Law Commons^™

Once Upon A Time In Law: Myth, Metaphor, And Authority, Linda H. Edwards

Linda H. Edwards

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines have stories too. When we talk about legal authority, using all our best formal logic and its bedfellows of analogy and policy, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and …

Once Upon A Time In Law: Myth, Metaphor, And Authority, Linda H. Edwards

Linda H. Edwards

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines have stories too. When we talk about legal authority, using all our best formal logic and its bedfellows of analogy and policy, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and …

Once Upon A Time In Law: Myth, Metaphor, And Authority, Linda H. Edwards

Linda H. Edwards

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines have stories too. When we talk about legal authority, using all our best formal logic and its bedfellows of analogy and policy, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and …

Once Upon A Time In Law: Myth, Metaphor, And Authority, Linda H. Edwards

Linda H. Edwards

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines have stories too. When we talk about legal authority, using all our best formal logic and its bedfellows of analogy and policy, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and …

Understanding Vague Signing Statements, Michael J. Mccarthy

Michael J. McCarthy

This paper identifies and assesses vagueness as a reoccurring feature of modern signing statements. It analyzes how vagueness affects a signing statement’s ability to achieve a variety of objectives, from preserving executive prerogatives to shaping how the judiciary construes statutory language. While vagueness consistently decreases a signing statement’s effectiveness, specificity may unintentionally frustrate the signing statement’s purpose. The interplay between the risks of specificity and the inefficiency of vagueness may suggest that the signing statement is not as powerful a presidential tool as is commonly thought.

Congress’S Right To Counsel In Intelligence Oversight, Kathleen Clark

Kathleen Clark

This article examines Congress’s ability to consult its lawyers and other expert staff in conducting oversight. For decades, congressional leaders have acquiesced in the executive branch’s insistence that certain intelligence information not be shared with congressional staffers, even those staffers who have high-level security clearances. As a result, Congress has been hobbled in its ability to understand and analyze key executive branch programs. This policy became particularly controversial connection with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chair Jay Rockefeller noted the “profound oversight issues” implicated by the surveillance program and lamented the fact that he felt constrained …

Once Upon A Time In Law: Myth, Metaphor, And Authority, Linda H. Edwards

Linda H. Edwards

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines have stories too. When we talk about legal authority, using all our best formal logic and its bedfellows of analogy and policy, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and …

Once Upon A Time In Law: Myth, Metaphor, And Authority, Linda H. Edwards

Linda H. Edwards

We have long accepted the role of narrative in fact statements and jury arguments, but in the inner sanctum of analyzing legal authority? Surely not. Yet cases, statutes, rules, and doctrines have stories too. When we talk about legal authority, using all our best formal logic and its bedfellows of analogy and policy, we are actually swimming in a sea of narrative, oblivious to the water around us. As the old Buddhist saying goes, we don’t know who discovered the ocean, but it probably wasn’t a fish.

This article teases out several familiar archetypes hidden in discussions of cases and …

Anna Nicole Smith Goes Shopping: The New Forum Shopping Problem In Bankruptcy, Gilbert Marcus Cole, Todd J. Zywicki

Gilbert Marcus Cole

The American bankruptcy system is a hybrid of state law and federal bankruptcy law. Under the Butner principle, federal bankruptcy courts preserve substantive non-bankruptcy law entitlements in bankruptcy unless bankruptcy policies compel a contrary result. This hybrid system, however, gives rise to the threat of forum-shopping if parties attempt to invoke bankruptcy jurisdiction for improper purposes, namely to rearrange non-bankruptcy entitlements to advance no coherent bankruptcy policy. Modern developments in bankruptcy law, as exemplified in the case of Marshall v. Marshall raise a novel threat of bankruptcy forum-shopping. Marshall involved the bankruptcy of tabloid starlet Anna Nicole Smith and her …

The Framers' Intent: John Adams, His Era, And The Fourth Amendment, Thomas K. Clancy

