Legal History Commons^™

The Right To Vote And Its Implementation, Donald P. Kommers

Journal Articles

The quest for political equality has been a major theme of American history. Indeed, since 1789, the American political system has undergone steady progress toward increasing democratization.' Slavery was abolished in 1865. The right to vote is no longer limited by restrictions based on property, race, color, or sex. Since 1913 United States senators have been elected by the people. Political equality is afforded to the citizens of each state through the equal protection and due process clauses of the fourteenth amendment. And the operation of the electoral college, originally intended to house a political elite, has been so modified …

The Straw Man Of Legal Positivism, Thomas F. Broden

Journal Articles

The typical view of many lawyers, philosophers, theologians and other thoughtful persons toward a so-called school of jurisprudence generally known as legal positivism is one of condemnation. According to this typical view legal positivism is a well developed philosophy of law the main tenets of which are that might makes right and that law and state sovereignty are absolute and not subject to independent moral evaluation. Needless to say this assumed jurisprudential view is roundly indicted, deplored and declaimed against with vigor and venom. We are warned that legal positivists are insidious termites threatening the very foundation of our law, …

Due Process And Social Legislation In The Supreme Court--A Post Mortem, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

Nowadays, there is no more discredited era in our judicial history than that represented by such cases as Lochner v. New York.' During this era, we are told, our ancestors were so benighted economically as to embrace economic principles incapable of producing the good life, and so benighted judicially as to read their economics into the Constitution. We have barely left behind us the bulk of the advocates and judges whose role in history it was to slay the giant laissez-faire, so it is not surprising that we should have no picture of their adversary but the dne that was …

Our Forgotten Finding Of Fact, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

It has been my happy experience during the past half dozen years to be closely and professionally associated with three members of this association, Mr. Tracy Griffin, Mr. Holman and Mr. A. Schweppe. In my judgment these are three of the most representative, the most erudite and most patriotic members of the Bar to be found anywhere.

If they are representative of the Washington State Bar Association, then indeed it is a great honor for me or anybody else to have the privilege of addressing you, and I so regarded it and so accepted the invitation.

I have studied your …

Founding Fathers And The Natural Law: A Study Of The Source Of Our Legal Institutions, The, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

Where did the Founding Fathers get the principles upon which they established our government? What was the source of their faith? The bedrock of their convictions? What was the political evolution of our Constitution? The legal philosophy of our Bill of Rights? The discussion of these questions by Dean Manion is timely for it is necessary now to make soundings and take bearings if the Ship of State is to continue on its true course. Whereas the Revolution of 1688 brought the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty to England, the American colonists resisted that doctrine and adhered to the true natural …

Some Legal Aspects Of American Sovereignty, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

The advocates of a post-war world security organization are squarely up against the question of "sovereignty." Those who have specifically criticized the suggestion have done so for the reason that it does not go far enough to accomplish its purpose. They contend that the word "sovereign" should be lifted out of all such proposals for the reason that its inclusion will neutralize the effectiveness and destroy the continuity of the proposed association. If through the instrumentality of a treaty, or an executive agreement made pursuant to a joint Congressional resolution or otherwise, the United States government may suddenly take on …

Administrative Boards And Delegation Power, William Burns Lawless

Journal Articles

With the growth of American federalism and the passing of the doctrines of laissez faire as axioms of economic and political legal theory, the Congressional function magnified. Throughout the last decade the multiphased problems of Congress has necessitated the creation of administrative commissions to perform-the policies of the legislature. Congress continues to declare the law and determine the legal principle to control in given cases. In the same breath of legal creation it goes farther and provides for an administrator or commission to vitiate the doctrine set-out. The transfusion of power from the national legislature to the administrator promotes sensitive …

Military Action In Labor Disputes, William Burns Lawless

Journal Articles

Generally, we may say that the executive power to initiate military action is commensurate with the emergency. If the situation is grave, the civil courts may be closed and a military commission appointed by the governor to substitute for the judiciary. In all events the power is potentially a vast one. Discriminate, ly applied it bargains a temporary suspension of rights for a restoration of law and order.

American Philosophy Of Law, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

America’s philosophy of law is a rich heritage sculpted by the American Revolution. The bold aspirations of the Declaration of Independence, which advances notions of inalienable, God-given rights find more mild-mannered forms in our Constitution. However, this prevailing concept is what makes our legal and political environment distinct from our English forebears.

A Lawyer Looks At Liberty, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

The Law has been defined as "The Perfection of Human Reason." This, of course, is a highly idealized definition. The Law often falls short of perfect reasonableness. Nevertheless reason and logic constitute the warp and woof of the whole fabric of our jurisprudence. In the strict determination and application of the Law, emotion-the natural enemy of reason-plays not part at all. In the courtroom, oratorical pyrotechnics are seldom permitted to obscure the real points that are at issue in a particular case. The trial of a lawsuit is predicated upon the pleadings and the art of formal pleading is as …

Reorganization Of The Federal Judiciary, Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

This article examines the controversy the Supreme Court have declaring unconstitutional several acts of Congress by striking social and beneficial laws from the statute books. The Supreme Court in effect told the American people that because of the Constitution their representatives could not pass these laws. It is the Supreme Court that is usurping the power of Congress and the President. It is the Supreme Court that has been destroying laws passed by Congress for a better life, more liberty and equality; social justice, and pursuit of happiness of one hundred thirty million people. This article favors the President's proposal …

Reviewing Judicial Review, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

Address of Clarence E. Manion, Professor of Law at Notre Dame University School of Law, delivered at the mid-winter meeting of the Indiana State Bar Association January 16, 1937.

