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Articles 31 - 38 of 38

Full-Text Articles in Law

Desperately Ducking Slavery: Dred Scott And Contemporary Constitutional Theory, Mark A. Graber Jul 2008

Desperately Ducking Slavery: Dred Scott And Contemporary Constitutional Theory, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

No abstract provided.


Settling The West: The Annexation Of Texas, The Louisiana Purchase, And Bush V. Gore, Mark Graber Jul 2008

Settling The West: The Annexation Of Texas, The Louisiana Purchase, And Bush V. Gore, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

No abstract provided.


Looking Off The Ball: Constitutional Law And American Politics, Mark A. Graber Jul 2008

Looking Off The Ball: Constitutional Law And American Politics, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

“Looking Off the Ball” details how and why constitutional law influences both judicial and public decision making. Treating justices as free to express their partisan commitments may seem to explain Bush v. Gore*, but not the judicial failure to intervene in the other numerous presidential elections in which the candidate favored by most members of the Supreme Court lost. Constitutional norms and standards generate legal agreements among persons who dispute the underlying merits of particular policies under constitutional attack. The norms and standards explain constitutional criticism, why only a small proportion of the political questions that occupy Americans are normally …


The Jacksonian Makings Of The Taney Court, Mark A. Graber Jul 2008

The Jacksonian Makings Of The Taney Court, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

Many twentieth century commentators regard the willingness of Taney Court majorities to declare laws unconstitutional as proof that the justices on that tribunal adjured Jacksonian partisanship upon taking the bench. Old Republicans during the 1820s fulminated against judicial review of state legislation and sought to repeal Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1787, but they were apparently frustrated by a Taney Court which continued imposing contract clause and dormant commerce clause limits on state power. This paper demonstrates that Jacksonians in office supported judicial power. Jacksonian animus was more directed at McCulloch v. Maryland than either Marbury v. Madison …


Does It Really Matter? Conservative Courts In A Conservative Era, Mark A. Graber Jul 2008

Does It Really Matter? Conservative Courts In A Conservative Era, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

This essay explores the likelihood that conservative federal courts in the near future will be agents of conservative social change. In particular, the paper assesses whether conservative justices on some issues will support more conservative policies than conservative elected officials are presently willing to enact and whether such judicial decisions will influence public policy. My primary conclusion is that, as long as conservatives remain politically ascendant in the elected branches of government, the Roberts Court is likely to influence American politics at the margins. The new conservative judicial majority is likely to be more libertarian than conservative majorities in the …


Naked Land Transfers And American Constitutional Development, Mark Graber Jul 2008

Naked Land Transfers And American Constitutional Development, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

The constitutional prohibition on naked land transfers, laws granting to B property that belonged to A, played a far greater role in American constitutional development than is generally realized. The Marshall and Taney Courts heard numerous cases in which government officials were accused of expropriating private property, typically by legislative oversight rather than by deliberate intent. When resolving these cases, antebellum justices relied heavily on “certain great principles of justice” rather than on specific constitutional provisions. Supreme Court majorities on several occasions probably exercised the judicial power to declare federal laws unconstitutional. More frequently, Marshall and Taney Court decisions in …


Old Wine In New Bottles: The Constitutional Status Of Unconstitutional Speech, Mark A. Graber Jul 2008

Old Wine In New Bottles: The Constitutional Status Of Unconstitutional Speech, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

This Article explores whether contemporary advocates of restrictions on bigoted expression have more in common with contemporary advocates of broad First Amendment rights or with past censors. The critical theorists who would ban some hate speech rely heavily on the equal citizenship principles that radical civil libertarians believe justify almost absolute speech rights. The First Amendment, past and present censors argue, does not fully protect speech inconsistent with what they believe are basic constitutional values. This claim repudiates a basic principle of American constitutionalism, the faith that "self-evident" constitutional values will triumph in the constitutional marketplace of ideas. The ideological …


Thick And Thin: Interdisciplinary Conversations On Populism, Law, Political Science, And Constitutional Change, Mark A. Graber Jul 2008

Thick And Thin: Interdisciplinary Conversations On Populism, Law, Political Science, And Constitutional Change, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

No abstract provided.