Accountability Before The Fact, Michael R. Dimino Sr.
Jun 2014
Accountability Before The Fact, Michael R. Dimino Sr.
Michael R Dimino
No abstract provided.
Shelby County, Alabama V. Holder: Must Congress Update The Voting Rights Act’S Coverage Formula For Preclearance?, Michael Dimino
Jan 2013
Shelby County, Alabama V. Holder: Must Congress Update The Voting Rights Act’S Coverage Formula For Preclearance?, Michael Dimino
Michael R Dimino
No abstract provided.
It's My Party And I'Ll Do What I Want To: Political Parties, Unconstitutional Conditions, And The Freedom Of Association, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2012
It's My Party And I'Ll Do What I Want To: Political Parties, Unconstitutional Conditions, And The Freedom Of Association, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
To this point, cases and commentary have portrayed controversies about regulation of political parties as requiring a choice between the autonomy of parties and the power of the government to regulate elections. Supporters of government regulation have seen such regulation as worth the cost of limiting parties' freedom. Opponents have argued that parties' First Amendment rights entitle them not only to run themselves as they see fit but to receive the assistance of the government in doing so.
This Article has suggested a third way. By permitting government to condition benefits on parties' waiver of First Amendment rights, this new …
The Natural And The Familiar In Politics And Law, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2011
The Natural And The Familiar In Politics And Law, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
The most direct influence on my style as a teacher was my experience as a law student. In my last semester, I took the course on the Law of Democracy and was forever smitten with the subject. I had already been interested in politics and constitutional law, so it was not surprising that I would enjoy a subject that combined them. But the class itself—the areas of the law that were covered and the way in which they were covered—showed me how
exciting law could be. Here was a subject that was crucial to every substantive area of law because …
Voting Rights And Election Law, Michael Dimino, Bradley Smith, Michael Solimine
Dec 2009
Voting Rights And Election Law, Michael Dimino, Bradley Smith, Michael Solimine
Michael R Dimino
Voting Rights and Election Law is a law school text book covering the law surrounding the electoral system. Coverage begins with voting qualifications and barriers to exercise of the franchise. The book covers the authority of the courts to remedy violations of the right to vote. Other topics include the One-Person/One Vote Doctrine under the Federal Constitution and the effects of the Voting Rights Act. The book also covers the role of political parties and term limits for federal and state office. Campaign finance and political speech each receive treatment. The book concludes with a chapter on methods for remedying …
Public Confidence And Judicial Campaigns, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2009
Public Confidence And Judicial Campaigns, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
My purpose in this essay is to evaluate one of the alternative grounds suggested by Professor Geyh: that the elimination of judicial elections and limits on judicial candidates’ speech can be defended as means of "preserv[ing] public confidence in the courts." Such confidence is necessary, the argument goes, because the people would refuse to "acquiesce[] in the orderly administration of justice" if they believed that judges were deciding cases on the basis of their own preferences (or the electorate’s) rather than on the law.
Symposium, Internet Expression In The 21st Century: Where Technology & Law Collide: Introduction, Michael R. Dimino, Tonya M. Evans-Walls, Nicole M. Santo
Dec 2009
Symposium, Internet Expression In The 21st Century: Where Technology & Law Collide: Introduction, Michael R. Dimino, Tonya M. Evans-Walls, Nicole M. Santo
Michael R Dimino
The Widener Law Journal has assembled a dynamic and diverse group of preeminent legal scholars to evaluate and discuss the many engaging, perplexing, and unanswered legal and ethical questions presented by Internet expression. These scholars have focused on two primary topics: (1) issues of constitutional law and criminal procedure that arise with Internet expression, including whether the Internet has increased concerns about invasions of other persons' rights and what regulations are necessary to protect privacy rights; (2) the intersection of Internet expression and property law, including issues of ownership, protectable interests,
and fair use in the realm of intellectual property …
Sports Law: Cases And Materials, Michael Cozzillio, Mark Levinstein, Michael Dimino, Gabe Feldman
Apr 2009
Sports Law: Cases And Materials, Michael Cozzillio, Mark Levinstein, Michael Dimino, Gabe Feldman
Michael R Dimino
No abstract provided.
We Have Met The Special Interests, And We Are They, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2008
We Have Met The Special Interests, And We Are They, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
My purpose here is to broaden our focus and argue that, while the influence of campaign contributors is likely to draw most of the popular attention surrounding the power of special interests within the judiciary, the exercise of judicial power will advantage certain interests at the expense of others regardless of the method of judicial selection a particular state uses. Accordingly, we should be careful that attempts to control the influence of special interests do not, in fact, simply advantage one set of special interests.
