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Full-Text Articles in Supreme Court of the United States

Chief Justice Marshall, Justice Holmes, And The Discourse Of Constitutional Adjudication, G. Edward White Oct 1988

Chief Justice Marshall, Justice Holmes, And The Discourse Of Constitutional Adjudication, G. Edward White

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.


Interpreting Legislative Inaction, William N. Eskridge Jr. Oct 1988

Interpreting Legislative Inaction, William N. Eskridge Jr.

Michigan Law Review

This month the Supreme Court will hear reargument in Patterson v. McLean Credit Union on the question of whether section 1981 prohibits discrimination by private parties. In this article, Professor Eskridge addresses the issue of how legislative inaction should affect statutory interpretation. He begins by constructing a detailed analysis of the Court's legislative inaction cases, arguing that the case law is much more coherent than previous analysts have suggested. Professor Eskridge then considers Justice Scalia's critique of that case law and provides support for Justice Scalia's views by distinguishing actual and presumed legislative intent, arguing that, based on a conception …


Statutory Interpretation, Legislative Inaction, And Civil Rights, Daniel A. Farber Oct 1988

Statutory Interpretation, Legislative Inaction, And Civil Rights, Daniel A. Farber

Michigan Law Review

This month the Supreme Court will hear reargument in Patterson v. McLean Credit Union on the question of whether section 1981 prohibits discrimination by private parties. Professor Farber identifies three issues which lie at the heart of Patterson: Must statutes be construed to conform to the intent of the drafters? Does legislative inaction provide reliable guidance to interpreters of statutes? And should the nature of the claim at issue - here a claim of civil rights - influence the interpreters? On this last point, Professor Farber argues that public values must be relevant to statutory interpretation and that judges …


Updating Statutory Interpretation, T. Alexander Aleinikoff Oct 1988

Updating Statutory Interpretation, T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Michigan Law Review

This month the Supreme Court will hear reargument in Patterson v. McLean Credit Union on the question of whether section 1981 prohibits discrimination by private parties. Professor Aleinikoff examines in depth the first issue raised by Professor Farber. Using metaphors of the archeological and the nautical Professor Aleinikoff describes theories of originalism and their application to statutory interpretation. Concluding that there are nonoriginalist (or nonarcheological) elements implicit in these theories, he proceeds to consider how an explicitly nonoriginalist (or nautical) theory of interpretation might work He concludes by commenting on the application of such a theory to Patterson.


Is "Internal Consistency" Foolish?: Reflections On An Emerging Commerce Clause Restraint On State Taxation, Walter Hellerstein Oct 1988

Is "Internal Consistency" Foolish?: Reflections On An Emerging Commerce Clause Restraint On State Taxation, Walter Hellerstein

Michigan Law Review

Whatever role "internal consistency" may come to play in the Court's commerce clause jurisprudence, it has already emerged as a doctrine that warrants our attention. This article traces the development of the doctrine, explores its implications, and considers its defensibility as a limitation on state taxing power. The article suggests that the results the Court reaches under the "internal consistency" doctrine could be reached by rigorous application of a more familiar commerce clause principle - one to which the Court has been less than faithful.


Federal Court Review Of Arbitrary State Court Decisions, David T. Azrin Aug 1988

Federal Court Review Of Arbitrary State Court Decisions, David T. Azrin

Michigan Law Review

Part I of this Note argues that the Thompson, Logan, and Hicks cases can be read narrowly to deal primarily with concern about protecting specific constitutional guarantees such as criminal procedural protections, equal protection guarantees, and first amendment freedoms. Arguably, in order to avoid dealing explicitly with the broader constitutional questions raised by the state decisions, the Court reversed the state decisions as arbitrary interpretations of state law. Part II argues that the rule against arbitrary state decisions suggested by Thompson, Logan, and Hicks is incompatible with federalism because it interferes with states' ability to develop law over state …


Neutral Principles In The 1950'S, Gary Peller Jun 1988

Neutral Principles In The 1950'S, Gary Peller

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this Essay, I explore the intellectual setting within which Wechsler believed that defending freedom also required defending the legality of racial domination. I argue that the key to understanding this apparent paradox is to grasp the ideological/ cultural complex of the 1950's within which mainstream American intellectuals in law and in other disciplines came to terms with the disintegration of the traditional, "old order" paradigms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by means of an intense and overriding distinction between controversial issues of values and noncontroversial questions of framework and structure within which substantive conflict would take …


The Apologetics Of Suppression: The Regulation Of Pornography As Act And Idea, Steven G. Gey Jun 1988

The Apologetics Of Suppression: The Regulation Of Pornography As Act And Idea, Steven G. Gey

Michigan Law Review

The first three parts of this article discuss in detail the relationship between the Supreme Court's obscenity rulings and the academic theories that have been offered to bolster the conclusions reached by the Court in this area. Part IV of the article considers a contrary theory of free expression that requires constitutional protection for the dissemination and possession of pornography. In this section I argue that the present efforts to ban pornography are directly linked to a tolerance model of free expression. The tolerance model, which is usually contrasted with an analytical approach characterized by Holmesian skepticism, necessarily relies upon …


Redefining The Supreme Court's Role: A Theory Of Managing The Federal Judicial Process, Robert S. Whitman May 1988

Redefining The Supreme Court's Role: A Theory Of Managing The Federal Judicial Process, Robert S. Whitman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Redefining the Supreme Court's Role: A Theory of Managing the Federal Judicial Process by Samuel Estreicher and John Sexton


The First Amendment And The Ideal Of Civic Courage: The Brandeis Opinion In Whitney V. California, Vincent Blasi May 1988

The First Amendment And The Ideal Of Civic Courage: The Brandeis Opinion In Whitney V. California, Vincent Blasi

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Role Of State Supreme Courts In The New Judicial Federalism, Jonathan T. Foot May 1988

The Role Of State Supreme Courts In The New Judicial Federalism, Jonathan T. Foot

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Role of State Supreme Courts in the new Judicial Federalism by Susan P. Fino


Constitutional Policymaking In The Burger Years, Joel B. Grossman May 1988

Constitutional Policymaking In The Burger Years, Joel B. Grossman

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Burger Years: Rights and Wrongs in the Supreme Court 1969-1986 by Herman Schwartz


Abusing Standing: Furthering The Conservative Agenda, David A. Domansky Feb 1988

Abusing Standing: Furthering The Conservative Agenda, David A. Domansky

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.