Thomas K Clancy

The new article that I seek to publish is entitled: The Framers’ Intent: John Adams, his Era, and the Fourth Amendment. For many years, I have relied on others to cull the historical records and have cited them to support what I thought was accurate historical reporting. In the past decade or so, Professors Amar, Davies, and others have made broad sweeping claims about the historical record that contradict conventional wisdom. Those views have gained substantial traction. I've become increasingly wary of historical claims and some time ago decided to do original historical research. I've probably read 15,000 documents from …

Justifying The Distinction Between Justifications And Power, Miriam Gur-Arye

Miriam Gur-Arye Professor

In Anglo-American legal systems criminal law justifications apply to both public officials exercising legal power (as when a police officer arrests a suspect) and, in exceptional circumstances (such as self-defense) to individuals infringing interests protected by the criminal law. This paper relies on Hohfeld's distinction between "Powers" and "Claim Rights" and argues that there are two kinds of criminal law justifications. Public officials who arrest a suspect or who sentence a defendant to imprisonment exercise their power to change the legal status of the suspect's or the defendant's right to free movement. By contrast, an individual who kills an aggressor …

Legislative Rules, Nonlegislative Rules, And The Perils Of The Short Cut, David L. Franklin

David L. Franklin

Courts have long struggled to distinguish legislative rules, which are designed to have binding legal effect and must go through the rulemaking procedure known as notice and comment, from nonlegislative rules, which are not meant to have binding legal effect and are exempted from notice and comment. The distinction has been called “tenuous,” “baffling,” and “enshrouded in considerable smog.”

What is just as baffling is that prominent commentators such as John Manning, Peter Strauss, William Funk and Donald Elliot have proposed a simple solution to the problem—and courts have failed to take them up on it. Rather than inquiring into …

I Swear: The History And Implications Of The Fourth Amendment’S “Oath Or Affirmation” Requirement, David S. Muraskin

David S Muraskin

This article seeks to reinvigorate the Fourth Amendment’s “Oath or affirmation” requirement. Fourth Amendment scholarship and jurisprudence typically dismiss the requirement as a mere procedural formality. However, reviewing pre-Revolution law and commentaries, early legal developments in the States, and the American justice manuals—treatises published by legal scholars to inform and influence judges and practitioners within the new nation—this article argues that the oath requirement is key to understanding and effectuating the Amendment’s purpose. The article demonstrates that the Amendment was partly motivated by a fear of how the Crown used its search and seizure power, as a primary investigatory tool …

Congress' Power Is Properly Vested, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

Network Neutrality Over The Top: Why The Fcc Should Not Try To Establish Rules Affecting Internet Content And Applications Providers, Rob M. Frieden

Rob Frieden

The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) that would codify rules aiming to preserve a free and open Internet for consumers. The NPRM appropriately concentrates on preventing broadband Internet access providers (“IAPs”) from acting as gatekeepers between end-users and online content and application providers. However, the NPRM does invite comments on a proposal of AT&T that openness principles be applied to Internet content and application providers. This article strongly opposes AT&T’s imitative as both unlawful and unwise. The FCC’s appropriate concern about end user access to the Internet via IAPs does not justify an …

Specialized Courts For Terrorism Trials, Sudha Setty

Sudha Setty

On the campaign trail in 2008, presidential candidate and then-Senator Barack Obama promised to restore America’s place in the world by breaking with many of the national security policies put into effect by President George W. Bush. In January 2009, President Obama made numerous changes to United States foreign policy, including signing an executive order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and announcing that the United States would not engage in interrogation techniques that constitute torture. In some aspects of national security law and policy, however, Obama has followed the example of President Bush—for example, in his announcement …