The Constitutionality Of New Deal Measures, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

In this article, Clarence Manion warns that to honor the Constitution's form but not its substance is to essentially destroy the document. He opines that "Regulation of persons and things is never justified nor justifiable as an end in itself. Regulation for the sake of regulation is paternalism; but regulation as the only means for individual protection is a bulwark of our traditional American liberty. Regulation finds its only justification in the proof of the fact that it is a necessary means for adequate protection of the citizen's rights.

A Great Opportunity For Lawyers, Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

The lawyer-statesmen who drafted our Constitution had a greater task. The lawyer-statesmen who piloted us through a Civil War, through a Reconstruction Period, and through the World War, had equally difficult problems. Will the lawyer of today assume a leadership? Will he assume a duty and a responsibility for service? Will he heed an op- portunity and thus bring a lasting tribute to the profession?

What Will Become Of Prohibition, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

Because of the substantial minority support for Prohibition and the Eighteenth Amendment, this article suggests that it would difficult, if not impossible, to repeal the amendment despite the fact that 3 in 5 Americans would support its repeal. The article looks at potential options of lessening the impact of the Eighteenth Amendment, including removing penalties for it, repealing State enforcement acts, and forbidding nullification of search warrant requirements. Finally, it looks at the quality of liquor as a solution to an "unusually interesting" and "ultimately worthwhile" problem.

History Of The Notre Dame College Of Law, Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

In the summer of 1868 the Board of Trustees of the University passed a resolution "for the opening of a course in law at Notre Dame." At that time there were very few law schools in the country and the profession was almost wholly recruited from the law-offices. As a matter of fact there was great doubt among the lawyers at that time as to the advisability and the possibility of acquiring training for the bar at a university. There were even prejudices at that time against the study of law at law schools. It was during such doubts and …

Proposed Legislation For Enforcement Of Prohibition, Thomas Frank Konop

Journal Articles

Under date of November 21st, 1929, the Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement made a preliminary report to the President on observance and enforcement of prohibition. Under subdivision (D) of that report, the Commission offered three methods to relieve the congestion in the Federal Courts. Although the bills are constitutional, they will not relieve congestion. Instead, the will promote fraud and lower citizens' respect for the Federal Judiciary and the Constitution.

Proximate Sources Of The Constitution, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

The average American who thinks of our Federal Document only in terms of the Philadelphia Convention may not have fully appreciated the fact that before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, every American State had already achieved its constitutional independence and had established its own organic law, by which it should not only remain free from the foreign dominion of Great Britain, but should also remain an indestructible unit in The American Federal System. He must remember that the "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" which leagued the alleged sovereign and independent States, were in force at the time of …

In Re Liberty: A Book And Its Critic, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

The restrictive craze of American legislators is fast reducing our once virile and individually resourceful population to a race of unthinking automatons. Judicially and otherwise, American liberty and individual competence which is its hand-maid are rapidly being lost. This article discusses the book "Losing Liberty Judicially" by Thomas James Norton and the review of the book by Robert C. Brown.

Legal Status Of The Spite Fence In Ohio, Joseph O'Meara, Herman W. Santen

Journal Articles

It is generally assumed, on the authority of Letts v. Kessler, that spite fences in Ohio are within the law. In two cases language has been used indicating an adherence to the obsolescent view that spite fences may be erected with impunity, but in neither case was the question before the court for decision, so that what was said must be classed as dicta. This, then is the situation: there is not a single decision in the last twenty-one years supporting the rule of Letts v. Kessler. A careful reading of the opinion in Letts v. Kessler will show that …

Liberty And The Police Power, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

The American citizen now has practically no rights of person or property that neither Congress nor the State legislature may not impair by legislation. The adoption of the Articles of Confederation and the Federal Constitution served merely to transfer to the Federal government certain powers formerly exercised by the individual States. When all individuals were protected in the exercise of their respective rights it was never supposed that the rights of the individual were to be protected or approached through the avenues of legislation dictated by majority opinions as to what is now and again for the "general good". The …

Shrinking Bill Of Rights, Clarence Emmett Manion

Journal Articles

The assertion of intrinsic, God given rights correlated with the decline of monarchical power. The United States’ understanding that all men and women are endowed with unalienable rights was a long and hard-fought conclusion. However, this article argues that the Bill of Rights has gradually changed from being the bold guardian of individual liberty originally envisioned. Ironically, this change can be attributed to the courts and the legislature.