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2018

Constitutional Law

Brooklyn Law School

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Articles 1 - 21 of 21

Full-Text Articles in Law

Diverse Originalism, Christina Mulligan Dec 2018

Diverse Originalism, Christina Mulligan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Telemarketing, Technology, And The Regulation Of Private Speech: First Amendment Lessons From The Fcc’S Tcpa Rules, Justin (Gus) Hurwitz Oct 2018

Telemarketing, Technology, And The Regulation Of Private Speech: First Amendment Lessons From The Fcc’S Tcpa Rules, Justin (Gus) Hurwitz

Brooklyn Law Review

This article considers the viability of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in light of recent Supreme Court First Amendment precedent and technological and regulatory developments. Robocalls—phone calls made using autodialers or prerecorded messages without the consent of the call recipient—have become one of the primary consumer protection issues facing regulators. With more than 2.4 billion of these calls placed each month, consumer concern about them dominate complaints received by both the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission. Simultaneously, as cellphones have become a ubiquitous means by which individuals engage with one another and have become the public square, …


The Equal Protection Doctrine In The Age Of Trump: The Example Of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Rebecca A. Delfino Oct 2018

The Equal Protection Doctrine In The Age Of Trump: The Example Of Unaccompanied Immigrant Children, Rebecca A. Delfino

Brooklyn Law Review

The Equal Protection Doctrine—the right of equals to equality—has taken on renewed relevance since the 2016 federal election cycle. The values of equality and due process, expressed in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, are currently under siege. Laws and institutions central to the core functions of the federal government have been dismantled, repealed, or ignored. In this climate, legislative and executive regulatory solutions are not viable, and the traditional means to remedy inequities and discrimination may no longer work. The only way to protect the long-held democratic value of equality is to challenge the actions …


A New Voting Rights Act For A New Century: How Liberalizing The Voting Rights Act’S Bailout Provisions Can Help Pass The Voting Rights Advancement Act Of 2017, Mario Q. Fitzgerald Oct 2018

A New Voting Rights Act For A New Century: How Liberalizing The Voting Rights Act’S Bailout Provisions Can Help Pass The Voting Rights Advancement Act Of 2017, Mario Q. Fitzgerald

Brooklyn Law Review

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the coverage formula of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in Shelby County. v. Holder in 2013. Members of Congress have attempted to renew the VRA with an updated coverage formula through the Voting Rights Advancement Acts of 2015 and of 2017. Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans have not supported either bill. Even if passed in its current form, the Supreme Court is likely to strike down the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2017 (VRAA) for violating the principle of “equal sovereignty between the States” as set forth by the Court in Shelby County. Therefore, this note …


All The President's Privileges, Ann M. Murphy Oct 2018

All The President's Privileges, Ann M. Murphy

Journal of Law and Policy

This article provides a historical perspective of the evidentiary privilege doctrines that are in play in the current Special Counsel investigation. New issues of waiver by tweet are addressed. It is well established that a sitting president is subject to judicial process in certain circumstances, and that President Trump and his close advisors have and will continue to claim one or both of these privileges. I predict that these privileges will be inapplicable, applicable but waived, or applicable but fall within the crimefraud exception to the privileges. The crime-fraud exception has never been raised in a Special Counsel investigation of …


Single Subject Rules And Civil Rights: Using Legislative-Process Restrictions To Facially Challenge Constitutionally Suspect Laws, Annie Melton Oct 2018

Single Subject Rules And Civil Rights: Using Legislative-Process Restrictions To Facially Challenge Constitutionally Suspect Laws, Annie Melton

Journal of Law and Policy

This Note argues that the single subject rule, a procedural restriction, can be used to facially challenge certain insidious laws. By giving courts an opening to review a law in its most elemental form—a deliberated-over means of adequately implementing a new, or remedying an existing, policy—the single subject rule tests it for characteristics like clarity, practicality, and predictability. The rule is rarely litigated in many states, but doing so draws attention to a fundamental philosophy of the legislative process, which is especially compelling in light of the ideological battles that are dominating statehouses across the country and giving rise to …


Speech-And-Display Laws: Balancing Physicians' Free Speech Rights And States' Interests In The Context Of Abortion, Emily Ruppert Oct 2018

