Law Commons^™

New York Times V. Sullivan And The Rhetorics Of Race: A Look At The Briefs, Oral Arguments, And Opinions, Carlo A. Pedrioli

Carlo A. Pedrioli

Given the strife of the Civil Rights Movement that surrounded the case, this article looks back at the use of race in New York Times v. Sullivan. Specifically, the article examines how the advocates, led by Herbert Wechsler for the Times, I. H. Wachtel, William Rogers, and Samuel Pierce for the four ministers, and Roland Nachman for Sullivan, dealt with race in their rhetorics to the Court, both in their merits briefs and their oral arguments, and also how the justices used race in their opinions. Although Justice William Brennan did not explicitly focus on race in his opinion for …

Demanding Individual Rights And Civil Liberties: An Iranian Approach, Zahra Takhshid

Zahra Takhshid

Iran has a long history of social movements and revolutions. The 1906 Constitutional Revolution led to the recognition of individual rights as part of Iran’s first Constitution. With the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a new constitution was enacted, which devoted one chapter to “the Rights of the Nation.”

The Constitution has introduced several methods to protect the recognized rights: the Guardian Council, the Tribunal of Administrative Justice, and the Commission of Article 90.

In addition to the institutions introduced in the Constitution, the Legislature and the Executive branch proposed new safeguarding procedures and adopted new statutes, which recognized broader range …

The Natural Born Citizen Clause As Originally Understood, Mary Brigid Mcmanamon

Mary Brigid McManamon

Article II of the Constitution requires that the President be a “natural born Citizen.” The phrase is derived from English common law, and the Supreme Court requires examination of that law to ascertain the phrase’s definition. This piece presents the pertinent English sources, combined with statements by early American jurists. Based on a reading of these materials, the article concludes that, in the eyes of the Framers, a presidential candidate must be born within the United States. The article is important because there has been a candidate that “pushed the envelope” on this question in many elections over the last …

Between Law And Religion: Procedural Challenges To Religious Arbitration Awards, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

This Essay presented at the Sharia and Halakha in America Conference explores the unique status of religious law as a hybrid concept that simultaneously retains the characteristics of both law and religion. To do so, the Article considers as a case study how courts should evaluate procedural challenges to religious arbitration awards. To respond to such challenges, courts must treat religious law as law when defining the contractually adopted religious procedural rules and treat religious law as religion when reviewing precisely what the religious procedural rules require. On this account, constitutional and arbitration doctrine combine to insulate religious arbitration awards …

Constitutional Law In Social Choice Perspective, Maxwell Stearns

Maxwell L. Stearns

Constitutional scholars do not typically employ spatial reasoning in their work. And yet, constitutional jurisprudence implicitly rests on a set of assumptions that can best be cast in spatial terms. This includes assuming that debated positions respecting constitutional issues, along with the views of Supreme Court justices, rest along a common liberal-to-conservative ideological dimension. Political scientists who embrace the Attitudinal Model are more explicit in this framing, which is itself a premise of those who code the Supreme Court Database upon which much quantitative work in the field of Judicial Politics takes place.

The assumption of a single analytical dimension …

The Statement And Account Clause As A National Security Freedom Of Information Act, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

Iq, Intelligence Testing, Ethnic Adjustments And Atkins, Robert M. Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

Applying Citizens United To Ordinary Corruption: With A Note On Blagojevich, Mcdonnell, And The Criminalization Of Politics, George D. Brown

George D. Brown

The Romanian Double Executive And The 2012 Constitutional Crisis, Vlad Perju

Vlad Perju

Why Personhood Matters, Tamara R. Piety

Tamara R. Piety

One of the most controversial aspect of the Supreme Court's decisions in Citizens United and Hobby Lobby is its treatment of corporate personhood. Many members of the public object to the notion that corporations should have the same rights as human beings. Yet many scholars claim that this concern is misplaced. In this article I argue that concern about corporate personhood is not misplaced because the personhood metaphor conceals the degree to which there has not been an adequate justification given for extending fundamental rights to corporations. Focusing on personhood allows us to push on the metaphor to ask whether …

