Law Commons^™

The Cycle Of Delegitimization: Lessons From Dred Scott On The Relationship Between The Supreme Court And The Nation, Jonathon J. Booth

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This Article examines how Chief Justice Taney’s opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford sparked a cycle of delegitimization that parallels contemporary debates about the Supreme Court’s legitimacy crisis. Part I explicates how one family’s fight for freedom in Missouri reached the Supreme Court, the resulting radical decision, and the nation’s reaction to show the initial stages of this cycle. Part II examines the impact of Dred Scott on politics and law during the James Buchanan administration (1857–1861). During this period, the federal government, Southern states, and some Western territories swiftly implemented the decision, for example by expelling free Black residents. …

How American Society And Law Continue To Undermine People With Disabilities Seeking Education And Employment, Angelica Guevara

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Our Founders specifically identified education as necessary to economic success and full participation in our democracy and society. However, the Supreme Court held in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez that education in America is not a constitutional right; instead, it is a commodity that few can afford. Then, in 2023, Biden v. Nebraska exposed the direct result of that ruling: the average American––regardless of their disability status––struggles to pay back their student loans, even when they have a well-paying job. The student debt crisis significantly impacts the economic future of students with disabilities, who make on average sixty-six …

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Will The New Roberts Court Revive A Formalist Approach To Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence?, Roger Antonio Tejada

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

While all Chief Justices leave behind distinctive periods of judicial thought and practice, the quantitative and qualitative data presented in this article show that the Roberts Court in particular stands out in the development of Fourth Amendment precedent. The key cases that shaped the search and seizure doctrine before and during his rise show that, contrary to what many may expect, Chief Justice Roberts will likely oversee limited, pro-defendant decisions that could grant additional legitimacy to the Court’s crime-control jurisprudence. On the other hand, the new Justices’ voting records and writings suggest that there are several potential coalitions that could …

Rethinking The Fundamentals: Applying The Evolving Standards Of Decency Test To The Court’S Evaluation Of Fundamental Rights., Nick Wolfram

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In 1910, the Supreme Court recognized in Weems v. United States that a constitution “must be capable of wider application than the mischief which gave it birth.” This principle led to the creation of the Court’s two-pronged “evolving standards of decency,” test: (1) evidence of an objective indicia of a national consensus, and (2) the reviewing court’s own independent judgment. To this day the Court has yet to apply this test outside of the Eighth Amendment context. But can the “evolving standards of decency,” test identify and protect other fundamental rights? This Article explores how the Court could apply the …

Editor-In-Chief’S Forward, Zoë Grimaldi

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Editor-In-Chief’S Forward, Zoë Grimaldi

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Domestic Supply (A Feminist Proposal), Jennifer Hendricks

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Unprecedented: Asian Americans, Harvard, The University Of North Carolina, And The Supreme Court’S Striking Down Of Affirmative Action, Harvey Gee

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., Petitioner v. University of North Carolina, et al. (“SFFA v. Harvard”),1 author Harvey Gee urges his fellow Asian Americans––the star plaintiffs in the case and depicted as the main beneficiaries of its holdings–– to fight back to preserve affirmative action. Part I explores how the Court’s approach to affirmative action changed from the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement through many of the pivotal affirmative action cases prior to the 2010s. Part II then seeks …

Litigating The Future Of Youth’S Access To Gender-Affirming Care, Sophoia Ureta-Fulan

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Youth should challenge limitations and prohibitions to their pursuit of gender-affirming care under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (EPC). Executive orders in several states have severely limited or prohibited youths’ ability to pursue gender-affirming care. These legal schemes and policies restrict access to gender-affirming care in violation of the ADA and the EPC. This paper discusses the need for gender-affirming care, the policy landscape in the United States restricting youths’ access to gender-affirming, evaluates arguments to expand the ADA to include coverage of gender dysphoria, and explores potential EPC challenges …

The Purpose And Practice Of Precedent: What The Decade Long Debate Over Stare Decisis Teaches Us About The New Roberts Court, Russell A. Miller

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Supreme Court’s tectonic decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health upended the Doctrine of Substantive Due Process by radically reinterpreting the doctrine of stare decisis. The Court’s established practice regarding stare decisis should have operated to preserve the fifty-year-old abortion jurisprudence. But we should have seen this change coming. Although there has been an intense and involved debate over the purpose and practice of precedent for generations, that debate shifted at the beginning of 2018. Four approaches to stare decisis emerged along a continuum, from complete abandonment of the doctrine and incremental erosion to modernized adherence to precedent. This …

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Editor-In-Chief’S Forward, Zoë Grimaldi