Hard-Core Pornography: A Proposal For A Per Se Rule, Bruce A. Taylor Jan 1988

Hard-Core Pornography: A Proposal For A Per Se Rule, Bruce A. Taylor

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article discusses the history and pervasiveness of the pornography problem. Part II explains the current legal test for obscenity, as evolved from Miller v. California, with an emphasis on terms commonly used in the definition of obscenity. Part III examines the problems in applying Miller that suggest that the application of a per se hard-core pornography rule may be appropriate. Finally, Part IV presents a proposal for a per se hard-core pornography rule, similar to child pornography laws existing in many jurisdictions and upheld by the Supreme Court in New York v. Ferber. This Article concludes …


The Role Of The Legislative And Executive Branches In Interpreting The Constitution, Robert Nagel Jan 1988

The Role Of The Legislative And Executive Branches In Interpreting The Constitution, Robert Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.


Deferral To Arbitration And Use Of External Law In Arbitration, Theodore J. St. Antoine Jan 1988

Deferral To Arbitration And Use Of External Law In Arbitration, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

proper definition of the appropriate roles of arbitrators, administrative agencies and the courts depends in great part on the notion that, generally speaking, in labor relations, the interpretation and application of contracts is for arbitrators, and the interpretation and application of statutes is for the administrative agencies and the courts. Arbitrators deal primarily with contract rights and administrative agencies, like the NLRB and the courts, deal primarily with statutory rights. If that distinction is maintained, the problems of deferral to arbitration and the use of external law in arbitration can be more easily resolved.


Civil Rule 52(A): Rationing And Rationalizing The Resources Of Appellate Review, Edward H. Cooper Jan 1988

Civil Rule 52(A): Rationing And Rationalizing The Resources Of Appellate Review, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

My text is a single and rather simple sentence from Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure: Findings of fact, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge of the credibility of the witnesses. My theme is equally simple.. Rule 52(a) serves a vital institutional role in allocating the responsibility and the power of decision between district courts and the courts of appeals. The "dearly erroneous" standard of appellate review established by the Rule is a …


Prevention Of Antiunion Discrimination In The United States, Theodore J. St. Antoine Jan 1988

Prevention Of Antiunion Discrimination In The United States, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Nearly all rank-and-file employees in private businesses of any substantial size in the United States are protected by federal law against antiunion discrimination. The Railway Labor Act applies to the railroad and airline industries. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) applies to all other businesses whose operations "affect [interstate] commerce" in almost any way. Supervisory and managerial personnel, domestic servants, and agricultural workers are excluded from this federal scheme. Separate federal law covers the employees of the federal government. About thirty of the fifty states have statutes ensuring the right to organize on the part of some or most of …


Making Uncle Sam Pay: A Review Of Equal Access To Justice Act Cases In The Sixth Circuit, 1983-1987, Martin Geer, Paul D. Reingold Jan 1988

Making Uncle Sam Pay: A Review Of Equal Access To Justice Act Cases In The Sixth Circuit, 1983-1987, Martin Geer, Paul D. Reingold

Articles

Despite the recent admonition of the Supreme Court that a "request for attorneys' fees should not result in a second major litigation,"12 the courts have been frequently called on to interpret the often ambiguous language of the EAJA. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has not been spared this difficult chore. While the 1985 amendments have clarified some provisions of the Act and affected some major decisions in the Sixth Circuit, the recent changes have also left other previously settled areas in a state of flux. This article will review the Sixth Circuit's EAJA decisions from 1983-1987, …


Federal Funds To Religious Groups: Where Are The First Amendment Boundaries?, Neal Devins Jan 1988

Federal Funds To Religious Groups: Where Are The First Amendment Boundaries?, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


State-Interest Analysis In Fourteenth-Amendment "Privacy" Law: An Essay On The Constitutionalization Of Social Issues, Carl E. Schneider Jan 1988

State-Interest Analysis In Fourteenth-Amendment "Privacy" Law: An Essay On The Constitutionalization Of Social Issues, Carl E. Schneider

Articles

Asked to resolve a social issue, Americans today turn readily to rights and to the Constitution that is understood to embody them. Many "vice" issues have long been thought particularly apt for a rights analysis. A constitutional resolution of vice issues is therefore inevitably a possibility, and its wisdom is inevitably a question. In this essay, I want to address that question by investigating an area of the law that has been recently constitutionalized family law. Family law is an example worth studying because rights thinking has won a considerable prominence in it: The Constitution has been used to transform …


Civil Rights In Transition: Sections 1981 And 1982 Cover Discrimination On The Basis Of Ancestry And Ethnicity, Eileen Kaufman, Martin A. Schwartz Jan 1988

Civil Rights In Transition: Sections 1981 And 1982 Cover Discrimination On The Basis Of Ancestry And Ethnicity, Eileen Kaufman, Martin A. Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.