Speech-And-Display Laws: Balancing Physicians' Free Speech Rights And States' Interests In The Context Of Abortion, Emily Ruppert

Journal of Law and Policy

“The question is not pro-abortion or anti-abortion, the question is who makes the decision: a woman and her physician, or the government.” – Gloria Steinem


Google, Charlottesville, And The Need To Protect Private Employees’ Political Speech, Chloe M. Gordils Oct 2018

Google, Charlottesville, And The Need To Protect Private Employees’ Political Speech, Chloe M. Gordils

Brooklyn Law Review

At a time when the freedom of speech is increasingly under attack, the question becomes: what protections are available to employees of private companies who wish to engage in political expression while off the clock? Although public employees are in many ways protected by the First Amendment from government intrusion into their political speech, private employees in many states are left largely unprotected. This note examines the current statutory protections offered to protect private employees from being fired or retaliated against based on their political opinions, and argues that the inconsistency and unpredictability of state laws call for a uniform …


Prisoner-To-Public Communication, Demetria D. Frank Oct 2018

Prisoner-To-Public Communication, Demetria D. Frank

Brooklyn Law Review

The pervasive problem of over-incarceration in the United States is in part due to lack of correctional facility accountability to the public, and public lack of access to the prisoner experience. In light of the incessant persistence of over-incarceration and “hands off approach” taken by courts in prison administration, this article proposes an unqualified and unfettered prisoner-to-public communication right that would provide prison accountability to the public.


Essay: Injustice In Black And White: Eliminating Prosecutors’ Peremptory Strikes In Interracial Death Penalty Cases, Daniel Hatoum Oct 2018

Essay: Injustice In Black And White: Eliminating Prosecutors’ Peremptory Strikes In Interracial Death Penalty Cases, Daniel Hatoum

Brooklyn Law Review

This essay advocates that prosecutors’ peremptory strikes should be eliminated in interracial capital cases. The application of the death penalty has a race problem, especially for interracial cases. A conviction is far more likely if the defendant is black and the victim is white. This is due to the fact that in interracial cases, prosecutors utilize peremptory strikes to prevent black jurors from serving on cases in which the defendant is black and the victim is white. This essay is the first to argue that such a system stacks the deck against defendants in interracial capital cases in an unconstitutional …


Taking Away The Tightrope: Fixing The National Flood Insurance Program Circus Via Eminent Domain, Alexander S. Mendelson Jul 2018

Taking Away The Tightrope: Fixing The National Flood Insurance Program Circus Via Eminent Domain, Alexander S. Mendelson

Brooklyn Law Review

As Harvey, Irma, Maria and other major 2017 storms washed upon the shores of the United States, millions of people across the nation in major cities and rural areas alike found their possessions, their homes, and sadly in many cases their lives, washed away with the storms. The destructive hurricane season came just as Congress began to consider the reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a federal system of subsidized flood insurance created to fill a void left by private insurers in the 1960s. Extreme weather events such as these illustrate the need for such a program and …


Demanding Due Process: Time To Amend 8 U.S.C. § 1226(C) And Limit Indefinite Detention Of Criminal Immigrants, Allison M. Cunneen Jul 2018

Demanding Due Process: Time To Amend 8 U.S.C. § 1226(C) And Limit Indefinite Detention Of Criminal Immigrants, Allison M. Cunneen

Brooklyn Law Review

Under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c), Congress mandates that the Attorney General detain criminal immigrants upon release from prison. The statute neither provides a temporal limitation to detention nor does it afford a criminal immigrant periodic bond hearings to determine whether he or she is a flight risk or danger to the community. Thus, until an immigration judge decides whether a criminal immigrant should be removed from the United States, that person remains detained. With the unprecedent backlog in immigration courts, criminal immigrants are waiting longer for a removal hearing, which means longer time spent in detention with no opportunity for …


A Nation Of Informants: Reining In Post-9/11 Coercion Of Intelligence Informants, Diala Shamas Jul 2018

A Nation Of Informants: Reining In Post-9/11 Coercion Of Intelligence Informants, Diala Shamas

