimes-ignored Lemon-endorsement standard and the potential shift to a coercion standard. It concludes by arguing that even under the Lemon-endorsement standard, courts should often allow the …

Fair Housing And Roommates: Contesting A Presumption Of Constitutionality, Brooke Wright

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Canon As Argumentative Metonymy, Ian Bartrum

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

A Promise The Nation Cannot Keep: What Prevents The Application Of The Thirteenth Amendment In Prison?, Raja Raghunath

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The walls of the prison are not solely physical. The doctrine of judicial deference to prison officials, which compels courts to defer to the discretion of those officials in almost all instances, obstructs the effective scrutiny of modern practices of punishment. Since its ratification, the Thirteenth Amendment—which prohibits slavery or involuntary servitude anywhere within the United States or its jurisdiction, except where imposed “as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted”1—has been seen by courts as one brick in this wall. This Article makes the novel argument that, properly read, the amendment should function instead …

Rescuing The Fourteenth Amendment Privileges Or Immunities Clause: How "Attrition Or Parliamentary Processes" Begat Accidental Ambiguity; How Ambiguity Begat Slaughter-House, Michael Anthony Lawrence

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Bapcpa, The Gag Rule, And The First Amendment: A Proposal For Alignment Through Interpretive And Analytical Change, Cullen Ann Drescher

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Making The Case: Did The Government's Response To Hurricane Katrina Violate The Equal Protection Clause., Michael Kogut

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract Forthcoming.

Neo-Orthodoxy In Academic Freedom, J. Peter Byrne

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This review essay analyzes two recent books that advance neo-orthodox theories of academic freedom: Matthew Finkin and Robert Post, For the Common Good: Principles of American Academic Freedom, and Stanley Fish, Save the World on Your Own Time. Both books develop principles articulated in the American Association of University Professors 1915 Declaration, which emphasize the role of faculty in advancing knowledge and the need to insulate professional evaluation of academic work from lay, political interference. This review essay defends the return to protection of the scholarly search for truth as the touchstone of academic freedom, offers critiques of the authors’ …

“Consolidating The New Position (1938-1940)”: A Study Of The Tenure Of Robert H. Jackson: March 5, 1938 To January 18, 1940, Nicholas John Stamato

Dissertations - ALL

Robert H. Jackson’s service as Solicitor General has attained mythic status, prompting academics and commentators consistently to rate him as one of the greatest appointees to that office. In part, his stature reflects his extraordinary skill as an attorney. In some measure, Jackson’s legend draws upon the Supreme Court’s growing liberalism, which occurred upon his watch. As Peter Ubertaccio argues in his history of the office, Learned in the Law and Politics, the stature of the Solicitor General suffered during the early 1930s, when the court generally ruled against the government, then improved as the court sided with the Roosevelt …

Communiqué For Elders On Reconciliation, Reunification And Peace In Cyprus: An Inter-Communal Civic Initiative, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

The visit of Elders in December 2009 is coinciding with a critical moment in the negotiation process, which is gradually entering into its final crucial phase. The two leaders appear determined to move forward with a settlement, despite the inherent difficulties; the Elders’ visit can assist the process by encouraging the leaders to show courage and boldness so as to press on with an agreement as soon as possible. Unlike in 2004, where both process and outcome were in the end delegitimized as ‘externally imposed’ and ‘not properly balanced’, this time the process is entirely owned and controlled by the …

Ideologia E Utopias Nas Mais Recentes Constituintes Brasileira E Portuguesa: Algumas Linhas De Leitura, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

Based upon a political compromise, in which « democratic socialists » and « social democrats » were the main protagonists, the ideology of Portuguese Constitution of 1976 was discrete, subtle. And ulterior constitutional revisions confirmed that fondamental aspect. Of course, utopia was present. But, even more present was the « hope principle ». We believe that the Brazilean constituent assembly, with the original importance of popular contributions, also had hope principle’s decisive influence. But the dinamics of the constituent assembly moderated, since the very beggining, the verbal signs of less discret ideologies. Utopia, neverthless, is very present in the aim …

November 29, 2009: The Iranian Bomb, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Iranian Bomb“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 25, 2009: Happy Thanksgiving Everyone, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Happy Thanksgiving Everyone“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 23, 2009: A Serious Man, A Serious Movie, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “A Serious Man, A Serious Movie“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 21, 2009: The Young Don’T Read The Bible, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Young Don’t Read the Bible“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The Frictions Of Federalism: The Rise And Fall Of The Federal Common Law Of Interstate Nuisance, Robert V. Percival

Robert Percival

Prior to the erection in the 1970s of a comprehensive federal regulatory infrastructure to protect the environment, transboundary pollution disputes frequently were adjudicated by the U.S. Supreme Court, exercising its original jurisdiction over disputes between states. In a series of cases commencing at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, the Court served as a national arbiter of interstate pollution disputes. This paper reviews the history of the Supreme Court's use of these cases to develop a federal common law of interstate nuisance. The paper argues that while federal common law initially performed a zoning function by encouraging polluters to relocate …

November 18, 2009: The Yale Press Decision Not To Publish The Cartoons Of Muhammad, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Yale Press Decision Not to Publish the Cartoons of Muhammad“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

From Choice To Reproductive Justice: De-Constitutionalizing Abortion Rights, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Essay argues that the right to abortion constitutionalized in Roe v. Wade is by some measure at odds with a capacious understanding of the demands of reproductive justice. No matter its rationale, the constitutional right to abortion is fundamentally a negative right that rhetorically keeps the state out of the domain of family life. As such, the decision privatizes not only the abortion decision, but also parenting, by rendering the decision to carry a pregnancy to term a choice. It thereby legitimates a minimalist state response to the problems of pregnant women who carry their pregnancies to term and …

Jones V. Harris Associates: Shareholder Requirements For Proving A Mutual Fund Adviser’S Breach Of Fiduciary Duty, Matthew Rinegar

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

No abstract provided.

On Writs Of Certiorari To The United States Court Of Appeals For The Ninth Circuit, Holder V. Humanitarian Law Project, Nos. 08-1298, 09-89 (U.S. Nov. 16, 2009), David Cole

U.S. Supreme Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

November 15, 2009: When Scientists Speak Of God, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “When Scientists Speak of God“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 11, 2009: No Religious Extremists In The Military, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “No Religious Extremists in the Military“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 13, 2009: How Does A Hallowed Secularist Face Death?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “How Does a Hallowed Secularist Face Death?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Freedom Of Speech And Contempt By Scandalizing The Court In Singapore, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The offence of scandalizing the court, a form of contempt of court, is regarded as obsolete in the United Kingdom. However, it continues to be imposed in other Commonwealth nations and remains very much alive in Singapore, having been applied in a crop of cases between 2006 and 2009. This short commentary examines one of these cases, Attorney-General v Hertzberg and others [2009] 1 Singapore Law Reports 1103, which has generated worldwide interest as it arose out of articles published in the Wall Street Journal Asia. In Hertzberg, the High Court of Singapore held that utterances by an alleged contemnor …

The Sit-Ins And The State Action Doctrine, Christopher W. Schmidt

All Faculty Scholarship

By taking their seats at “whites only” lunch counters across the South in the spring of 1960, African American students not only launched a dramatic new stage in the civil rights movement, they also sparked a national reconsideration of the scope of the constitutional equal protection requirement. The critical constitutional question raised by the sit-in movement was whether the Fourteenth Amendment, which after Brown v. Board of Education (1954) prohibited racial segregation in schools and other state-operated facilities, applied to privately owned accommodations open to the general public. From the perspective of the student protesters, the lunch counter operators, and …