An Essay On Christian Constitutionalism: Building In The Divine Style, For The Common Good(S), Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

Theocracy is a matter of growing global concern and therefore of renewed academic interest. This paper answers the following question: "What would a Christian constitution, in a predominantly Christian nation, look like?" The paper was prepared for presentation as the Clark Lecture at Rutgers School of Law (Camden), where papers answering the same question with respect to Jewish and Islamic constitutions and cultures, respectively, were also presented. A Christian constitution would not have as its aim the comparatively anodyne -- and ultimately futile -- business of introducing more "Judeo-Christian values" into the life of the typical nation state. The paper …

King V. Burwell And The Rise Of The Administrative State, Ronald D. Rotunda

Ronald D. Rotunda

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a complex law totaling nearly a thousand pages in length. The litigation now before the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell presents, on the surface, a simple issue of statutory interpretation. However, that surface has a very thin veneer. If the Court allows administrators carte blanche to change the very words of a statute, we will have come a long way towards governance by bureaucrats. Over the years, Congress has delegated many of its powers, but it has never delegated the power to raise taxes or spend tax subsidies in ways …

Embracing Administrative Constitutionalism, Bertrall L. Ross

Bertrall L Ross

Administrative agencies engage in constitutionalism. They resolve questions of statutory meaning and scope that implicate constitutional questions. Even when agencies do not consciously set out to weigh in on constitutional

questions, by interpreting and applying statutes that rest on constitutional values, agencies elaborate constitutional meaning.

Should courts and theorists embrace or resist administrative

constitutionalism? For those who believe that the courts are the exclusive and final interpreters of the Constitution, it seems natural to oppose it. Thus, over the past forty years, the Supreme Court has resisted administrative constitutionalism. When agencies elaborate constitutional meaning in their interpretation of statutes, the …

Religious Exemptions, Marriage Equality, And The Establishment Of Religion, Nancy J. Knauer

Nancy J. Knauer

The advent of nationwide marriage equality has sparked a robust debate over the extent of religious liberties and the limits of civil rights protections. As public opinion regarding LGBT individuals and the families they form has evolved, religious beliefs that once served as the basis for law and policy have been increasing marginalized. Various efforts have been made to protect religious objectors who continue to believe that marriage is only between one man and one woman. For example, all of the states that had enacted marriage equality legislation included exceptions for clergy and religious organizations to ensure that they would …

Education And The Equal Status Acts - Stokes -V- Christian Brothers High School Clonmel, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This case involved a challenge under the Equal Status Act (ESA) to the admissions rules of a Clonmel secondary school which, it was argued, indirectly discriminated against children from the Traveller community. At first instance (before the Equality Tribunal) and on appeal to the Circuit Court it had been held that this rule did have a disproportionate impact on Travellers but the Court and Tribunal differed as to whether this was objectively justified or not. On further appeal to the High Court, McCarthy J. held that there was no disproportionate impact as, adopting a dictionary definition of the term ‘particular’, …

Pregnancy As A ‘Personal Circumstance’? A Case Study Of Equality Jurisprudence Under The Canadian Charter Of Rights, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This article examines the recent decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Miceli-Riggins v Attorney General of Canada as an example of the approach which the Canadian courts are taking to the interpretation of s. 15 of the Charter of Rights (in the area of social benefits) following the Supreme Court’s recent attempts to ‘restate’ that law in a series of cases. It argued that, whatever the intention of the Supreme Court, the restatement of the law has created general confusion in the lower courts and tribunals. In addition, in cases concerning social benefits, the Court’s statements, in cases …

Pension ‘Splitting’, Property Rights, Equality And The Canadian Charter Of Rights - Runchey V. Canada (Attorney General), 2013 Fca 16, Mel Cousins

