Digital Commons Network^™

Intrastate Federalism, Rick Su

Rick Su

In debates about the role of federalism in America, much turns on the differences between states. But what about divisions within states? The site of political conflict in America is shifting: battles once marked by interstate conflict at the national level are increasingly reflected in intrastate clashes at the local. This shift has not undermined the role of federalism in American politics, as many predicted. Rather, federalism's role has evolved to encompass the growing divide within states and between localities. In other words, federalism disputes — formally structured as between the federal government and the states — are increasingly being …

Ending-Life Decisions: Some Disability Perspectives, Mary Crossley

Georgia State University Law Review

This Essay considers the challenges to end-of-life decision-making that disability poses. I am perhaps an odd choice to offer the disability perspective on this or any topic, as I am able bodied and of sound mind, at least for the moment. For the past thirty years, however, I have puzzled over how people with disabilities experience the health care system in this country and how the health care system experiences people with disabilities.

This essay does two things. First, it briefly describes the nature of and basis for disability concerns about the liberalization of ending life decisions. This account is …

A Promise Unfulfilled: Challenges To Georgia’S Death Penalty Statute Post-Furman, William Cody Newsome

Georgia State University Law Review

In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Furman’s counsel. Three Justices agreed that Georgia law, as applied, was arbitrary and potentially discriminatory. Moreover, one Justice challenged the value of the death penalty and doubted it served any of the alleged purposes for which it was employed.

Although many challenges subsequent to Furman have been raised and arguably resolved by the Court, the underlying challenges raised by Furman appear to remain prevalent with the Court. Justice Breyer recently echoed the concurring opinions of Furman in his dissenting opinion from Glossip v. Gross, when he stated: “In …

Semantic Vagueness And Extrajudicial Constitutional Decisionmaking, Anthony O'Rourke

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article integrates two scholarly conversations to shed light on the divergent ways in which courts and legislatures implement constitutional texts. First, there is a vast literature examining the different ways in which courts and extrajudicial institutions, including legislatures, implement the Constitution’s textually vague expressions. Second, in recent years legal philosophers have begun to use philosophy of language to elucidate the relationship between vague legal texts and the content of laws. There is little scholarship, however, that uses philosophy of language to analyze the divergent ways in which legislatures and courts implement vague constitutional provisions. This Article argues that many …

A Constitutional Case For Appointed Counsel In Immigration Proceedings: Revisiting Franco-Gonzalez, Johan Fatemi

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article argues that had the Franco-Gonzalez court evaluated the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims by applying the classic Mathews v. Eldridge due process balancing test supplemented by more recent United States Supreme Court jurisprudence, the Franco-Gonzalez court would have arrived at an identical conclusion regarding the categorical right to appointed counsel for individuals with mental disabilities. This Article further argues that the legal rationales for the putative successful constitutional claim in Franco-Gonzalez can be used to extend civil Gideon to other classes of vulnerable immigrant groups in removal proceedings, including detained noncitizen women and children like Marisol and Jennifer.

The Strange Life Of Stanley V. Illinois: A Case Study In Parent Representation And Law Reform, Josh Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Publications

This Article helps describe the growth of parent representation through an analysis of Stanley v. Illinois—the foundational Supreme Court case that established parental fitness as the constitutional lynchpin of any child protection case. The Article begins with Stanley’s trial court litigation, which illustrates the importance of vigorous parental representation and an effort by the court to prevent Stanley from obtaining an attorney. It proceeds to analyze how family courts applied it (or not) in the years following the Supreme Court’s decision and what factors have led to a recent resurgence of Stanley’s fitness focus.

Despite Stanley’s requirement that states prove …

A New Balance Of Evils: Prosecutorial Misconduct, Iqbal, And The End Of Absolute Immunity, Mark Niles

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Criminal prosecutors wield immense power in the criminal justice system. While the majority of prosecutors exercise this power in a professional manner, there is compelling evidence of a serious and growing problem ofprosecutorial misconduct in this country. Although much prosecutorial misconduct results in the violation of the constitutional and other legal rights of criminal defendants, prosecutors arep rotectedfrom any liability arisingf rom these violations in all but the most exceptional cases by the defense of absolute immunity. The US. Supreme Court has justified the application ofabsolute prosecutorial immunity, in part, by noting that other means of incentivizing appropriate prosecutorial conduct …

Civil Rights/Constitutional Law—Indebted To The State: How The Thirteenth Amendment’S Promise Of Abolition Holds Protections Against The Modern Debtors’ Prisons, Sarah Morgan

Western New England Law Review

Cash-starved municipalities regularly impose criminal justice debt on individuals too poor to pay. Local courts deny criminal debtors’ a meaningful inquiry into their ability to pay prior to being assessed sky-high fees, often predictably resulting in default on their payments. Nonpayment under these municipal schemes is enforced through imprisonment solely for the purpose of compelling repayment. Under these circumstances, criminal debtors find themselves in modern debtors’ prisons, a conceptual cycle of debt and imprisonment nearly impossible to escape. This Note will argue the modern debtors’ prison is peonage, coerced labor for the repayment of debt, which is prohibited under the …

A Contextual Approach To Harmless Error Review, Justin Murray

Articles & Chapters

Harmless error review is profoundly important, but arguably broken, in the form that courts currently employ it in criminal cases. One significant reason for this brokenness lies in the dissonance between the reductionism of modern harmless error methodology and the diverse normative ambitions of criminal procedure. Nearly all harmless error rules used by courts today focus exclusively on whether the procedural error under review affected the result of a judicial proceeding. I refer to these rules as “result-based harmlesserror review.” The singular preoccupation of result-based harmless error review with the outputs of criminal processes stands in marked contrast with criminal …