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First Amendment Equal Protection: On Discretion, Inequality, And Participation, Daniel P. Tokaji

Michigan Law Review

The tension between equality and discretion lies at the heart of some of the most vexing questions of constitutional law. The considerable discretion that many official decisionmakers wield raises the spectre that violations of equality norms will sometimes escape detection. This is true in a variety of settings, whether discretion lies over speakers' access to public fora, implementation of the death penalty, or the recounting of votes. Is the First Amendment violated, for example, when a city ordinance gives local officials broad discretion to determine the conditions under which political demonstrations may take place? Is equal protection denied where the …

Children As Chattel: Invoking The Thirteenth Amendment To Reform Child Welfare, Kurt Mundorff

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The note argues that the child welfare system perpetuates systemic oppression and commodification of children, particularly targeting African American and poor families, mirroring the exploitation of slavery. The author contends that the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, should be invoked to reform this system. The current system prioritizes intervention and removal over support, leading to harm and perpetuating racial and economic disparities. The author advocates for a balanced approach that protects children while addressing the systemic exploitation and racial control embedded in the foster care system.

Mandatory Fingerprinting Of Public School Teachers: Fascilitating Background Checks Or Infringing On Individuals' Constitutional Rights?, Christina Buschmann

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

With the continuing growth of governmental intrusions into the private lives of its citizens, critics increasingly have taken aim at state actions which unnecessarily burden an individual's right to be let alone. One group in particular - public school teachers - often endure tedious examinations of their private affairs as a condition of employment. This Note examines the current state of privacy concerns, specifically in the realm of public school teachers, and argues that a compromise must be struck that better balances the public's need to protect children from dangerous teachers with the individual teacher's right to privacy. The Note …

"Don't Bother Knockin' ... Come On In!:" The Constitutionality Of Warrantless Searches As A Condition Of Probation, Matthew S. Roberson

Campbell Law Review

This note will examine the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Knights. Part II presents factual background and the basis for the district court's decision to suppress evidence seized during the search of Knight's home, as well as the Ninth Circuit's affirming opinion. The note then presents the Supreme Court's analysis and reasoning for reversing the lower court. Part III discusses the jurisprudence leading to the Court's decision and part IV addresses the impact of the Court's decision.

Congress, Civil Liberties, And The War On Terrorism, Neal Devins

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In exercising his war-making powers, the President has historically pursued war-related initiatives that implicate civil liberties. Meanwhile, the Congress, with little incentive to resist these initiatives, has played a steadily declining role in warmaking. In this Essay, Professor Devins examines this dynamic, and argues that with Congress largely standing on the sidelines as the President leads the nation in war, it is the American public that has become the principal check on the powers of the President in wartime.

One Strike And You're Out? Constitutional Constraints On Zero Tolerance In Public Education, Eric D. Blumenson, Eva Nilsen

Faculty Scholarship

Various studies reported that juvenile crimes of violence fell in the 1990s by as much as 30%. ¹⁰ In high schools specifically, the incidence of threatening behavior in 1996 changed little from two decades earlier, ¹¹ with the chances of being killed in school far less than being struck by lighting. ¹² The "juvenile crime bomb" proved illusory (as Delulio himself eventually acknowledged ¹³), but the severe measures designed to deal with it remain entrenched. Zero tolerance has taken on a life of its own, partly because public misperception remains high, ¹⁴ and partly because in our hardheaded times …

Books Received, Journal Editor

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

THE DISCONNECTED By Penn Kimball New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.Pp. 317. $2.95/Paperback

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (2d ed.). Edited by Robert T. Golembiewski, Frank Gibson & Goeffrey Y. Cornog, Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1972. Pp. xxxix, 617.$6.95/Paperback

THE AUSTRIAN-GERMAN ARBITRAL TRIBUNAL By Ignaz Seidl-Hohenveldern Syracuse:Syracuse University Press, 1972. Pp. xi, 261. $15.00.

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF PRISONERS By John W. Palmer Cincinnati: The W.H.Anderson Company, 1973. Pp. xv, 710.