Restoring Equipoise To Child Welfare, Rebecca Aviel

Rebecca Aviel

Since the Supreme Court’s widely criticized decision in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Services, the principle that the Constitution affords no relief for a social worker’s failure to prevent harm to a child has been described as a “staple of our constitutional law.” Whatever might be said about this principle on its own terms, it produces very troubling incentives for social workers who may still face constitutional tort liability when they act affirmatively to intervene in troubled families -- the unjustified removal of a child from her parents’ custody, after all, is the sort of infringement proscribed by …

On Same-Sex Marriage And Matters Of Conscience, Mark Strasser

Mark Strasser

In our increasingly diverse society, it is ever-more important to teach tolerance of and respect for those having differing sexual orientations and religious beliefs. It thus might seem an ideal solution to include conscience clauses in legislation affording same-sex couples the right to marry, whereby individuals with religious qualms about being in any way associated with such marriages may be legally excused from doing so. Yet, by creating one exception specifically for same-sex marriages rather than a more generalized exception for those with religious qualms about facilitating or being associated with marriages contrary to belief, the state may be undermining …

Government Identity Speech And Religion: The Endorsement Test After Summum, Mary Jean Dolan

Mary Jean Dolan

This Article offers in-depth analysis of the opinions in Pleasant Grove v. Summum. Summum is a significant case because it expands “government speech” to cover broad, thematic government identity messages in the form of donated monuments, including the much-litigated Eagles-donated Ten Commandments. This Article explores the fine distinctions between the new “government speech doctrine” – a defense in Free Speech Clause cases that allows government to express its own viewpoint and to reject alternative views – and the Establishment Clause – which prohibits government from expressing a viewpoint on religion, and from favoring some religions over others. I argue that …

Comment: Extending Copyright Misuse To An Affirmative Cause Of Action, Michael E. Rubinstein

Michael E. Rubinstein

No abstract provided.

The Ill-Made Prince: A Modest Proposal For A New Article Ii, Garrett Epps

Garrett Epps

ABSTRACT This Article considers the recent controversies over claims of extensive executive authority by the Bush Administration and suggests that they stem at least partially from the inartful and tentative phrasing of Article II and the resulting efforts by advocates of executive authority to transfer all available authority to the President. Its analysis begins with the drafting of Article II and the battles over its meaning during the Washington and Adams Administrations, then moves forward to illustrate the ways in which its negative features have repeatedly sparked political crises and inter-branch confrontation, particularly by those who read into the executive’s …

Wealth V. Democracy: The Unfulfilled Promise Of The Twenty-Fourth Amendment, David A. Schultz

David A Schultz

Abstract: The adoption of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment banning poll taxes in federal elections was intended to protect franchise rights and increase voter turnout. However, since its adoption it has yet to be successfully invoked to invalidate any practice, including poll taxes and most recently voter photo IDs. This article seeks to resurrect the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and to make the case for a broader interpretation of it. Specifically, the Article seeks to disconnect the poll tax from a narrow reading of its legacy during the Jim Crow era when its primary purpose was to disenfranchise African-Americans. Instead, the poll tax should …

The Structural Safeguards Of Federal Jurisdiction, Tara L. Grove

Tara L. Grove

Scholars have long debated Congress’s power to curb federal jurisdiction and have consistently assumed that the constitutional limits on Congress’s authority (if any) must be judicially enforceable and found in the text and structure of Article III. In this Article, I challenge that fundamental assumption. I argue that the primary constitutional protection for the federal judiciary lies instead in the bicameralism and presentment requirements of Article I. These Article I lawmaking procedures give competing political factions (even political minorities) considerable power to “veto” legislation. Drawing on recent social science and legal scholarship, I argue that political factions are particularly likely …

Underlying Theoretical Difficulties In The Conception Of Individual Rights In American Constitutional Law, Steven J. Andre

