Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Law
A New Balance Of Evils: Prosecutorial Misconduct, Iqbal, And The End Of Absolute Immunity, Mark Niles
A New Balance Of Evils: Prosecutorial Misconduct, Iqbal, And The End Of Absolute Immunity, Mark Niles
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
Criminal prosecutors wield immense power in the criminal justice system. While the majority of prosecutors exercise this power in a professional manner, there is compelling evidence of a serious and growing problem ofprosecutorial misconduct in this country. Although much prosecutorial misconduct results in the violation of the constitutional and other legal rights of criminal defendants, prosecutors arep rotectedfrom any liability arisingf rom these violations in all but the most exceptional cases by the defense of absolute immunity. The US. Supreme Court has justified the application ofabsolute prosecutorial immunity, in part, by noting that other means of incentivizing appropriate prosecutorial conduct …
Quasi-Preemption: Nervous Breakdown In Our Constitutional System, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.
Quasi-Preemption: Nervous Breakdown In Our Constitutional System, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Appropriations Power And Sovereign Immunity, Paul F. Figley
The Appropriations Power And Sovereign Immunity, Paul F. Figley
Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals
Discussions of sovereign immunity assume that the Constitution contains no explicit text regarding sovereign immunity. As a result, arguments about the existence - or nonexistence - of sovereign immunity begin with the English and American common-law doctrines. Exploring political, fiscal, and legal developments in England and the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, this Article shows that focusing on common-law developments is misguided. The common-law approach to sovereign immunity ended in the early 1700s. The Bankers’ Case (1690–1700), which is often regarded as the first modern common-law treatment of sovereign immunity, is in fact the last in the …
Doing Katrina Time, Pamela R. Metzger
Doing Katrina Time, Pamela R. Metzger
Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters
This Article explores one Katrina-law problem: the plight of the poor, unrepresented and uncharged prisoners. It attempts to explain why these detainees were unrepresented and abandoned and how we might better guarantee the quality of justice for future detainees. Katrina has proved that bright-line rules are the best lines of defense for the poor; criminal justice systems honor concrete rules more readily than abstract imperatives. Katrina also proved that good lawyering on behalf of poor people can bring joy in the midst of despair.
Wiretapping's Fruits, The First Amendment, And The Paradigms Of Privacy, Bernard W. Bell
Wiretapping's Fruits, The First Amendment, And The Paradigms Of Privacy, Bernard W. Bell
Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers
No abstract provided.
The Foggy Road For Evaluating Punitive Damages: Lifting The Haze From The Bmw/State Farm Guideposts, Steven L. Chanenson, John Y. Gotanda
The Foggy Road For Evaluating Punitive Damages: Lifting The Haze From The Bmw/State Farm Guideposts, Steven L. Chanenson, John Y. Gotanda
Working Paper Series
In light of increasing punitive damages awards, the United States Supreme Court formulated criteria for evaluating whether a punitive damages award is so unreasonably large that it violates substantive due process. Unfortunately, these "guideposts," which were first erected in BMW v. Gore and applied last term in State Farm v. Campbell, are difficult to use and have resulted in inconsistent decisions. Indeed, Justice Scalia stated that they "mark a road to nowhere." The authors argue that the problems with the guideposts can be fixed by refining the third guidepost, which compares the punitive damages award to the criminal (or civil) …
Foreword: Symposium Re-Examining First Principles: Deterrence And Corrective Justice In Constitutional Torts, Thomas A. Eaton
Foreword: Symposium Re-Examining First Principles: Deterrence And Corrective Justice In Constitutional Torts, Thomas A. Eaton
Scholarly Works
This Symposium provides a forum for a careful and thoughtful consideration of whether constitutional tort law can deter wrongdoing and is consistent with principles of corrective justice.
