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The Nonpartisan Freedom Of Expression Of Public Employees, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Governmental activities affect each of us in a myriad of ways. The government's role as employer may pale in comparison with the more glamorous activities of the government as national defender, law enforcer, and allocator of scarce resources. Yet the legal ramifications of public employment-where the public interest in efficient governmental operation often conflicts with the public employee's freedom-have a profound influence upon American society.

In 1968, the Supreme Court in Pickering v. Board of Education formulated a test designed to balance these interests in defining the scope of a public employee's freedom of expression. In examining the nonpartisan free …

The Restoration Of In Re Winship: A Comment On Burdens Of Persuasion In Criminal Cases After Patterson V. New York, Ronald J. Allen

Michigan Law Review

At the conclusion of its last term, the Supreme Court rendered what should have been a most unremarkable decision. In Patterson v. New York, the Court upheld New York's affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance, which requires a defendant who seeks to reduce his offense from murder to manslaughter to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he acted under extreme emotional disturbance. Had the case come before the Court seven years earlier, it could have been swiftly dispatched with a brief opinion upholding the New York statute on the grounds that the issue of extreme emotional disturbance …

Book Review Of The Memoirs Of Earl Warren, William F. Swindler

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Memoriam: Justice Tom C. Clark (1976 Tazewell Taylor Visiting Professor), William F. Swindler

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remembering 1965: Abe Fortas And The Supreme Court, Larry M. Roth

Mercer Law Review

With 1965 an era both ended and began. That year the American consciousness over the Vietnam War was truly awakened to the sound of far off howitzers. Also that year, Abe Fortas was nominated and confirmed by the Senate for the Supreme Court seat vacated by Arthur Goldberg. The reverberations of both phenomena still exist although the former permeates our social order much more than the latter. Quite recently, however, we witnessed a positive by-product of the Fortas appointment: the appointment of John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court. With Stevens' nomination the appointive process witnessed a selection procedure that …

State Taxation And The Supreme Court: Toward A More Unified Approach To Constitutional Adjudication?, Walter Hellerstein

Michigan Law Review

The first section of this Article examines three recent cases, each addressed to a different constitutional limitation on the scope of state tax power, that may be read as signifying a new approach: Michelin Tire Corp. v. Wages, which concerned the import-export clause; United States v. County of Fresno, which concerned the supremacy clause; and Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, which concerned the commerce clause. Section II considers the implications of these decisions and explores -the possibility that they share an underlying doctrinal unity.

Illegitimates And Equal Protection, David Hallissey

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Illegitimates often have been discriminated against by legislatures in the enactment of statutes, as well as by courts which have sanctioned such legislation. This article will examine the judicial response to legislative treatment of the illegitimate in social insurance, loss compensation, and intestacy statutes. Emphasizing the Supreme Court's analysis of the legal status of illegitimates in terms of the equal protection clause, it will also discuss how the principle of equal protection may be applied in order to reduce the number of illegitimates denied the benefit and protection of the law.

Taxpayer Rights In Noncustodial Irs Investigations After Beckwith V. United States, Curtis L. Christensen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The recent Supreme Court decision in Beckwith v. United States, holding that Miranda does not extend to noncustodial tax investigations, has important implications with respect to the News Release doctrine and the involuntary consent grounds considered in motions to suppress evidence. This article will examine Beckwith and its potential significance with respect to these other doctrines, discussing the factors which the IRS and the courts should consider in order to assure fair treatment of taxpayers during investigations.

National League Of Cities V. Usery: Its Implications For The Equal Pay Act And The Age Discrimination In Employment Act, Ellen B. Spellman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In National League of Cities v. Usery, the Supreme Court invalidated the application of the FLSA minimum wage and maximum hours provisions to certain essential state government activities as an unconstitutional intrusion on state sovereignty. This article will explore the implications of that decision with respect to the application of the EPA and the ADEA to state and local governments.

Part I contains a brief discussion of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Amendments. Part II discusses National League with reference to traditional commerce clause interpretation. Part III analyzes the difficulties of applying the decision, particularly the problem of …

Balanced Justice: Mr. Justice Powell And The Constitution, Randolph C. Duvall, John E. Ely, Mark S. Gardner, William C. Goodwin, H. P. Williams

University of Richmond Law Review

In his first five years on the United States Supreme Court, Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. has become and will most likely continue to be a leading force in shaping the direction of the Court. In many areas, Justice Powell's desire for judicial flexibility as well as judicial restraint has made him a leader in turning the Burger Court away from the bright-line tests enunciated by the Warren Court. However, where the Warren Court had been flexible, Justice Powell has usually preserved this flexibility and expanded it if possible. The tool consistently utilized to achieve this flexibility has been a …

Socking It To Plaintiffs: Supreme Court Antitrust Decisions In 1976-77 Term, Jeff Miles

University of Richmond Law Review

Those persons who delve into the sometimes esoteric and sometimes shockingly practical world of the antitrust laws have noticed a markedly increased emphasis on both private and public enforcement efforts in recent years. One need look no further than the attacks against groups once thought to be immune, I action by Congress, and substantially increased state enforcement to see a vigorous movement to assure that no violation goes unnoticed and unpunished, and that private parties are compensated three-fold for injuries suffered by reason of illegal anticompetitive activity.

The Early Legal Career Of Howell Jackson, Terry Calvani

Vanderbilt Law Review

Felix Frankfurter observed in 1937 that "American legal history has done very little to rescue the [United States Supreme] Court from the limbo of impersonality."' Subsequently, numerous individual and collective works have focused on the more prominent figures in the history of that institution.' Unfortunately, there remain many justices of the Supreme Court who have received relatively little scholarly attention. Yet, as one political scientist has recently lamented, "[until] there is a fuller awareness of the inter-play between individual personalities and decision making, it is unlikely there will be 'an adequate history of the Supreme Court."

One such individual is …

Hon. Lewis F. Powell, Jr.: Five Years On The Supreme Court: Mr. Justice Powell: An Overview, J. Harvie Wilkinson Iii

University of Richmond Law Review

In January of 1977, Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., marked his fifth anniversary as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Any definitive evaluation of Justice Powell at this hopefully still early stage of his judicial service is impossible. Yet the 1975 term of Court-Powell's fifth-marked him as a Justice of great collegial impact and, in terms of his own career, saw a coming of age: an end, if you will, to the beginning.

Federal Habeas Corpus After Stone V. Powell: A Remedy Only For The Arguably Innocent?, Sam Boyte

University of Richmond Law Review

State prisoners lost several grounds for seeking federal habeas corpus relief during the Supreme Court's 1975 term. In each case, the Court was prepared to admit, at least for the purposes of argument, that there were constitutional infirmities in the state criminal process which resulted in the confinement of the prisoner; nonetheless, the Court held that the prisoner would not be permitted to attack his conviction collaterally in federal court. Because the prisoner in Francis v. Henderson had not complied with a state procedural rule requiring such challenges to be brought before trial, the Supreme Court held that he could …

Mr. Justice Powell's Standing, Gary C. Leedes

University of Richmond Law Review

Some may lament the results of Mr. Justice Powell's attempts to clarify the law of standing. Indeed, public interest lawyers who advocate granting standing on a surrogate basis to individuals who are members of a large unorganized class of diffuse interests have cause to complain about a return to a more orthodox conception of standing. However, Mr. Justice Powell has a different outlook, viz., in a democratic society, a federal court is not necessarily an appropriate or the most effective institution to redress the grievances of people upset by alleged lawless government action.