Law Commons^™

People's Court, Nicholas S. Zeppos

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Supreme Court's opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick' contains the usual cant about the legitimacy of the judicial function. In holding that the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment does not recognize a fundamental right to practice homosexual sodomy, the Court cautioned that "[t]he Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution. What exactly did the Court mean? That the public would refuse to obey judicial judgments if the Court were to recognize rights not "found in" …

Constitutional Limitations On State Power To Hold Parents Criminally Liable For The Delinquent Acts Of Their Children, Kathryn J. Parsley

Vanderbilt Law Review

In late 1988 as part of a comprehensive effort to combat violent street gang activity,' the California legislature passed an amendment to section 272 of California's Penal Code, commonly known as the Parental Responsibility Law. Section 272 originally stated only that every person who commits any act or fails to perform any duty that causes or tends to cause a minor to do a prohibited act is guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor under the California Penal Code, and subject to a maximum fine of twenty-five hundred dollars, one year in jail, or both. When …

The Parsonage Allowance Exclusion: Past, Present, And Future, Matthew W. Foster

Vanderbilt Law Review

Religious freedom has played a pivotal role in the history and cultural development of the United States.' Religion historically has been considered a fundamental aspect of American culture, resulting in the granting of numerous legal rights and privileges to religious personnel and institutions. These grants stem from the protections in the Bill of Rights and include privileges that, though of undoubted importance, are not known widely and may fail to provoke controversy to the same extent as perceived infringements or endorsements of religion.'

Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code grants one of the lesser- known privileges. This statute permits …