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED: PRETRIAL RIGHTS By Joseph G. Cook Rochester: The Lawyer's Co-operative Publishing Company, 1972. Pp. ix, 572. $35.00.

CRIMINAL SENTENCES: LAW WITHOUT ORDER By Marvin E. Frankel New …

Narrowing The Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides With The States, By John T. Noonan, Jr., Matthew Fogelson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

You Have A Right To Remain Silent, Michael Avery

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Supreme Court will decide in the October 2002 term whether there is a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 based on a coercive police interrogation of a suspect in custody who has not been given Miranda warnings. The Supreme Court cannot decide that there is no cause of action under section 1983 for damages caused by coercive interrogation practices without turning its back on a large body of its own jurisprudence and on the deeply rooted cultural and political expectations of American citizens who trust that they have a meaningfu lconstitutionally protected right to remain silent when …

Mandamus As A Weapon Of "Class Warfare" In Sixth Amendment Jurisprudence: A Case Comment On United States V. Santos, 36 J. Marshall L. Rev. 733 (2003), John F. Costello Jr.

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Obeisance To The Separation Of Powers And Protection Of Individuals' Rights And Liberties: The Honorable John C. Eldridge's Approach To Constitutional Analysis In The Court Of Appeals Of Maryland, 1974-2003, Lynne A. Battaglia

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Social Contract Between Students And The State: A Constitutional Analysis Of Florida Statutes Related To Mandatory Expulsion For Weapon Possession, Corporal Punishment And The Use Of Metal Detectors On Campus, Loula D. Giannet

St. Thomas Law Review

This article analyzes the constitutionality of various Florida statutes as they may be applied to curtail acts of violence on school grounds. Analyzed from a social contract theoretical perspective, the article first examines whether Florida's zero-tolerance policy regarding weapon possession in schools, which requires mandatory expulsion, comports with the Due Process Clause. Second, the article evaluates the relevant statutes pertaining to corporal punishment and the due process implications of this sanction. Third, the article explores the constitutional issues associated with the use of metal detectors on campus. Finally, the article briefly discusses whether the Double Jeopardy Clause precludes a subsequent …

Semblances Of Sovereignty: The Constitution, The State, And American Citizenship, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Harvard University Press, 2002. Pp. 223, Harvey Gee

St. Thomas Law Review

A major contribution to the contemporary thinking about immigration, citizenship, and assimilation is offered by Georgetown Law Center Law Professor T. Alexander Aleinikoff in his recent volume, Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship. The book helps to advance the immigration debate and define what it means to be an American. Aleinikoff paints with broad theoretical strokes with academics in mind. Relying on theory, he asks readers to consider how the court has treated the issue of "citizenship" and how it has defined its boundaries and limitations. He also addresses the reasons why traditional notions of immigrant …

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Terrorists: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Government's Right To Classify United States Citizens Suspected Of Terrorism As Enemy Combatants And Try Those Enemy Combatants By Military Comission, Amanda Schaffer

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment explores the government's right to treat citizens as enemy combatants and whether their trials should be by military commissions or by the non-military criminal justice system. It gives background information and explains the source of the government's right to determine enemy combatant status and to use military commissions. This Comment also describes the distinctions between a military trial and a regular criminal trial and explains the status of two cases regarding American citizens declared to be enemy combatants. The Comment goes on to explain why the government wants to use military commissions to try terrorists and the advantages …

Substantive Due Process And The Involuntary Confinement Of Sexually Violent Predators, Wayne A. Logan, Eric S. Janus

Scholarly Publications

Over the past fifty years the Supreme Court has been repeatedly asked to address the constitutionality of civil commitment laws, including laws specifically targeting sexually violent predators (SVPs). The SVP laws have withstood challenge, in each instance redeemed by their putative civil purpose. Today, however, roughly 13 years after the first modern SVP law was enacted by the State of Washington, serious concern exists over whether the laws are fulfilling their civil purpose, or are merely serving as vehicles for impermissible preventive detention.

