Law Commons^™

The Consent Exception To The Warrant Requirement, H. Patrick Furman

Publications

No abstract provided.

Terminator 2, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

A Heterodox Catechism, Paul Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

Mandatory Non-Anonymous Testing Of Newborns For Hiv: Should It Ever Be Allowed?, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

In response to cries from both the public and the medical community for increased research and improved treatments with respect to pediatric AIDS, some state legislatures have attempted to enact legislation that would require routine mandatory testing of newborns for HIV on a non-anonymous basis.

Those who favor mandatory testing of newborns contend that such testing is necessary in order to protect the health of newborns and to ensure that the newborns' doctors provide them with adequate care. Moreover, testing advocates argue that because most hospitals already screen anonymously, failing to inform parents of the test results is inappropriate and …

Constitutional Implications Of Acquisition-Value Real Property Taxation: Assessing The Burdens On Travel And Commerce, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This article is the second in a two-part series addressing the constitutional implications of acquisition-value real property taxation. This Article addresses constitutional issues raised by systems of real property taxation that base a property owner's tax assessment not on the current value of the property but on its value on the date the taxpayer acquired it. The first Article in this series described the operation of acquisition-value systems of real property taxation such as those adopted by California in 1978 and Florida in 1992, and evaluated the equal protection challenges to the California system (“Proposition 13”) which culminated in the …

Constitutional Implications Of Acquisition-Value Real Property Taxation: The Elusive Rational Basis, Mary Lafrance

Scholarly Works

This article is the first in a two-part series addressing the constitutional implications of acquisition-value real property taxation. Acquisition-value real property taxation systems represent a departure from the traditional practice of taxing real property on its current fair market value. In contrast to traditional systems, which are still employed by the vast majority of states, under acquisition- value taxation a real estate owner's property tax liability is determined by the value of the property when the taxpayer acquired it. In periods of rising real estate prices, such a scheme compels later buyers to shoulder a higher annual tax liability than …

Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia: The Cases Are In The Pipeline, Yale Kamisar

Articles

When I first wrote about this subject 36 years ago, the chance that any state would legalize assisted suicide or active voluntary euthanasia seemed minuscule. The possibility that any court would find these activities protected by the Due Process Clause seemed so remote as to be almost inconceivable. Not anymore. Before this decade ends, at least several states probably will decriminalize assisted suicide and/or active voluntary euthanasia. [Editor's note: In November, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medication for competent, terminally ill adults who request it.] A distinct possibility also exists that …

Reflections Inspired By My Critics, Philip Chase Bobbitt

Faculty Scholarship

The crucial idea in constitutional law is legitimacy; the crucial idea in jurisprudence is justification.

For some time, the academic debate about U.S. constitutionalism has looked for justifications for our practices, believing this would confer legitimacy on them. In my work, I have endeavored to derive legitimacy from the practices themselves, reserving the task of justification for other purposes.

By showing the way in which legitimacy is established and maintained in a constitutional system like ours, I hoped to derive solutions to a number of classical questions, all of which, I believe, are at bottom questions about legitimacy and legitimation. …

When Terry Met Miranda: Two Constitutional Doctrines Collide, Mark A. Godsey

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law And International Law In The United States Of America, Lung-Chu Chen

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Post-Communist Constitutionalism: A Transitional Perspective., Ruti Teitel

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Overbroad Civil Forfeiture Statutes Are Unconstitutionally Vague, Deborah Duseau, David Schoenbrod

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Of Laws And Men: An Essay On Justice Marshall's View Of Criminal Procedure, Bruce A. Green, Daniel C. Richman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Impediments To National Health Reform: Tenth Amendment And Spending Power Hurdles, S. Candice Hoke

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article proceeds in four Parts. The first briefly summarizes the approach of each of the pending health reform bills and distills those portions relevant to current Tenth Amendment and Spending Clause analysis. Provisions that would impose on States the financial and administrative responsibility for achieving Federal regulatory objectives or that specify punitive measures to be taken against States choosing not to participate in the cooperative program are critical features for the inquiry. Employing these criteria, the first Part identifies seven distinct and largely novel models of problematic regulatory instructions that warrant more probative analysis.The second Part briefly outlines the …

The Constitutionality Of Enjoining Criminal Street Gangs As Public Nuisances, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

California jurisdictions have increasingly used injunctions to combat the growth criminal street gangs. The use of civil sanctions to redress criminal activity raises difficult constitutional questions, potentially creating personal criminal codes that may infringe upon defendants’ substantive constitutional rights. In addition, employing civil remedies may deprive defendants of constitutional procedural protections that would have been provided if the jurisdiction had elected to deter the same behavior with available criminal sanctions. Although the use of injunctions places pressure on a number of substantive constitutional rights, including the freedom of association, freedom of expression, right to travel, the injunction terms will likely …

Note, Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Silence: Taking A Stand On Fifth Amendment Implications For Court-Ordered Therapy Programs, Jessica Wilen Berg

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

United States Supreme Court: 1993-94 Term, Paul C. Giannelli

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Abortion Rights In America, Joan R. Bullock