Brooklyn Law Review

This article challenges the adequacy of the existing legal and regulatory framework governing informant recruitment and coercion practices to protect fundamental rights, informed by the Muslim-American experience. It looks at the growing law enforcement practice of recruiting informants among Muslim-American communities for intelligence gathering purposes. Although the coercion of law-abiding individuals to provide information to federal law enforcement agencies for intelligence gathering purposes implicates significant rights, it is left unregulated. Existing, albeit limited, restraints on the government agents’ ability to coerce individuals to provide information either assume a criminal context, or are driven by historical concerns over FBI corruption. As …


When At Loggerheads With Customary International Law: The Right To Run For Public Office And The Right To Vote, Thompson Chengeta Jun 2018

When At Loggerheads With Customary International Law: The Right To Run For Public Office And The Right To Vote, Thompson Chengeta

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

Many populist demagogues in America and Europe have spoken; and continue to speak; against human rights in their campaigns for political office. This article discusses the factors that have contributed to the current wave of populism; and the nature of the challenges that are presented by populism to democracy; human rights; and constitutionalism from an international human rights law perspective. It also focuses on President Donald Trump; who was voted President of the United States; even after he clearly and publicly indicated his support for torture and his intentions to approve it in the United States. To that end; the …


No Cake For You: Discrimination, Dignity, And Refusals To Serve, William Araiza Apr 2018

No Cake For You: Discrimination, Dignity, And Refusals To Serve, William Araiza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Policymaking As Power-Building, K. Sabeel Rahman Jan 2018

Policymaking As Power-Building, K. Sabeel Rahman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Once And (Maybe) Future Klein Principle, William Araiza Jan 2018

The Once And (Maybe) Future Klein Principle, William Araiza

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


When The Fourth Estate’S Well Runs Dry, Megan L. Shaw Jan 2018

When The Fourth Estate’S Well Runs Dry, Megan L. Shaw

Brooklyn Law Review

The press is under fire. Members of the press often face subpoenas or similar court orders, compelling the disclosure of a source’s identity. By issuing media subpoenas, the government has effectively censored the press—the exact type of censorship that the Supreme Court held presumptively unconstitutional over eight decades ago in Near v. Minnesota. Yet the least protected—and most complicated—aspect of the newsgathering process is a reporter’s relationship with her source. For decades, journalists have tried to assert defenses to government compulsions on First Amendment grounds as well as by invoking a “reporter’s privilege,” a testimonial privilege similar to that of …


Section 230’S Liability Shield In The Age Of Online Terrorist, Jaime M. Freilich Jan 2018

Section 230’S Liability Shield In The Age Of Online Terrorist, Jaime M. Freilich

Brooklyn Law Review

In recent years, “home grown” terrorists—individuals inspired to violence after watching terrorist videos online—have been responsible for devastating attacks in the United States and across Europe. Such terrorist propaganda falls outside the realm of the First Amendment’s protection because it has been proven to indoctrinate attackers, thus inciting imminent lawless action. Seizing on this, victims’ families have brought suits alleging that social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google, provided material support to terrorists in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). The Communications Decency Act (CDA), however, has served as an impenetrable shield against these claims, protecting social media companies …


Pickering, Garcetti, & Academic Freedom, Mark Strasser Jan 2018

Pickering, Garcetti, & Academic Freedom, Mark Strasser

Brooklyn Law Review

While the U. S. Supreme Court long ago recognized that individuals do not lose their free speech rights simply by virtue of being state employees, the contours of their First Amendment protections have been evolving over the past several decades. The proper way to apply these protections in the academic context is confusing, especially after Garcetti v. Ceballos in which the Court suggested that First Amendment protections do not attach insofar as individuals are speaking as employees rather than as citizens. The circuit courts have adopted a dizzying set of rules to determine when First Amendment protections are triggered in …


Accommodating Bias In The Sharing Economy, Norrinda Brown Hayat Jan 2018

Accommodating Bias In The Sharing Economy, Norrinda Brown Hayat

Brooklyn Law Review

The “sharing economy” is not equally accessible to all. The sharing economy’s travel accommodations giant, Airbnb, illustrates this problem. At least one study has found that requests on Airbnb from guests with distinctively African-American names are approximately 16 percent less likely to be accepted than identical guests with distinctively white names. Some Airbnb “hosts,” including hosts that list multiple units, insist that they are not subject to civil rights laws relying on First Amendment jurisprudence, property law and business justifications for support. These arguments are identical to arguments raised and ultimately dismissed in opposition to blacks’ right to travel prior …