Corrective Justice And Constitutional Torts, Bernard P. Dauenhauer, Michael L. Wells
Corrective Justice And Constitutional Torts, Bernard P. Dauenhauer, Michael L. Wells
Scholarly Works
Tort liability in the private realm may be understood as "an instrument aimed...at deterrence...[and] a way of achieving corrective justice between the parties." Following the common law model, the Supreme Court has borrowed this normative framework for constitutional torts, ruling that the aims of liability for damages are to vindicate constitutional rights and to deter constitutional violations. A recent article by Daryl Levinson takes issue with this approach. Levinson argues that the superficial similarities between public torts and private torts conceal real differences, to which neither the Court nor scholars have paid adequate attention. The main point of his article, …
Federal Preemption Of State Tort Claims, Marin Roger Scordato
Federal Preemption Of State Tort Claims, Marin Roger Scordato
Scholarly Articles
This article explores a continuing disagreement among Justices of the United States Supreme Court regarding the proper doctrinal framework for federal preemption jurisprudence. This important difference in views became apparent in the four federal preemption cases that the Supreme Court decided during its 1999-2000 term. The article describes this critical disagreement among the Justices, places it in the larger context of preemption doctrine, and then carefully analyzes a number of possible resolutions.
Federal preemption is an area of enormous practical and theoretical importance. It is a subject that has earned a regular place on the Supreme Court's docket for many …
Why Constitutional Torts Deserve A Book Of Their Own, Michael Wells, Thomas A. Eaton, Sheldon H. Nahmod
Why Constitutional Torts Deserve A Book Of Their Own, Michael Wells, Thomas A. Eaton, Sheldon H. Nahmod
Scholarly Works
Over thirty years ago, Marshall Shapo coined the term "constitutional tort" to denote a suit brought against an official, charging a constitutional violation and seeking damages. In the years since Shapo's pathbreaking article, the number of such suits has grown exponentially. The suits have generated a host of new substantive and remedial issues, yet conventional casebooks on constitutional law and federal courts give little attention to the area. That Professor Shapiro had four books to include in his review of "Civil Rights" casebooks in the Seattle University Law Review is some indication of a demand for teaching materials currently unmet …
Constitutional Remedies, Section 1983 And The Common Law, Michael L. Wells
Constitutional Remedies, Section 1983 And The Common Law, Michael L. Wells
Scholarly Works
Constitutional tort law marries the substantive rights granted by the Constitution to the remedial mechanism of tort law. The sweeping language of 42 U.S.C. 1983 provides that "[e]very person who, under color of any [state law] subjects, or causes to be subjected, any [person] to the deprivation of any [constitutional rights] shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress." Constitutional tort suits raise, in a new context, many tort-like remedial questions relating to causation, immunity, and damages--and therein lies a problem. The usual source of answers to …
Constitutional Torts: Combining Diverse Doctrines And Practicality, Thomas A. Eaton, Michael Wells
Constitutional Torts: Combining Diverse Doctrines And Practicality, Thomas A. Eaton, Michael Wells
Scholarly Works
Constitutional Torts is, in part, a response to our sense that the upper level curriculum could be improved by courses that bring together areas of doctrine that are often studied in isolation. We think there is substantial value in bringing together seemingly disparate areas of doctrine that bear on a common real-world problem. Students benefit from learning how to put together concepts from different substantive areas in order to solve problems they will face in practice.
United States V. Johnson, Lewis F. Powell Jr.
United States V. Johnson, Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Supreme Court Case Files
No abstract provided.
Substantive Due Process And The Scope Of Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells, Thomas A. Eaton
Substantive Due Process And The Scope Of Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells, Thomas A. Eaton
Scholarly Works
The thesis of this Article is that both the Supreme Court and its critics have failed to identify and confront the central issue presented by these due process constitutional tort cases. That issue is neither procedural fairness nor the choice between state and federal courts. It is deciding whether a government-inflicted injury to life, liberty, or property violates the substantive protections of the due process clauses and thereby warrants a constitutionally derived tort remedy. In Part II of this Article we examine the Supreme Court's decisions in this area, focusing primarily on Parratt v. Taylor. We demonstrate that neither Parratt …
Zacchini V. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Zacchini V. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Supreme Court Case Files
No abstract provided.