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Articles 241 - 270 of 321
Full-Text Articles in Law
Severability, John C. Nagle
Severability, John C. Nagle
Journal Articles
When a court holds a provision of a statute unconstitutional, a question remains regarding the validity of the remainder of the statute. The court may find that the unconstitutional provision may be severed from the statute and leave the remainder of the statute in effect. Alternatively, the court may hold that the unconstitutional provision cannot be severed and invalidate the entire statute.
This article argues that the jurisprudence surrounding the issue of severability is confusing and inconsistent. After explaining the concept of severability and its ramifications for statutes, I trace the development of the current judicial test for determining when …
Book Review, G. Marcus Cole
Book Review, G. Marcus Cole
Journal Articles
G. Marcus Cole provides a thorough review of Towards a Post-Apartheid Future: Political & Economic Relations in Southern Africa by Gavin Maasdorp & Alan Whiteside (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992).
Foreword: Religious Participation In Public Debate, Matthew Steffey
Foreword: Religious Participation In Public Debate, Matthew Steffey
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
The Failed Discourse Of State Constitutionalism, James A. Gardner
The Failed Discourse Of State Constitutionalism, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
The Bill Of Rights And Originalism, Gerard V. Bradley
The Bill Of Rights And Originalism, Gerard V. Bradley
Journal Articles
Professor Bradley begins the final installment of the University of Illinois Law Review's year-long tribute to the Bill of Rights by proposing that the first ten Amendments, like the Constitution itself, be interpreted according to the original understanding of their ratifiers. Professor Bradley, though, narrows the scope of the exegetical inquiry to what he proposes is the only sound originalism - plain meaning, historically recovered. Professor Bradley argues that interpreting the Bill of Rights according to the text's plain meaning among persons politically active at the time of drafting avoids both the inflexibility and philosophical deficiencies of "snapshot" conservative originalism …
Redefining The Modern Constraints Of The Establishment Clause: Separable Principles Of Equality, Subsidy, Endorsement, And Church Autonomy, Matthew Steffey
Redefining The Modern Constraints Of The Establishment Clause: Separable Principles Of Equality, Subsidy, Endorsement, And Church Autonomy, Matthew Steffey
Journal Articles
Since 1947 the Establishment Clause' has been a substantive check on governmental activity at all levels. More than four decades later, the content of that check remains unsettled. The United States Supreme Court gave the Establishment Clause its predominant modem voice in 1971 in Lemon v. Kurtzman. Under the Lemon approach, all government practices are measured by the same standard. To survive constitutional attack, a practice "must have a secular purpose; it must neither advance nor inhibit religion in its principal or primary effect; and it must not foster an excessive entanglement with religion." In nearly all cases decided since, …
The Uses And Abuses Of Incumbency: People V. Ohrenstein And The Limits Of Inherent Legislative Power, James A. Gardner
The Uses And Abuses Of Incumbency: People V. Ohrenstein And The Limits Of Inherent Legislative Power, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
Habeas Corpus, Qualified Immunity, And Crystal Balls: Predicting The Course Of Constitutional Law, Kit Kinports
Habeas Corpus, Qualified Immunity, And Crystal Balls: Predicting The Course Of Constitutional Law, Kit Kinports
Journal Articles
After describing the basic legal and policy issues surrounding the qualified immunity defense and the use of novelty to explain procedural defaults in habeas cases, Part I of this article advocates a standard for both types of cases that asks whether a person exercising reasonable diligence in the same circumstances would have been aware of the relevant constitutional principles. With this standard in mind, Part II examines the qualified immunity defense in detail, concluding that in many cases public officials are given immunity even though they unreasonably failed to recognize the constitutional implications of their conduct. Part III compares the …
The Positivist Foundations Of Originalism: An Account And Critique, James A. Gardner
The Positivist Foundations Of Originalism: An Account And Critique, James A. Gardner
Journal Articles
No abstract provided.
