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A Critical Guide To The Ninth Amendment, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Since the Supreme Court's decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, thousands of law students each year have confronted a confusing debate over the meaning of the Ninth Amendment. Writing for the majority in Griswold, Justice Douglas included the Ninth Amendment among the sources for deriving the “penumbral” right of privacy. More central to this article, in a separate concurrence Justice Goldberg contended that the Amendment provided a basis for the discovery of fundamental human rights beyond those included in the text of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In response, the dissenting Justices, Stewart and Black, argued that …

Originalism And Indeterminacy, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Perhaps the most universal objection to originalism is that it is impossible; that is, the materials relied upon by originalists simply do not yield determinant answers to any worthwhile questions. This indeterminacy objection lacks significant force for at least three reasons. First, the claim that the interpretive materials are always indeterminate vastly overstates the extent and importance of the uncertainties involved; consequently, originalism's critics understate the importance of the originalist canon as a tool for reducing the degree of indeterminacy in constitutional interpretation. Once it becomes clear that originalist methodology can provide some definitive answers, even if significant indeterminacy remains, …

Federalism And The Protection Of Rights: The Modern Ninth Amendment’S Spreading Confusion, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Blindness to a basic understanding of the framers' design of our federal structure is largely responsible for the confusion that surrounds our understanding of the Ninth Amendment. The Ninth Amendment reads: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” In Griswold v. Connecticut, Justices Black and Stewart explained in separate dissenting opinions that the Ninth Amendment's reference to the other rights “retained by the people” alluded to the collective and individual rights the people “retained” by virtue of granting limited, enumerated powers to the national government. …

The Brown Symposium – An Introduction, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

This article is an introduction to a symposium sponsored by Southern Illinois University regarding Brown v. Board of Education.

Substance Above All: The Utopian Vision Of Modern Natural Law Constitutionalists, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Modern natural law constitutionalists assert that the Constitution, properly understood, includes a kind of general trump card in the form of a moral reality which provides (or is, at any rate, thought to provide) a measure of all positive legal acts--whether framed in terms of the values of natural equality, natural rights, or “simple justice.”

This article explores why “trump card” natural law constitutionalism cannot by its nature adequately confront crucial issues of institutional design and democratic theory. In thus putting questions of moral substance ahead of crucial issues of authority, natural law constitutionalism appears to rest on a naive, …

Brown And The Doctrine Of Precedent: A Concurring Opinion, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

This article is part of a symposium sponsored by Southern Illinois University regarding Brown v. Board of Education. In this article, the author addresses the question of what opinion he would have written had he been a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court when the case was decided.

The author indicates he would have concurred in those opinions finding a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in Brown v. Board of Education. The author finds persuasive the argument that any other decision would permit states to evade the core purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment. Nevertheless, …

Constitutional Implications Of Acquisition-Value Real Property Taxation: Assessing The Burdens On Travel And Commerce, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This article is the second in a two-part series addressing the constitutional implications of acquisition-value real property taxation. This Article addresses constitutional issues raised by systems of real property taxation that base a property owner's tax assessment not on the current value of the property but on its value on the date the taxpayer acquired it. The first Article in this series described the operation of acquisition-value systems of real property taxation such as those adopted by California in 1978 and Florida in 1992, and evaluated the equal protection challenges to the California system (“Proposition 13”) which culminated in the …

Constitutional Implications Of Acquisition-Value Real Property Taxation: The Elusive Rational Basis, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This article is the first in a two-part series addressing the constitutional implications of acquisition-value real property taxation. Acquisition-value real property taxation systems represent a departure from the traditional practice of taxing real property on its current fair market value. In contrast to traditional systems, which are still employed by the vast majority of states, under acquisition- value taxation a real estate owner's property tax liability is determined by the value of the property when the taxpayer acquired it. In periods of rising real estate prices, such a scheme compels later buyers to shoulder a higher annual tax liability than …

Reed Dickerson’S Originalism — What It Contributes To Contemporary Constitutional Debate, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

In this article the author offers his personal gratitude for the work of Reed Dickerson, along with some thoughts on his important contributions to our understanding of the interpretive process. As a young scholar in need of help in grappling with the continuing debate over constitutional interpretation, the author turned, at the suggestion of colleagues, to Reed Dickerson’s impressive book on statutory interpretation. The hours spent attempting to ingest Reed’s thoughtful work were amply rewarded, and the author took the occasion of publishing an article on the original intent debate to refer in an initial footnote to his intellectual debt …

Prolegomena To A Meaningful Debate Of The “Unwritten Constitution” Thesis, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Seventeen years ago Professor Grey launched the modern debate over the idea of an unwritten Constitution by suggesting that the key to defending modern fundamental rights decision-making might be to rediscover the founding generation's commitment to natural law and unwritten sources of basic rights. Some modern Supreme Court decisions, Grey suggested, might be better justified by reliance upon the methodology suggested by Justice Chase's famous opinion in Calder v. Bull than by looking to the justification for judicial review offered by Chief Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison. Grey's arguments for the unwritten Constitution idea has struck a chord …