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Procedural Pluralism: A Model For Enforcing Internal Administrative Law, Daniel Epstein

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Much of our federal administrative law relies upon supposedly mandatory procedures that agencies often ignore. So, can the administrative state achieve legitimacy if it is bound by laws that it rarely, if ever, complies with? New data shows that agencies simply ignore administrative procedures without recourse because compliance ultimately depends on who holds power in the administrative state––not congressionally delegated rules or procedures imposed by the President. This article refutes the prevailing assumption that, as the sole powerholder of the entire executive department, the President is responsible for the current state of administrative non-compliance and underenforcement because the President decides …

Politicians The Founders Warned You About, Neil Fulton

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Many articles have explored the Founders’ intentions regarding the constitutional text. Much less attention has focused on the Founders’ ideas regarding the traits needed of the leaders in a constitutional republic. The Constitution focuses on governing structures, many of which relate to the electoral process. The Constitution does not spell out the ideal traits of the leaders elected pursuant to those processes. Nonetheless, the Founders possessed clear views about the virtues and qualifications that ideal political leaders required. Indeed, the Founders issued warnings about certain archetypal political figures who, because of their flagrant disregard of the ideal virtues and qualifications, …

Getting Off Off-Duty: The Impact Of Dobbs On Police Officers’ Private Sexual Lives, Joshua Arrayales

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Upon its leak and subsequent official release, the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization shocked and worried the nation. Overnight, the Court overturned forty-nine years of precedent. Those forty-nine years of overturned precedent not only implicate the ability to obtain abortion, but also the ability to engage in relationships, marry, make decisions about our own body, and keep our personal lives private. As a result, many advocates worry about the status of fundamental rights since many of those rights relied on the now overturned cases Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey as well as …

The Inadmissibility Of Victim Impact Evidence, Fernanda Gonzalez

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Currently, 41% of inmates on death row in the United States are Black, even though Black people make up only 13.6% of the total population in the country. Additionally, the data has repeatedly shown that states that do not have the death penalty have lower murder rates than states that do. Despite these disparities, more than half of states in the United States continue to allow capital punishment in some form as an alternative to a life sentence. These disparities were further exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Payne v. Tennessee, which allowed prosecutors to introduce victim impact evidence …

Preserving Constitutional Integrity In The Age Of Cyberwarfare: A Paper Tiger, Or Death By A Thousand Cuts?, Darren Singh

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Constitution is meant to serve as a necessary constraint on unilateral Executive military actions. Today, nation-states and non-state actors can launch devastating cyberattacks on the infrastructure, economy, military, and democratic systems of the United States. These attacks do not fall within the realm of “hostile actions” necessary to constitute war. Cyberattacks from adversaries are best deterred with offensive cyberattacks of our own. The President is the best actor to superintend and direct this active defense. Neither the Constitution nor the War Powers Resolution, however, offer a framework for how the United States may respond to these threats while also …

The Constitutionality Of Brain Searches, Wayne Unger

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

If technology could read your mind and capture your thoughts as storable and processable data, would that frighten you? Recent advancements in brain-computer interfaces will likely make mind-reading a reality, and if it does, it presents the last stand or final frontier in the battle for privacy protections. It is well established that an individual must be able to retreat into their home and be free from government intrusion. But if an individual cannot retreat into their own mind free from government intrusion, then true solitude will become extinct. In a future state where braincomputer interfaces can actively decode an …

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Imagination Unbound: On The New Anti-Rights Trajectory Of The U.S. Supreme Court, Joshua J. Schroeder

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled an individual right for the first time in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. The Dobbs Court also suggested that several rights-affirming decisions including Loving v. Virginia, Griswold v. Connecticut, and Obergefell v. Hodges should be systematically reviewed to similarly determine their lasting effect, if any. The idea that decades-old precedent should be systematically reviewed by the Court to decide whether it should be overruled under the new Janus v. AFSCME balancing test is uncharted territory.

Using an ad hoc balancing test to systematize the overruling of longstanding decisions is …

A Critical And Historical Analysis Of Ohio’S Post-Millennium Regression To Major-Party Monopoly, Mark R. Brown

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Fifty Years Later, An Editor Looks Back, Alan Charles Dell'ario

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Misapplication Of Inverse Condemnation Liability: A Legal Analysis Of The Application Of Inverse Condemnation Liability On Electrical Utilities, Nadra Mamou

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Madeline Cline

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Understanding An American Paradox: An Overview Of The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, Spearit

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Racial Equality, Religious Liberty, And The Complications Of Pluralism, Rachel F. Moran

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Race, Religion, And National Identity Review Of Sahar Aziz, The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom (Uc Press, 2022), Natsu Taylor Saito

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.