Mel Cousins

This note discusses the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal in Runchey v. Canada (Attorney General). The case concerned an equality challenge concerning provisions of the Canada Pension Plan (the Plan) under s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. This was dismissed by the Court. However, the main focus of this note is to point out that it is arguable that the main issue raised in the case (i.e. the loss of pension rights by one spouse without any gain to the other) is not a s. 15 equality issue but rather an unjust deprivation …

Recensión A "José María Morales Arroyo (Dir.): Recurso De Amparo, Derechos Fundamentales Y Trascendencia Constitucional (El Camino Hacia La Objetivación Del Amparo Constitucional En España), Aranzadi, Cizur Menor, 2014, 483 Páginas", Germán M. Teruel Lozano

Germán M. Teruel Lozano

No abstract provided.

Religious Institutionalism, Implied Consent And The Value Of Voluntarism, Michael A. Helfand

Michael A Helfand

Increasingly, clashes between the demands of law and aspirations of religion center on the legal status and treatment of religious institutions. Much of the rising tensions revolving around religious institutions—exemplified by recent Supreme Court decisions such as Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby—stem from conflicts between the religious objectives of those institutions and their impact on third parties who do not necessarily share those same objectives. This Article aims to provide a framework for analyzing the claims of religious institutions by grounding those claims in the principle of voluntarism. On such an account, religious institutions deserve protection because …

The Challenge Of Co-Religionist Commerce, Michael A. Helfand, Barak D. Richman

Michael A Helfand

This Article addresses the rise of “co-religionist commerce” in the United States—that is, the explosion of commercial dealings that take place between co-religionists who intend their transactions to achieve both commercial and religious objectives. To remain viable, co-religionist commerce requires all the legal support necessary to sustain all other commercial relationships. Contracts must be enforced, parties must be protected against torts, and disputes must be reliably adjudicated.

Under current constitutional doctrine, co-religionist commercial agreements must be translated into secular terminology if there are to be judicially enforced. However, religious goods and services often cannot be accurately translated without religious terms …

Specialized Standards Of Review, Jonas Anderson

J. Jonas Anderson

City Of Los Angeles V. Patel: The Upcoming Supreme Court Case No One Is Talking About, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

Focusing solely on whether a hotel owner has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a guest registry is akin to asking whether Verizon Wireless has a reasonable expectation of privacy in its customer lists. The answer to those questions should be yes, but the sixty-four thousand dollar question—and the proverbial elephant in the room—is whether hotel occupants and cell phone users forfeit their privacy rights simply because they check into the Beverly Hills Hotel or call their significant others from a Smart Phone on the Santa Monica Freeway. Put differently, a hotel owner’s expectation of privacy in a guest registry …

City Of Los Angeles V. Patel: The Upcoming Supreme Court Case No One Is Talking About, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

Focusing solely on whether a hotel owner has a reasonable expectation of privacy in a guest registry is akin to asking whether Verizon Wireless has a reasonable expectation of privacy in its customer lists. The answer to those questions should be yes, but the sixty-four thousand dollar question—and the proverbial elephant in the room—is whether hotel occupants and cell phone users forfeit their privacy rights simply because they check into the Beverly Hills Hotel or call their significant others from a Smart Phone on the Santa Monica Freeway.