German Constitutionalism: A Prolegomenon, Donald P. Kommers
German Constitutionalism: A Prolegomenon, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
This essay sets out to describe the main features of German constitutionalism, and it concludes by drawing some comparisons with the United States. The term "constitutionalism," however, suffers from the vice of vagueness. As Gerhard Casper has written, "it is neither clearly prescriptive nor clearly descriptive; its contours are difficult to discern; its historical roots are diverse and uncertain." Any attempt to explore the contours and roots of German constitutionalism in the global sense suggested by Casper's comment would be a major undertaking extending far beyond the limits of this study. As used here the term shall be limited to …
Beguiled: Free Exercise Exemptions And The Siren Song Of Liberalism, Gerard V. Bradley
Beguiled: Free Exercise Exemptions And The Siren Song Of Liberalism, Gerard V. Bradley
Journal Articles
From all the talk about our religious pluralism—how extensive, indelible, inarbitrable it is—one would expect that establishing one definition of religious liberty would be the mother of all civic disturbances. Wrong. We have a common definition of religious liberty. I can demonstrate our agreement with one exhibit: the immensely broad based denunciation of the 1990 Supreme Court decision, Employment Division v. Smith. Two counsellors at a drug rehabilitation center (Alfred Smith and Galen Black) appealed Oregon’s denial of unemployment benefits. Oregon cited the “misconduct” that led to their discharges. Their “misconduct” consisted of using the hallucinogenic drug peyote. Peyote …
Process Of Constitutional Decision Making, Kenneth F. Ripple
Process Of Constitutional Decision Making, Kenneth F. Ripple
Journal Articles
Over the past decade, our profession has engaged in an intense debate over the proper role of judges in the interpretation of our Constitution. This is not, of course, a new controversy. It has been with us ever since Chief Justice Marshall's decision in Marbury v. Madison.' However, during this last decade, the debate has taken on new dimensions. There is a new range and depth to the inquiry. What began as a discussion largely among members of the academic bar and some members of the judiciary has become a national political issue. Yet the basic question remains: In a …
On Checking The Artifacts Of Canaan: A Comment On Levinson's "Confrontation", Thomas L. Shaffer
On Checking The Artifacts Of Canaan: A Comment On Levinson's "Confrontation", Thomas L. Shaffer
Journal Articles
My friend Levinson has been prominent of late among constitutional scholars who use religious metaphors to describe the curious American political experiment. In the image he uses, we lawyers are priests in the practice of a constitutional faith; the federal constitution is our scripture, our creed, and our oath. Levinson, though, is not a television evangelist or street preacher. He is, instead, a theologian. He is unique in the honesty and thoroughness he brings to the discussion-as evidenced here by his looking at the possibility that we priests of the American constitutional faith have another faith to take into account …
West German Constitutionalism And Church-State Relations, Donald P. Kommers
West German Constitutionalism And Church-State Relations, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
The complex structure of church-state relations in West Germany arises out of numerous provisions of the Basic Law that combine features of both separation and accommodation. The Basic Law's separationist features are expressed in various guarantees of religious liberty and in the ban on the establishment of a state church. Its accommodationist features appear in constitutional provisions on religious education as well as in articles, taken over from the Weimar Constitution, that confer upon the established churches a special juridical status enjoyed by no other nongovernmental entity. The arguably diverse goals of the religion clauses are difficult to reconcile, creating …
Mastery, Slavery, And Emancipation, Guyora Binder
Mastery, Slavery, And Emancipation, Guyora Binder
Journal Articles
Hegel's dialectic of master and slave in the Phenomenology of Mind portrays a master unable to win genuine recognition from a slave because unwilling to confer it. The dialectic implies that freedom has to be conceived as association based on mutual respect, rather than independence. This article offers a communitarian interpretation of emancipation inspired by Hegel's dialectic of master and slave. It proceeds from an account of slave society which, like Hegel's dialectic, equates slavery with the denial of social recognition. This account argues that the experience of slave society led both the masters and the slaves to conceive of …
Qualified Immunity In Section 1983 Cases: The Unanswered Questions, Kit Kinports
Qualified Immunity In Section 1983 Cases: The Unanswered Questions, Kit Kinports
Journal Articles
Part I of this Article describes the general policies underlying qualified immunity and the Court's decisions defining the scope of the defense. Part II then addresses two answered questions concerning Harlow v. Fitzgerald's impact on the substantive content of the qualified immunity defense: Is immunity available to the defendant who actually knows that her conduct is infringing the plaintiff's constitutional rights, even if the law governing those rights is not yet clearly established? And should a court take into account the nature of the defendant's governmental responsibilities and other circumstances surrounding her conduct in determining whether the right she …
The Constitutional Theory Of The Fourth Amendment, Gerard V. Bradley
The Constitutional Theory Of The Fourth Amendment, Gerard V. Bradley
Journal Articles
This Article will, in large part, present its thesis regarding fourth amendment doctrine by employing, as an illustration, a recent application of the current approach by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In United States v. Torres, the Seventh Circuit held video surveillance constitutional and further found that the judiciary had the authority to issue warrants for such a technique. Although welcomed by prosecutors and law enforcement officials, this decision highlights the absurdity of the current interpretation of the reasonableness clause. Moreover, Torres provides a vehicle through which this Article's historical interpretation can be brought into focus under the cold …
Forum Juridicum: Church Autonomy In The Constitutional Order - The End Of Church And State?, Gerard V. Bradley
Forum Juridicum: Church Autonomy In The Constitutional Order - The End Of Church And State?, Gerard V. Bradley
Journal Articles
"Separation of church and state" is right up there with Mom, apple pie, and baseball in American iconography. If everyone agrees on separation of church and state, why does the relationship between religion and public life so vex, excite, and confound us? Part of the reason is that church-state separation, although it is the historical achievement of societies decisively shaped by a Christianity that was itself decisively shaped by Judaism, is a commodious concept.
