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Ink Blot Or Not: The Meaning Of Privileges And/Or Immunities, Richard Aynes Jul 2009

Ink Blot Or Not: The Meaning Of Privileges And/Or Immunities, Richard Aynes

Richard L. Aynes

This article examines the meaning of the terms privileges and immunities as used in Article IV of the U.S. Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment. It begins by tracing the American use of the terms to April 10, 1606 in the first Charter of Virginia. Building upon the work of other scholars and citing original documents, it concludes that these words has a well-established meaning as “rights” well before the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted. The article notes that in Justice Miller’s decision in the Slaughter-House Cases he refers to the privileges and immunities of Corfield v. Coryell as “those rights which …


Book Review: The Constitution In The Supreme Court: The First Hundred Years, 1789-1888., David S. Bogen Apr 2009

Book Review: The Constitution In The Supreme Court: The First Hundred Years, 1789-1888., David S. Bogen

David S. Bogen

No abstract provided.


The Market Participant Doctrine And The Clear Statement Rule, David S. Bogen Feb 2009

The Market Participant Doctrine And The Clear Statement Rule, David S. Bogen

David S. Bogen

This paper argues that the market participant exception to the dormant commerce clause reflects the same concerns that led to the clear statement doctrine for application of general legislation to the operations of state governments. The genius of the Constitution was to make federal law directly applicable to individuals instead of through state governments – this made enforcement easier and avoided confrontation between the state and nation. Confrontation in which the federal authorities order the state to act in a particular way should be a result of consideration of the need to do so. But the dormant commerce clause by …


The Original Meaning Of The Constitution's “Executive Vesting Clause”—Evidence From Eighteenth Century Drafting Practice, Robert G. Natelson Jan 2009

The Original Meaning Of The Constitution's “Executive Vesting Clause”—Evidence From Eighteenth Century Drafting Practice, Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

Advocates of presidential power from the days of George Washington at least to the time of George W. Bush have claimed that the Constitution’s so-called “Executive Vesting Clause,” the first sentence of Article II, not only designates the President as chief executive, but also confers broad authority. Some commentators support that view, while others maintain that the President’s powers are limited to those enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution. This study addresses the previously-overlooked question of which interpretation is more consistent with contemporaneous drafting customs. It concludes that treating the “Executive Vesting Clause” as a mere designation is consistent with those …


The Original Meaning Of The Privileges And Immunities Clause, Robert G. Natelson Jan 2009

The Original Meaning Of The Privileges And Immunities Clause, Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

This article explains the meaning of the U.S. Constitution's Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, as the Founders understood it. It explains that the terms "privileges" and "immunities" had well-understood content in 18th century law---as benefits created by government. The Clause protects states from discriminating against visitors as to the benefits of citizenship (such as access to the courts), but does not address "natural rights" such as freedom of speech and religion.


Reclaiming Minnesota's Territorial Birthright: Why The Northwest Ordinance Restricts The State's Power Of Eminent Domain To Public Exigencies, Nicholas C. Dranias Jan 2009

Reclaiming Minnesota's Territorial Birthright: Why The Northwest Ordinance Restricts The State's Power Of Eminent Domain To Public Exigencies, Nicholas C. Dranias

Nicholas C Dranias

This short paper explains why the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Minnesota state constitution should be read together “as one piece,” and how this reading warrants limiting the use of Minnesota’s power of eminent domain to circumstances of “public exigency.”


Culture, Religion, And Indigenous People, David S. Bogen, Leslie F. Goldstein Jan 2009

Culture, Religion, And Indigenous People, David S. Bogen, Leslie F. Goldstein

David S. Bogen

The Constitution treats culture, religion, and government as separate concepts. Different clauses of the First Amendment protect culture and religion from government. For several decades, the Supreme Court of the United States interpreted the First Amendment as offering religion greater protection against interference than was offered to culture, but the Supreme Court largely dissolved these constitutional differences when confronted with issues posed by the religious practices of Native Americans. With some indigenous Americans, the lines between culture, religion, and even government blur – challenging the Supreme Court’s assumptions about the Constitution. The uniqueness of the claims of Native Americans pushed …


Empathy And Pragmatism In The Choice Of Constitutional Norms For Religious Land Use Disputes, Elizabeth Reilly Jan 2009

Empathy And Pragmatism In The Choice Of Constitutional Norms For Religious Land Use Disputes, Elizabeth Reilly

Elizabeth Reilly

From the perspective of both religious entities and local governments, religious land use requests are best resolved quickly, locally and cooperatively. The traditional framework for addressing religious land use disputes, which the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA)1 adopted, is ill-suited to those goals. Legally, disputes have long been framed as denials of the free exercise of religion – the broadest of all claims and the one requiring the most intrusive and subjective determinations about a particular religious group and its proposed use (what religion is, what a particular sect requires and how religion qua religion is affected …


39th Congress (1865-1867) And The 14th Amendment: Some Preliminary Perspectives, Richard Aynes Jan 2009

39th Congress (1865-1867) And The 14th Amendment: Some Preliminary Perspectives, Richard Aynes

Richard L. Aynes

The 39th Congress (1865-1867) was one of the important Congresses in our history. It passed more legislation than any other Congress up to that time. This preliminary examination of the 39th Congress begins with a look it composition. One of the critical factors was that while the 38th Congress contained a majority of unionists, the 39th Congress contained a super-majority which meant not only that they could override a Presidential veto, but also that they did not need to take the Democratic opposition seriously. This article also identifies the leadership of the 39th Congress. The 38th Congress was composed of …


Annan V: Rethinking The Viability Of The Constitutional Arrangement And Its Future Importance, Nicos Trimikliniotis Dec 2008

Annan V: Rethinking The Viability Of The Constitutional Arrangement And Its Future Importance, Nicos Trimikliniotis

Nicos Trimikliniotis

This chapter argues that despite the post-colonial Zurich-London legacy and the flaws contained in the final version of the Annan Plan its central pillars provided the basis for a viable, workable and fair constitutional arrangement for both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The plan’s philosophy is in line with human rights conventions, UN resolutions, the EU Acquis and the High Level agreements of 1977 and 1979. It defines ‘a bizonal bicommunal federation with a single sovereignty, international personality and citizenship’. The alternative – the indefinite continuation of de facto partition, or a de jure partition, or a ‘return’ to a …