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The Sad, Quiet Death Of Missouri V. Holland: How Bond Hobbled The Treaty Power, Robert D. Sloane, Michael Glennon
The Sad, Quiet Death Of Missouri V. Holland: How Bond Hobbled The Treaty Power, Robert D. Sloane, Michael Glennon
Faculty Scholarship
Many anticipated that Bond v. United States (2014) would confirm or overrule Justice Holmes’s canonical decision in Missouri v. Holland (1920). Bond is now considered to have done neither; rather, it purportedly elided the constitutional issue by applying the canon of constitutional avoidance to the treaty’s implementing legislation, thus resolving Bond on statutory grounds alone and leaving Holland’s validity for another day. We argue to the contrary that Bond eviscerated Holland. Chief Justice Roberts proceeded from the premise that “the statute — unlike the [treaty] — must be read consistent with principles of federalism inherent in our constitutional structure.” This …
Qualified Immunity And Constitutional Avoidance, Jack M. Beermann
Qualified Immunity And Constitutional Avoidance, Jack M. Beermann
Faculty Scholarship
The Supreme Court’s elimination of the subjective element of the qualified immunity defense in constitutional tort cases had the unanticipated side effect of creating the potential for constitutional stagnation. To avoid this stagnation and although it appears to violate the general practice of constitutional avoidance, in Saucier v. Katz, the Court held that federal courts must decide the constitutional merits before deciding whether the defendant is immune from damages relief. Lower court judges and some Supreme Court Justices were unhappy at the prospect of addressing constitutional issues in all immunities cases, especially in those cases in which it was clear …