Legal Commons^™

The State Of The Canon In Constitutional Law: Lessons From The Jurisprudence Of John Marshall, David E. Marion

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Constitutional law has been an active battlefield as competing groups within the academy seek to deconstruct, reconstruct, and/or relegitimize the teaching and practice of law in the United States. Much of the rhetoric of the debate is couched in the language of rights. There is a danger that diminished attention to powers in the rhetoric and teaching of constitutional law may compromise sober and moderate constitutional reasoning. By reinvigorating reflection on powers-related issues, the legal profession can do its part to promote sobriety, and hence an added dose of prudence, in constitutional reflection and discourse by a democratic citizenry whose …

Lincoln, Vallandingham, And Anti-War Speech In The Civil War, Michael Kent Curtis

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In the early morning hours of May 5, 1863, Union soldiers forcibly arrested Clement L. Vallandigham, a prominent Democratic politician and former congressman, for an anti-war speech which he had given a few days earlier in Mount Vernon, Ohio. Vallandigham's arrest ignited debate about freedom of speech in a democracy during a time of war and the First Amendment rights of critics of an administration. This Article is one in a series by Professor Curtis which examines episodes in the history of free speech before and during the Civil War.

In this Article, Professor Curtis explores the First Amendment's guarantee …