Put differently, a hotel owner’s expectation of privacy in a guest registry …

Same-Sex Marriage And Conflict Of Law: The “Other” Constitutional Issue, Sheldon D. Pollack

Sheldon D Pollack

A constitutional issue of great significance has confounded our political and legal systems in recent decades. This involves the legal status afforded same-sex marriage. Under longstanding tradition, marriage in all fifty states was restricted to a union of one man and one woman (a “traditional marriage”). But tradition began to erode in the 1990s, gradually giving way to a tacit acceptance of same-sex marriage in various regions of the United States. The result has been several decades of unsettled and conflicting law with respect to the legal status of such unions, with some states recognizing same-sex marriages and others prohibiting …

An Outline For The Study Of Ethiopian Constitutional Law, Tsegaye Beru

Tsegaye Beru

This outline is based on the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution. However, it is important to acknowledge that the 1995 Constitution cannot be studied in isolation. Like its forerunners, the Constitution is not distinctively Ethiopia, save the customary and religious laws that have been recognized by it. Past and present constitutions were derived from various sources, mostly Western. The immediate source of the 1995 Constitution is the Charter of the Transitional Government that took power from the military government. However, the 1995 Constitution was built upon the constitutions and laws that preceded it and the customary and religious laws that predated it. …

A Comment On Costs In Constitutional Cases, Iain Field

Iain Field

Professor Patrick Keyzer and Stephen Lloyd SC are both well qualified to speak to the legal principles that govern the determination of costs in constitutional cases, and I am, with respect, happy to accept their combined review of these principles. I do not think that there are any significant disagreements between them in this regard. They have, nevertheless, provided us with two usefully distinct perspectives on the topic, and offered two contrasting views as to the need for special costs rules in constitutional cases. I have only a small number of observations (perhaps it is better to say questions), which …

Fcc V. Fox Television Moot Court, Robert Barnes, Joan Biskupic, John Blume, Erwin Chemerinsky, Thomas Goldstein, Linda Greenhouse, John Mcginnis, David Savage, Paul Smith, William Van Alstyne, Timothy Zick

John H. Blume

The Bill of Rights Institute and William and Mary Law School hosted a moot court on the FCC v. Fox Television indecency case. The case rests on the FCC’s ban against the use of curse words in television broadcasts Erwin Chermerinsky and Thomas Goldstein argued the case before Joan Biskupic, Robert Barnes, John Blume, Linda Greenhouse, John McGinnis, David Savage, Paul Smith, William Van Alstyne, and Timothy Zick. After the oral argument the judgment was shown. Then the panelists responded to questions from members of the audience. This program contains language some may find offensive.

Amicus Brief: City Of Montebello V. Vasquez, Steven J. Andre

Steven J. Andre

This amicus brief proposes that the court of appeal below and the parties to this litigation have asked the wrong question regarding the governmental activity in question. While the court of appeal was quite correct in recognizing that elected officials’ actions in voting upon legislation and negotiating do not involve exercise of First Amendment rights, this recognition is short sighted. In actuality, no governmental action furthers the First Amendment rights of the government actor. Public officials engage in activity which in many ways resembles constitutionally protected speech and petitioning. They speak, vote, evaluate and otherwise involve themselves in official proceedings …

The Legacy Of Anthony M. Kennedy, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

The defining moments in Justice Kennedy’s tenure on the Court came in Planned Parenthood, Lawrence, and United States v. Windsor, where the Court did to the Constitution—in the name of liberty—what it also did—in the name of democracy—to Florida’s citizens in Bush v. Gore. In all three cases, Justice Kennedy’s reliance on a broad conception of liberty, rather than equal protection principles, shifted the balance too heavily in favor of judicial, rather democratic, creation of unenumerated fundamental rights.

Justice Kennedy will rightly be celebrated for safeguarding reproductive freedom and championing sexual autonomy for same-sex couples, but underneath the black …

America's Written Constitution: Remembering The Judicial Duty To Say What The Law Is, Joshua J. Schroeder

Joshua J Schroeder

In 2013 the Supreme Court embraced a policy of feigned positivism. In general positivism says there are no future rewards and punishments and thus there is no Natural Law that holds sway over rulers whether it is established by a creator God or not. Thus adopting positivism leaves the Court with an existential problem because the Court’s equitable power flows directly from Natural Law and Nature’s God and is much older than the new country known as the United States. But even in the scope of U.S. history positivism lost significant ground in its struggle with equitable power and the …