Steven J. Andre

ABSTRACT: Two competing perspectives regarding the individual’s relationship with government pervade American legal thought. Our nation has its foundation in a perspective that considers the citizen as sovereign and the State as merely the instrument of the citizenry’s dictate. Another perspective with roots deep in European thought considers the State to be the embodiment of the best interests of the populace and regards government as naturally destined to lead the citizenry accordingly. Aspects of both perspectives are implicit in legislation and judicial reasoning concerning the relative roles of individual and State. The first, the common law American perspective, recognizes that …

“The Constitutional Right To Hunt: New Recognition Of An Old Liberty In Virginia, Stephen Halbrook

Stephen P Halbrook

"The Constitutional Right to Hunt: New Recognition of an Old Liberty in Virginia" The Constitution of Virginia provides: “The people have a right to hunt, fish, and harvest game, subject to such regulations and restrictions as the General Assembly may prescribe by general law.” Currently, eleven States recognize hunting as a constitutional guarantee, and proposed amendments are pending in other States. The oldest, dating back to the American Revolution, sought to guard against royal privilege as practiced in England, while the newest, adopted in recent decades, seek to preempt hunting bans sought by animal-rights activists. Blackstone described how the Crown …

Constitutional Faith And Dynamic Stability: Thoughts On Religion, Constitutions, And Transitions To Democracy, David C. Gray

David C. Gray

This essay, written for the 2009 Constitutional Schmooze, explores the complex role of religion as a source of both stability and instability. Drawing on a broader body of work in transitional justice, this essay argues that religion has an important role to play in the complex web of overlapping associations and oppositions constitutive of a dynamically stable society and further contends that constitutional protections which encourage a diversity of religions provide the best hope of harnessing that potential while limiting the dangers of religion evidenced in numerous cases of mass atrocity.

A New Name For An Old And Discredited Metaphor, Luis M. Dickson

Luis M. Dickson

This Article engages Paul Horwitz's recent Churches as First Amendment Institutions: Of Sovereignty and Spheres, arguing that the Kuyperian approach invoked by Horwitz is functionally indistinguishable from 'separate spheres' ideology long cited as justification for discrimination against women and blacks.

Sexual Abuse Of Power, Michal Buchhandler-Raphael

michal buchhandler-raphael

This Article argues that sexual abuses of power stemming from professional and institutional relationships justify criminalization. At a normative-theoretical level, the Article contends that coerced submission to unwanted sexual acts in professional and institutional settings demonstrates not only unwanted and harmful sexual conduct but also nonconsensual sex. The Article suggests that the current understanding of consent to sexual relations is flawed, because rape law’s contemporary consent standard focuses on an objective permission-giving act, which fails to recognize that even an explicit verbal authorization sometimes constitutes merely apparent consent. This reality calls for adopting a modified definition for consent to sexual …

Sexual Abuse Of Power, Michal Buchhandler-Raphael

michal buchhandler-raphael

This Article argues that sexual abuses of power stemming from professional and institutional relationships justify criminalization. At a normative-theoretical level, the Article contends that coerced submission to unwanted sexual acts in professional and institutional settings demonstrates not only unwanted and harmful sexual conduct but also nonconsensual sex. The Article suggests that the current understanding of consent to sexual relations is flawed, because rape law’s contemporary consent standard focuses on an objective permission-giving act, which fails to recognize that even an explicit verbal authorization sometimes constitutes merely apparent consent. This reality calls for adopting a modified definition for consent to sexual …

Indigent Defense Invigorated: A Uniform Standard For Adjudicating Pre-Conviction Sixth Amendment Claims, Emily Chiang

Emily Chiang

Despite the Sixth Amendment guarantee of the right to counsel, commentators have been documenting the shortcomings of indigent defense systems across the nation for decades: state and county underfunding leads to public defenders without essential resources, which in turn results in harm to indigent criminal defendants. Although a host of litigation brought by would-be reformers has sought improvements in county and state public defense systems, many of the claims have suffered from a lack of a clear governing standard. Some courts have relied on the “cause and prejudice” requirements of Strickland v. Washington, which governs post-conviction ineffective assistance of counsel …