But "separation of church and state" is not contentless, and our conclusive agreement on it, I submit, provides a valuable common frame of reference in an …
Legislative Enforcement Of Equal Protection, Stephen F. Ross
Legislative Enforcement Of Equal Protection, Stephen F. Ross
Journal Articles
This Article explores the legislative role in enforcing the constitutional guarantee to equal protection. Part I describes the underenforcement principle that explains the restrictive judicial exercise of authority in constitutional matters. The Article then focuses on Congress' role in examining issues relating to the constitutional guarantee of equal protection that the courts have chosen to underenforce. Part II analyzes relevant constitutional provisions that may empower or limit congressional actions. Part III considers ways in which Congress can address state violations of equal protection through directives to the judiciary and through the legislative process. Part IV details how both federal and …
The Article Iii Judiciary In Its Third Century, Kenneth F. Ripple
The Article Iii Judiciary In Its Third Century, Kenneth F. Ripple
Journal Articles
Tonight we celebrate the memory of one of the great American jurists of this century, Robert A. Ainsworth, Jr. In this bicentennial year of our Constitution, it seems most appropriate that we honor the memory of Judge Ainsworth by reflecting on that part of the Constitution to which he exhibited so much devotion—article III, the judicial article.
Rule 11 In The Constitutional Case, Gary J. Saalman, Kenneth Ripple
Rule 11 In The Constitutional Case, Gary J. Saalman, Kenneth Ripple
Journal Articles
The 1983 amendments to the Rules of Civil Procedure arose from concern over the flood of litigation in recent years and its high costs to both litigants and the court system. Although the causes of this litigation explosion and the remedies are both many and complex, the pretrial stage of litigation and the standards governing attorney responsibility were considered major contributors to the problem and prime areas for reform. The drafters of the 1983 amendments sought to streamline the litigation process by increasing judicial oversight and deterring abusive or dilatory tactics by the bar. Some of the most significant changes …
Bounds And Beyond: A Need To Reevaluate The Right Of Prison Access To The Courts, Steven D. Hinckley
Bounds And Beyond: A Need To Reevaluate The Right Of Prison Access To The Courts, Steven D. Hinckley
Journal Articles
The author argues that the 1977 United States Supreme Court decision in Bounds v. Smith insufficiently protects the right of prisoners to represent themselves before the courts by failing to require state and federal correctional facilities to establish and maintain adequately stocked prison law libraries and to provide prisoners with the option to use those libraries as their means of gaining meaningful access to the courts.
Law And The Experience Of Politics In Late Eighteenth-Century North Carolina: North Carolina Considers The Constitution, Walter F. Pratt
Law And The Experience Of Politics In Late Eighteenth-Century North Carolina: North Carolina Considers The Constitution, Walter F. Pratt
Journal Articles
In 1788, delegates assembled in North Carolina to decide whether to ratify the Constitution. A debate erupted between Federalists and Anti-federalists regarding each Article of the then-drafted Constitution. This Article analyzes the debate, and proposes that the key difference was the function of the role of the law.
