Law Commons^™

Unwell: Indiana V. Edwards And The Plight Of Mentally Ill Pro Se Defendants, John Blume, Morgan Clark

John H. Blume

Is It Admissible?: Tips For Criminal Defense Attorneys On Assessing The Admissibility Of A Criminal Defendant's Statements, Part One, John Blume, Emily Paavola

John H. Blume

This article addresses the Fifth Amendment issues to be considered when analyzing the admissibility of a criminal defendant's out-of-court statements.

Fcc V. Fox Television Moot Court, Robert Barnes, Joan Biskupic, John Blume, Erwin Chemerinsky, Thomas Goldstein, Linda Greenhouse, John Mcginnis, David Savage, Paul Smith, William Van Alstyne, Timothy Zick

John H. Blume

The Bill of Rights Institute and William and Mary Law School hosted a moot court on the FCC v. Fox Television indecency case. The case rests on the FCC’s ban against the use of curse words in television broadcasts Erwin Chermerinsky and Thomas Goldstein argued the case before Joan Biskupic, Robert Barnes, John Blume, Linda Greenhouse, John McGinnis, David Savage, Paul Smith, William Van Alstyne, and Timothy Zick. After the oral argument the judgment was shown. Then the panelists responded to questions from members of the audience. This program contains language some may find offensive.

Property As A Fundamental Constitutional Right? The German Example, Gregory Alexander

Gregory S Alexander

No abstract provided.

Ten Years Of Takings, Gregory Alexander

Gregory S Alexander

No area of property law has been more controversial in the past decade than takings. No aspect of constitutional law more sharply poses the dilemma about the legitimate powers of the regulatory state than the just compensation question. No question concerning constitutional property is more intractable than what sorts of government regulatory actions constitute uncompensated "takings" of private property. Limitations of space, not to mention my own ambivalence about many of the issues, prevent me from developing a complete normative theory of the proper scope of the Takings Clause. My aim here is vastly more modest: to outline the basic …

Rethinking Proportionality Under The Cruel And Unusual Punishments Clause, John Stinneford

John F. Stinneford

Although a century has passed since the Supreme Court started reviewing criminal punishments for excessiveness under the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, this area of doctrine remains highly problematic. The Court has never answered the claim that proportionality review is illegitimate in light of the Eighth Amendment’s original meaning. The Court has also adopted an ever-shifting definition of excessiveness, making the very concept of proportionality incoherent. Finally, the Court’s method of measuring proportionality is unreliable and self contradictory. As a result, a controlling plurality of the Court has insisted that proportionality review be limited to a narrow class of cases. …

Immigration Surveillance, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

In recent years, immigration enforcement levels have soared, yielding a widely noted increase in the number of noncitizens removed from the United States. Less visible, however, has been an attendant sea change in the underlying nature of immigration governance itself, hastened by new surveillance and dataveillance technologies. Like many other areas of contemporary governance, immigration control has rapidly become an information-centered and technology-driven enterprise. At virtually every stage of the process of migrating or traveling to, from, and within the United States, both noncitizens and U.S. citizens are now subject to collection and analysis of extensive quantities of personal information …

Ten Good Practices In Environmental Constitutionalism: Structure, Text And Justiciability, James May, Erin Daly

Erin Daly

Environmental constitutionalism is a relatively recent phenomenon at the confluence of constitutional law, international law, human rights, and environmental law. It embodies the recognition that the environment is a proper subject for protection in constitutional texts and for vindication by constitutional courts worldwide. This White Paper posits ten “good practices” – those attributes that make effective outcomes more likely, but not assured – in environmental constitutionalism for advancing positive environmental outcomes considering energy, and governance and sustainability. Good practices in environmental constitutionalism can serve as a useful construct for considering the relationship between sustainability, energy and governance. Accordingly, Section A …

Beard And Uber-Beard, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

No abstract provided.

El Futuro Del Tribunal De Aforados, Javier Revelo-Rebolledo

Javier E Revelo-Rebolledo

No abstract provided.

A Toolkit For The Citizen Journalist, Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Chiehwen Ed Hsu

No abstract provided.

Juvenile Offenders: Life Without Parole (Lwop), Term Of Years And A Reasonable Opportunity For Release, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

A juvenile offender (a person who committed an offense before the age of 18 years) can be tried as an adult and will be subject to adult punishments, with some restrictions. Juveniles cannot be executed and they cannot be mandatorily confined to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Justice Kagen of the United States Supreme Court stated for a majority of the Court in Miller v. Alabama, that a mandatory life sentence for a juvenile violates the 8th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. In other words, life without hope should be unconstitutional for juveniles.

Prosecutors have …

La Reforma Político-Judicial De Santos, Javier Revelo-Rebolledo

Javier E Revelo-Rebolledo

No abstract provided.

