Law Commons^™

Comparing Alternative Approaches About Congress's Role In Constitutional Law, Charles Tiefer

University of Richmond Law Review

Mark Tushnet's Taking the ConstitutionAway from the Courts presents many aspects of the theme expressed in its title. I find most interesting the aspect concerning Congress's role in constitutional law. I like this aspect because I spent almost two decades working on constitutional law in Congress, principally as the House of Representatives' Solicitor and Deputy General Counsel representing the House of Representatives in countless constitutional controversies, and I have written a good deal about it. Tushnet provides us with an alternative perspective from which we can view Congress both during that time and since. Tushnet's book is kind enough to …

The Government Of The Living-The Legacy Of The Dead, Jon C. Blue

University of Richmond Law Review

Akhil Amar has written a stunning book about what he calls "the high temple of our constitutional order"-the Bill of Rights. The temple metaphor is revealing, for it is evident throughout his book that Professor Amar views the Constitution as a sanctified structure, the use of which is to be determined by a holistic study of the original blueprints and the surviving comments of the long-dead architects. This characterization is complicated but not fundamentally changed by the fact that Amar's story is, as the subtitle of the book proclaims, one of "creation and reconstruction." The creation is that of the …

The Role Of The Modern Supreme Court, Ronald D. Rotunda

University of Richmond Law Review

In The FederalistNo. 78, Alexander Hamilton examined the judicial department. He relied on that branch to safeguard the limitations drafted into the Constitution. While the judiciary is "incontestably" and "beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power," he conceded, nonetheless, the constitutional limitations on legislative excess "can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice; whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the constitution void."

The Supreme Court's Role: Guarantor Of Individual And Minority Group Rights, Nadine Strossen

University of Richmond Law Review

We have just celebrated the Bicentennial of the United States Bill of Rights, a marvelous document that not only has been used to secure a broad range of freedoms for many people in this country, but also has inspired and served as a model for liberty-loving peoples the world over. However, the freedoms enunciated in the Bill of Rights - as well as in other Constitutional provisions - are not self-enforcing.

The Role Of State Constitutions In An Era Of Big Government, Stanley Mosk

University of Richmond Law Review

This is a speech delivered by The Honorable Stanley Mosk, Justice of the Supreme Court of California,at the T.C. Williams School of Law's eighth annual Emroch Lecture. Among his many achievements, Justice Mosk has authored some of California's most constructive legislative proposals in the crime and law enforcement fields, including the measure creating the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training.

The Failure Of Felix Frankfurter, Melvin I. Urofsky

University of Richmond Law Review

There is, unfortunately, no way one can predict whether a person appointed to the Supreme Court will be a great justice or a mediocre one. The nomination of John Marshall, for example, evoked numerous complaints about his lack of ability. The Philadelphia Aurora characterized him as "more distinguished as a rhetorician and sophist than as a lawyer and statesman," and the Senate, in fact, delayed its confirmation vote for a week hoping President John Adams would change his mind. When Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis D. Brandeis to the Court in 1916, pillars of the bar crowded into the Senate judiciary …

Feres To Chappell To Stanley: Three Strikes And Servicemembers Are Out, Jonathan P. Tomes

University of Richmond Law Review

With its decision in United States v. Stanley, the United States Supreme Court completed the virtual evisceration of servicemembers' constitutional rights begun thirty-seven years before in Feres v. United States. Although the courts have never expressly held that servicemembers do not enjoy the same constitutional rights that other citizens enjoys the Supreme Court's decision in Stanley has left servicemembers without an effective remedy to vindicate their constitutional rights. Rights without means of enforcing them are meaningless.

Of Laws, Men, And Judges, D. Dortch Warriner

University of Richmond Law Review

This essay was originally delivered by Judge Warriner as a speech on March 19, 1985, at the T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond. Copyright 1985 by D. Dortch Warriner, all rights reserved.

Annual Survey Of Virginia Law: Administrative Procedure, John Paul Jones

University of Richmond Law Review

Since the last report, administrative law in Virginia has continued to develop on both the legislative and judicial fronts. This year's General Assembly enacted amendments to the state's administrative procedure statute which embody the third and final round of recommendations by the Governor's Regulatory Reform Advisory Board. The major changes were the standardization of procedures for obtaining judicial review of state agency action and the embodiment in statute of a corps of independent hearing officers.

Note: This submission also includes a small preface from the Law Review Editorial Staff.

Executive Privilege: Historic Scope And Use In The Watergate And Environmental Protection Agency Hearings, Jean M. D'Ovidio

University of Richmond Law Review

Executive privilege is "a concept invoked by members of the executive branch of the government to justify withholding evidence and other communicative materials from the legislative and judicial branches." Since the presidency of George Washington, the executive has attempted to withhold information from the other two branches.

The Fcc, Cable Tv, And Visions Of Valhalla: Judicial Scrutiny Of Complex Rulemaking And Institutional Competence, Allen E. Shoenberger

University of Richmond Law Review

A number of recent decisions by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, its counterpart for the Eighth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court, have substantially curtailed the power of the FCC to regulate the growth of cable television. Such regulation has proved to be a very complicated and extended saga of FCC activity, one measure of which was the extraordinary justification for publishing a per curiam opinion in Home Box Office, Inc. v. FCC: "not because it has received less than full consideration by the court, but because the complexity of the issues raised …

Understanding Judicial Review Of Federal Agency Action: Kafkaesque And Langdellian, Gary C. Leedes

University of Richmond Law Review

This article identifies the key factors that are taken into consideration by federal judges empowered to apply and give doctrinal content to the rules governing judicial review. The original inspiration was more modest. The article, as conceived, was to be simply an attempt to clarify the concept of reviewability. After some thinking about the topic, the close relationship between the concept of reviewability and other concepts of judicial review became clearer to me, and I decided that a useful antidote to the customary analysis, which emphasizes distinctions among these various concepts, is to emphasize their similarities.

Mr. Justice Powell's Standing, Gary C. Leedes

University of Richmond Law Review

Some may lament the results of Mr. Justice Powell's attempts to clarify the law of standing. Indeed, public interest lawyers who advocate granting standing on a surrogate basis to individuals who are members of a large unorganized class of diffuse interests have cause to complain about a return to a more orthodox conception of standing. However, Mr. Justice Powell has a different outlook, viz., in a democratic society, a federal court is not necessarily an appropriate or the most effective institution to redress the grievances of people upset by alleged lawless government action.

Book Review- The Appearance Of Justice, Serving Justice, William K. Slate Ii, W. Gibson Harris

University of Richmond Law Review

These are book review from the 1975 Law Review.