Review Essay: Liberalism And The Supreme Court, Donald P. Kommers
Review Essay: Liberalism And The Supreme Court, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
In Liberalism and American Constitutional Law, Rogers M. Smith of Yale University takes stock of the American liberal tradition and its impact on the Supreme Court's constitutional jurisprudence. It argues that the tradition's political vision lacks philosophical coherence and that our constitutional law, by reflecting this incoherence, has failed to provide the legal community with a public philosophy suited to the needs of American society in the late twentieth century.His goal is to demonstrate the superiority of "rational liberty," both as a philosophical theory and practical guide to constitutional policymaking, over three major competing versions of liberal constitutionalism. To wit: …
Imagining The Past And Remembering The Future: The Supreme Court's History Of The Establishment Clause, Gerard V. Bradley
Imagining The Past And Remembering The Future: The Supreme Court's History Of The Establishment Clause, Gerard V. Bradley
Journal Articles
Our Framers through the Establishment Clause sought to prevent the government from preferring one religious sect to another. However, the Supreme Court in Everson v. Board of Education abandoned that meaning of nonestablishment and created a general prohibition on all nondiscriminatory aid to religion, a decision later reinforced in Lemon v. Kurtzman. This Article discusses the Founder’s worldview and looks at other Establishment Clause cases to illustrate that the historical evidence is inconsistent with Everson. Rather, the founders intended to assure that religion would be aided only on a nondiscriminatory, or sect-neutral, basis and does not stand for …
Liberty And Community In Constitutional Law: The Abortion Cases In Comparative Perspective, Donald P. Kommers
Liberty And Community In Constitutional Law: The Abortion Cases In Comparative Perspective, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
In the mid-1970s the high courts of several western democracies handed down constitutional decisions concerning the legal regulation of abortion. All of the courts sustained their abortion statutes except the United States and West Germany, which moved in opposite directions. The US Supreme Court voided the conservative abortion statutes of various states while West Germany's highest court nullified an abortion statute that took a liberal stance on abortion. The extended opinions of the American and German courts and their contrasting grounds for decision make them fitting candidates for a comparative analysis of abortion jurisprudence. The abortion issue illustrates the tension …
The Supreme Court And The Constitution: The Continuing Debate On Judicial Review, Donald P. Kommers
The Supreme Court And The Constitution: The Continuing Debate On Judicial Review, Donald P. Kommers
Journal Articles
The three books reviewed in this essay are recent contributions to the growing literature of constitutional theory (Michael J. Perry, The Constitution, the Courts, and Human Rights (New Ha- ven: Yale University Press, 1982); Sotirios A. Barber, On What the Constitution Means (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984); and John Agresto, The Supreme Court and Constitutional Democracy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984). They explore important questions about the role of the Supreme Court and the meaning of the Constitution.
Constitutional Law - Moore V. U.S. House Of Representatives: A Possible Expansion Of Congressmen's Standing To Sue, David T. Link, Jeffrey L. Elverman, Thomas E. Lange
Constitutional Law - Moore V. U.S. House Of Representatives: A Possible Expansion Of Congressmen's Standing To Sue, David T. Link, Jeffrey L. Elverman, Thomas E. Lange
Journal Articles
In Moore v. U.S. House of Representatives,I the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit addressed the question of whether individual congressmen have standing to sue the Congress. In Moore, members of the House of Representatives sought declaratory relief to invalidate the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA).2 The congressmen contended that TEFRA originated in the Senate in violation of the origination clause of the United States Constitution, 3 which requires that bills for raising revenue originate in the House of Representatives. Although the District of Columbia Circuit ultimately denied relief on the …
Withdrawing Jurisdiction From Federal Courts, Charles E. Rice
Withdrawing Jurisdiction From Federal Courts, Charles E. Rice
Journal Articles
Courts today accept two incorrect assumptions when interpreting the federal constitution. First, they assume that the judiciary is the sole branch with the definitive power in interpreting the Constitution. Second, they assume that the Supreme Court's decisions on constitutional interpretation are the law of the land and equal to the language of the Constitution itself. This Article proposes that Congress ought to exercise its removal power of appellate jurisdiction from the federal courts in certain areas of law to limit the Supreme Court’s power in creating law that expands the Constitution, which is mistakenly viewed today with equal stature as …
The Responsibilities Of The United Kingdom Parliament And Government Under The Australian Constitution, John M. Finnis
The Responsibilities Of The United Kingdom Parliament And Government Under The Australian Constitution, John M. Finnis
Journal Articles
Arguing that the United Kingdom retained constitutioanl duties to Australia following that country's independence.