Police Paternalism: Community Caretaking, Assistance Searches, And Fourth Amendment Reasonableness, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2008
Police Paternalism: Community Caretaking, Assistance Searches, And Fourth Amendment Reasonableness, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
Police spend an estimated two-thirds to four-fifths of their time on “community-caretaking” activities having little or nothing to do with the investigation of crime. Such activities include checking on persons who may be hurt or ill, ensuring that highways are clear and safe for travel, and generally offering assistance to members of the public who need it. When these community-caretaking functions require police to access places where people reasonably expect privacy, the Fourth Amendment requires that they be performed “reasonably.” The Supreme Court, however, has left the specifics of this reasonableness standard undefined, and lower courts have done little to …
The Worst Way Of Selecting Judges—Except All The Others That Have Been Tried, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2004
The Worst Way Of Selecting Judges—Except All The Others That Have Been Tried, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
This Essay critiques the arguments leveled at judicial elections. For each criticism--which I have discovered through a reasonably thorough review of cases and law review commentary--I assess the degree to which the criticism is valid, and also the degree to which other judicial-selection methods fall prey to the same criticism. I argue that the flaws of judicial elections, though often considerable, are shared in large part by alternative selection systems. Beyond, however, being simply equivalent in malignity to other selection methods, elections have--or, rather, may have, depending on the content of judicial election campaigns--one advantage over other systems that instigated …
The Non-Political Branch (Reviewing Lee Epstein & Jeffrey A. Segal, Advice And Consent: The Politics Of Judicial Appointments (2005)), Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2004
The Non-Political Branch (Reviewing Lee Epstein & Jeffrey A. Segal, Advice And Consent: The Politics Of Judicial Appointments (2005)), Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
The realization that judicial ideology matters to case outcomes may have driven the judicial selection process to become increasingly ideological and partisan, but to some degree it has brought ideology and partisanship to bear on the selection process from the time of the Founding. As the authors note, “Presidents, senators, and
interest groups alike realize that the judges themselves are political.” Judging may in some ways be different from politics, but politicians’ judgments about judging most certainly are not.
The Futile Quest For A System Of Judicial “Merit” Selection, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2003
The Futile Quest For A System Of Judicial “Merit” Selection, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
Others have discussed exhaustively the merits and demerits of merit selection, and I do not intend in this essay to debate the success or failure, per se, of merit selection since its introduction in Missouri in 1940. Instead, I wish to discuss the effect merit selection has on squelching public debate about the judiciary. Once that effect is demonstrated, I then wish to assess this antidemocratic tendency against the purported goal of merit selection: maintaining some measure of accountability in a selection system nonetheless designed to make judges confident enough in their independence to render decisions according to the law …
Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Robe: Judicial Elections, The First Amendment, And Judges As Politicians, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2002
Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Robe: Judicial Elections, The First Amendment, And Judges As Politicians, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
The question this Article seeks to answer is whether the First Amendment can maintain a distinction between the two types of races. Specifically, I discuss whether the governmental interests in maintaining an independent,
impartial judiciary and in protecting the appearance of the judiciary as independent and impartial can provide justification for the suppression of speech, where such suppression would be held impermissible in elections for
other offices. I conclude that it cannot. My recommendation, therefore, is to subject restrictions on legislative, executive, and judicial campaign speech to the same exacting scrutiny.
Yes, Virginia (Tech), Our Government Is One Of Limited Powers, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 2000
Yes, Virginia (Tech), Our Government Is One Of Limited Powers, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
The Framers of the Constitution designed the national government to be one of limited powers. Distrustful of the
accumulation of power in any single body, the Framers provided for the division of powers both within the national, or general, government, and between the national government and the state governments. The separation of powers among the national government's legislative, executive, and judicial branches requires each branch to secure the acquiescence of the other two for the successful implementation of any policy, while the federalism that divides power between the national and the state governments prevents either from obtaining
totalitarian control over …
D.C. Circuit Revives Nondelegation Doctrine…Or Does It?, Michael R. Dimino
Dec 1999
D.C. Circuit Revives Nondelegation Doctrine…Or Does It?, Michael R. Dimino
Michael R Dimino
Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution charges Congress with the ability and the duty to make the law. Courts have always understood, however, that Congress has the capacity to delegate some legislative power to other institutional actors, typically those in the executive branch. Such delegations are justified by the "practical understanding that in our increasingly complex society, Congress simply cannot do its job absent an ability to delegate power under broad general directives." This does not mean that Congress enjoys unlimited authority to delegate. Under the judicially crafted "nondelegation doctrine," Congress delegates too much lawmaking power if it fails …