Belling The Partisan Cats: Preliminary Thoughts On Identifying And Mending A Dysfunctional Constitutional Order, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

This paper sharpens debates over whether the Constitution of the United States and the American constitutional order are presently dysfunctional, the nature of any dysfunctions, and how underlying regime flaws are likely to be corrected. Rather than focusing primarily on constitutional text, this Article explores the dynamic ways in which constitutional processes have influenced and been influenced by the structure of constitutional politics. Constitutional dysfunction is best conceptualized as the failure of a constitutional order rather than as a consequence of a flawed constitutional text, and dysfunction typically occurs when a regime is unable to transition from a dysfunctional constitutional …

Hobby Lobby's Challenge To Officialdom's 'Compelling Interest', Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

No abstract provided.

Light In The Darkness: How Leatpr Standards Guide Legislators In Regulating Law Enforcement Access To Cell Site Location Records, Susan Freiwald

Susan Freiwald

This article measures the new ABA Standards for Criminal Justice: Law Enforcement Access to Third Party Records (LEATPR Standards) success by assessing the guidance they provide legislators interested in updating pertinent law regarding one specific type of data. Scholars should not expect the Standards to yield the same conclusions they would have furnished had they been able to draft a set of standards by themselves. The Standards emerged after years of painstaking consensus building and compromise no individual committee member got entirely what he wanted. Nonetheless, not every product of a committee turns out to have been worth the effort, …

Hobby Lobby, Unconstitutional Conditions, And Corporate Law Mistakes, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

The Murkiness Of The Hobby Lobby Ruling, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

No abstract provided.

The Balanced Budget Amendment: Will Judges Become Accountants? A Look At State Experiences, Donald Tobin

Donald B. Tobin

No abstract provided.

Canadian Constitutional Law, Fourth Edition, Patrick Macklem, Carol Rogerson, Joel Bakan, Jean Leclair, John Borrows, Ian Lee, Sujit Choudhry, Richard Moon, Robin Elliot, R. C. B. Risk, Jean-François Gaudreault-Desbiens, Kent Roach, Donna Greschner, Bruce Ryder, Patricia Hughes, David Schneiderman, Lorraine Weinrib

Sujit Choudhry

In its 4th edition, Canadian Constitutional Law continues to offer a truly national perspective — drawing on an editorial team that is rich with regional, linguistic, and scholarly diversity. This edition remains true to the structure and purposes of previous editions, especially with regard to the editors’ commitment to the idea that understanding constitutional history is critical to comprehending the present and future of Canadian constitutional law.

Constitutional Limitations On Sovereignty, 2014 Edition, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Constitutional Law, Land Use Control, and Environmental Law. It consists of 130 odd judicial opinions (most rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court) carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property.

The …

America Doesn't See Its Religious Minorities, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

No abstract provided.

America's Forgotten Constitutions: Defiant Visions Of Power And Community, Robert Tsai

Robert L Tsai

The U.S. Constitution opens by proclaiming the sovereignty of all citizens: "We the People." Robert Tsai's gripping history of alternative constitutions invites readers into the circle of those who have rejected this ringing assertion--the defiant groups that refused to accept the Constitution's definition of who "the people" are and how their authority should be exercised. America's Forgotten Constitutions is the story of America as told by dissenters: squatters, Native Americans, abolitionists, socialists, internationalists, and racial nationalists. Beginning in the nineteenth century, Tsai chronicles eight episodes in which discontented citizens took the extraordinary step of drafting a new constitution. He examines …

Hobby Lobby And The Return Of ‘The Negro Travelers’ Green Book’, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Implied Consent: A Proposal On For-Profit Conscience, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

No abstract provided.

Religious Rights Of Corporations, Part 2, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Unfair Advantage Would Spur Abuse Of Exempt Status: Do Corporations Have Religious Liberty?, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

The Presidential Signing Statements Controversy, Ronald Cass, Peter Strauss

Ronald A. Cass

No abstract provided.

Nothing To Fear Or Nowhere To Hide: Competing Visions Of The Nsa's 215 Program, Susan Freiwald

Susan Freiwald

Despite Intelligence Community leaders’ assurances, the detailed knowledge of the NSA metadata program (the 215 program) that flowed from the Snowden revelations did not assuage concerns about the program. Three groups, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, brought immediate legal challenges with mixed results in the lower courts. The conflict, in the courts, Congress, and the press, has revealed that the proponents and opponents of Section 215 view the program in diametrically opposed ways. Program proponents see a vital intelligence program operating within legal limits, which has suffered a few compliance …

The Road To Mass Democracy: Original Intent And The Seventeenth Amendment, Christopher Hoebeke

Christopher H Hoebeke

Until 1913 and passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, US senators were elected by state legislatures, not directly by the people. Progressive Era reformers urged this revision in answer to the corruption of state "machines" under the dominance of party bosses. They also believed that direct elections would make the Senate more responsive to popular concerns regarding the concentrations of business, capital, and labor that in the industrial era gave rise to a growing sense of individual voicelessness. Popular control over the higher affairs of government was thought to be possible, since the spread of information …