Journal Publications

The purpose of this Article is to raise the question of whether abortion is an answer to the numerous inequalities that confront many women when there is an unwanted pregnancy, or whether abortion exacerbates the inequalities by encouraging the subordination of women to men. There is the additional question of whether the judicial system is the appropriate forum for deciding the abortion issue-an issue that invokes high emotions and one that is fraught with deeply held and divergent moral convictions. It is my opinion that abortion has provided women with only an illusion of choice rather than meaningful choice because …

Book Review. Legitimacy And History: Self-Government In American Constitutional Theory, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Federal Constitutional Court In The German Political System, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

The Federal Constitutional Court is a major policy-making institution in Germany's system of government. Within the space of four decades (1951- 1991), this tribunal has evolved into the most active and powerful constitutional court in Europe. Its pivotal character in the German political system sterns from its role as a judicial lawmaking body created for the specific purpose of deciding constitutional disputes under the Basic Law.1 In deciding such disputes-that is, in interpreting the language and spirit of the Basic Law-the Constitutional Court has influenced the shape of Germany's political landscape, reaching deep into the heart of the existing state, …

The Power Of Presumptions, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Once you start to notice it, you see it everywhere. Burden-shifting is pervasive.The author began to notice the power of presumptions when examining how to protect the rights "retained by the people" referred to in the Ninth Amendment without having to enumerate each one. He proposed the creation of a "presumption of liberty" that would extend the same protective presumption now accorded freedom of speech to all other rightful exercises of liberty. This presumption would shift the burden to the government to justify as necessary and proper any restriction on the rightful exercise of any liberty.

A Law Antecedent And Paramount, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Different Religions, Different Politics: Evaluating The Role Of Competing Religious Traditions In American Politics And Law, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In addressing the role of religion in politics and law, American political theory has strongly embraced the principle of religious equality. In this article, I explain how this principle has evolved and how it has nourished the privatization of religion and the secularization of public discourse by generating the view that public evaluations of religion are inappropriate. Under this view, religion is a private good that lacks public significance. As matters merely of private taste, matters that cannot be evaluated publicly, religious positions on political issues are not to be "imposed" on other citizens.

I challenge this reading of the …

War Powers: An Essay On John Hart Ely's War And Responsibility: Constitutional Lessons Of Vietnam And Its Aftermath, Philip Chase Bobbitt

Faculty Scholarship

I approached John Ely's' new book with the anticipation of delight, qualified by a certain apprehensiveness. Delight because Ely is almost alone among writers in my solemn field in his ability to write with humor; indeed, he writes in a style that reminds me of the marvelous Joseph Heller. There is no reason, I suppose, for constitutional law professors to be incapable of writing amusing and fresh prose or exposing a false syllogism with the light touch of juxtaposition rather than the heavy bludgeon of irony, but how rare this is! More importantly, Ely's arguments have the satisfying feel of …

Reply To Professor Brewbaker, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Professor Brewbaker's thoughtful article on physician price controls raises many issues, large and small. Some – such as the relative merits of the regulatory takings standard and the fair return standard – have been dealt with in my principal article and I will not revisit them here. I will instead address four arguments advanced by Professor Brewbaker that are not anticipated in my article: (1) that the Constitution should not apply to physician price controls because physicians can fend for themselves in the political process; (2) that applying the Takings Clause to physician price controls would be tantamount to reviving …

With All Deliberate Speed? A Reply To Professor Sunstein, Marc A. Fajer

Articles

No abstract provided.

Two Social Movements, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Two social movements in the last fifty years have had a profound impact on our understanding of law and the role of the courts in our system of government. One is the civil rights movement. The demand for greater racial and gender equality and other civil rights has changed the face of the law in countless ways. For example, it has called into question – or at least required a fundamental revision in – the traditional understanding that the courts should interpret the Constitution and laws in accordance with their original meaning. Decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education …

The Right To Privacy And The Public's Right To Know: The "Central Purpose" Of The Freedom Of Information Act, Fred H. Cate, D. Annette Fields, James K. Mcbain

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Law Of Abortion In Germany: Should Americans Pay Attention?, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

What I plan to do here is to tell you the story of Germany's legal approach to abortion and offer some tentative conclusions about what we Americans might learn from the German experience. My story centers mainly on the constitutionality of efforts in Germany to remove legal restrictions on abortion. In the United States, the story has a different twist, for there it centers on the constitutionality of efforts to impose legal restrictions on abortion. Both stories are fascinating accounts of constitutional decisionmaking, revealing as much about the values of the two societies as about the role of judicial review …

Shouting Down The Voice Of The People: Political Parties, Powerful Pac's And Concerns About Corruption, Clarisa Long

Faculty Scholarship

The Federal Election Campaign Act limits the amount of financial support that political parties may give to candidates for federal office. Clarisa Long argues that these restrictions violate political parties' First Amendment rights of speech and association. Because the flow of money in the political process is a proxy for speech, the First Amendment requires that political actors have access to at least one unrestricted avenue of communication. While individuals' and PACs' First Amendment rights are protected because they may make unrestricted independent expenditures, parties do not have this opportunity. Courts have failed to protect party speech, rationalizing that the …