The Bill Of Rights, Social Contract Theory, And The Rights “Retained” By The People, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

The Ninth Amendment provides that “[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” There is no question that this Amendment was designed as a savings clause, to ensure that the specification of particular rights would not raise an inference that the Bill of Rights exhausted the rights which the people held as against the newly-created national government. But there is an ongoing debate as to nature of these additional rights retained by the people and as to the sort of claim they might support against the exercise …

Pitfalls Of Public Policy: The Case Of Arbitration Agreements, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

As the juxtaposition of these quotations suggests, judges have long held disparate views on the legitimacy and value of “public policy” considerations as a basis for legal decision making. The popular notion posits that Justice Holmes and legal realists carried the day, making public policy analysis an ordinary part of the adjudication process. The story, of course, is more complex than this legal version of Don Quixote. Many judges and lawyers, including Justice Holmes in other writings, continued to speak of adjudication in more formalist and positivist terms, with most laypersons in apparent agreement. Judge Burroughs' view of public policy …

The Original Meaning Of The Ninth Amendment, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

This Article presents the case for the residual rights reading of the ninth amendment as against the affirmative rights interpretation. The author evaluates the merits of these opposing views to determine whether the proponents of the new orthodoxy have really made the case for discarding the received reading. This analysis of the recent literature also raises questions about the way in which constitutional scholarship is conducted. The author concludes that the original meaning of the ninth amendment lends critical support to the project of originalist jurisprudence in the individual rights area and undercuts modem claims linking the ninth amendment to …

Drugs And Small Arms: Can Law Stop The Traffic?, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

Professor Blakesley presides over this panel discussion on laws combating the illegal importation of drugs and small arms, and their implications for international and domestic law.

Terrorism And The Constitution, Christopher L. Blakesley

Scholarly Works

How do terrorism and the Iran-Contra hearings relate to the Constitution? My thesis is that there is a tendency for the executive of this or any nation to eschew even constitutionally mandated avenues of problem solving considered to be cumbersome, inefficient, or inimical to the executive’s vision of the national interest in foreign affairs. There is also a tendency to consider one’s own conduct and the conduct of one’s allies and friends to be justified when it is directed at goals deemed by the executive branch to be good. Constitutional provisions based on the checks and balances and separation of …

The Illinois Bill Of Rights And Our Independent Legal Tradition: A Critique Of The Illinois Lockstep Doctrine, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

Illinois’ highest court continues to follow the rule that courts of this state are strictly bound by Supreme Court decisions construing provisions that are substantially identical to provisions found in the Illinois Constitution. Increasingly, however, this rule has been challenged by dissenting justices who contend that it is contrary to the state’s independent legal tradition and rests upon an accurate view of the relationship between federal and state courts and their respective constitutions. These justices contend that the court may give independent attention to the provisions of the Illinois Constitution and need not slavishly adhere to decisions of the Supreme …

Constitutional Interpretation—The Uses And Limitations Of Original Intent, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

It is fitting that in the decade of the Bicentennial of the Constitution we have seen a renewal of debate over the meaning of the Constitution and what is required to remain true to it. An aspect of that debate has concerned constitutional interpretation and the role of “original intent”—or perhaps more broadly, “original context”—in any proper approach to the interpretive process. Unfortunately, the debate is frequently approached from virtually an either/or perspective, as though the intent of the Framers must either control all constitutional questions or be used as no more than window-dressing. While some advocates of original intent …

Berger V. The Supreme Court—The Implications Of His Exceptions-Clause Odyssey, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Scholarly Works

In his 1969 Congress v. The Supreme Court, Raoul Berger evaluated the potential claims to supremacy of Congress and the Supreme Court under the exceptions clause of article III and found in favor of the Supreme Court. Berger explicated a narrow construction of Congress’ express power to make exceptions to the Court’s appellate jurisdiction, holding that Congress’ claimed power to curb judicial excess was at odds with the design of the Constitution and without historical foundation. From 1969 to 1980, Berger reaffirmed his initial reading of the legislative history of article III no less than four times, once in …

Statement On Constitutional Conventions, Society Of American Law Teachers

Statements

In 1978, The Board of Governors of the Society of American Law Teachers issued a statement on the issue of calling for a constitutional convention to amend the Constitution.

Note, A Dialogue On The Political Question Doctrine, Thomas B. Mcaffee, Christopher A. Johnson

Scholarly Works

Legal scholars have generally discussed the political question doctrine as part of the larger debate over the legitimacy of judicial review. Points of discordance aside, scholars have agreed that the doctrine is “a classic technique of judicial avoidance, a way of allowing a governmental decision to stand without involving the Court in supporting its legitimacy.” Thus, debate over the objectives, legitimacy and scope of the doctrine has traditionally proceeded from the unquestioned assumption that there exists a body of law which justifies judicial abstention from deciding some types of issues.

In recent years, however, some scholars have challenged the assumption …