Constitutional Law Commons^™

Duty To Defend And The Rule Of Law, Gregory F. Zoeller

Indiana Law Journal

This Article challenges Eric Holder’s and William Pryor’s views and explains the proper role of a state attorney general when a party challenges a state statute. In short, an attorney general owes the state and its citizens, as sovereign, a duty to defend its statutes against constitutional attack except when controlling precedent so overwhelmingly shows that the statute is unconstitutional that no good-faith argument can be made in its defense. To exercise discretion more broadly, and selectively to pick and choose which statutes to defend, only erodes the rule of law. (introduction)

Standing Lessons: What We Can Learn When Conservative Plaintiffs Lose Under Article Iii Standing Doctrine, Heather Elliott

Indiana Law Journal

The Supreme Court’s Article III standing doctrine has plagued liberal groups for nearly forty years. Recently, however, the doctrine has blocked a number of conservative lawsuits opposing gay marriage, the 2010 health care law, and the expansion of federal funding for stem cell research.

What can we learn from these cases? Because contemporary criticisms of standing doctrine have usually come from the left and defenses from the right, it is commonplace to associate arguments for broad standing with left-wing political agendas.

But, as some scholars have shown, a version of narrow standing helped liberals protect New Deal legislation in the …

James Madison And The Burger Court: Converging Views Of Church-State Separation, Patricia E. Curry

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Burger Court, The Commerce Clause, And The Problem Of Differential Treatment, Earl M. Maltz

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The United States Supreme Court: A Creative Check Of Institutional Misdirection?, Fletcher N. Baldwin

Indiana Law Journal

In the Comment which follows Professor Baldwin presents a brief for an extremely creative Supreme Court. In contrast to those who suggest limiting the function of the Court, either by subject matter or by judicial restraint, the author would have it protect the compact upon which the community is based, by taking an active role to insure that the compensation implied in the compact flows in fact not only to the community but to the individual.