This Article addresses this question, in the process exploring the viability of the major remaining constitutional basis …

Interpreting U.S. Treaties In Light Of Human Rights Values, Lori Fisler Damrosch

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New Federalism, The Spending Power, And Federal Criminal Law, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

It is difficult in constitutional-law circles to avoid the observation that we are living through a revival of federalism. Certainly, the Rehnquist Court has brought back to the public-law table the notion that the Constitution is a charter for a government of limited and enumerated powers, one that is constrained both by that charter's text and by the structure of the government it creates. This allegedly revolutionary Court seems little inclined, however, to revise or revisit its Spending Power doctrine, and it remains settled law that Congress may disburse funds in pursuit of ends not authorized explicitly in Article I …

Crawford V. Washington, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

On June 9, by granting certiorari in Crawford v. Washington, 02-9410, the Supreme Court signaled its intention to enter once again into the realm of the Confrontation Clause, in which it has found itself deeply perplexed. This time there was a difference, however, because the grant indicated that the Court might be willing to rethink its jurisprudence in this area. Crawford, like Lee v. Illinois, 476 U.S. 530 (1986), and Lilly v. Virginia, 527 U.S. 116 (1999), presents a classic case of what might be called station-house testimony. Michael Crawford was accused of stabbing another man. His wife, Sylvia, was …

Politics And Principle: An Alternative Take On Seth P. Waxman's Defending Congress, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Civil Rights Plaintiffs And John Doe Defendants: A Study In § 1983 Procedure, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Remarks Of Seth P. Waxman At The Memorial Observance For Justice Byron R. White, United States Supreme Court, Seth P. Waxman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Members of the Court, members of the family, and friends of Justice White- Alone among today's speakers, I met Justice White only late in his life. Growing up in the law, my relationship with him was the one many kids today have with Michael Jordan - I wanted to be "like White" -like the kind of man he was. I still have that aspiration. Like Byron White, I served in the Department of Justice and was altered forever by that honorable institution. And - like Justice White, in my own lesser way, I strove within the walls of this institution …

Ballot Boxes Behind Bars: Toward The Repeal Of Prisoner Disenfranchisement Laws, Debra Parkes

All Faculty Publications

This paper takes seriously the objection that allowing prisoners to vote may have an impact on the outcome of elections or on the development of law and policy, given the extraordinarily high incarceration rate currently a reality in the United States. The reality that prisoners may have an impact on the outcome of elections is an argument in favour of allowing them to vote rather than against it. A progressive critique or constitutional challenge of prisoner disenfranchisement should call attention to the instrumental, as well as symbolic and constitutive functions of voting, and must defend the importance of having the …

The Middle Class Fourth Amendment, Craig M. Bradley

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Death Penalty: Can We Define Who Deserves Death?, Martin Leahy, Robert Blecker, William M. Erlbaum, Jeffrey Fagan, Norman Greene, Jeffrey Kirchmeier, David Von Drehle

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Nearest To Legitimacy: Justice White And Strict Rational Basis Scrutiny, Michael Herz

Articles

No abstract provided.

Beyond Congress: The Study Of State And Local Legislatures, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

I'd like to thank the Journal of Legislation and Public Policy for inviting me back to N.Y.U. I am particularly grateful to have the opportunity to sit between and learn from Bill Eskridge and Beth Garrett, who have once again demonstrated in their comments today why they are leaders in this field. I understand now what it must have been like to be a student in a class with Eskridge as the professor and Garrett as a fellow student – can you imagine what an experience that must have been?

I am going to focus my remarks on state and …

The (Un)Favorable Judgment Of History: Deportation Hearings, The Palmer Raids, And The Meaning Of History, Harlan G. Cohen

Faculty Scholarship

As Americans respond to the events of September 11, 2001, they are being forced to contemplate their place in American history-past, present, and future. This has become particularly stark in the fight over secret deportation hearings. Following September 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that the deportation hearings of "special interest" aliens would be closed to the public. Applying Richmond Newspapers's two-pronged logic-and-experience test, the Third and Sixth Circuits subsequently split over the constitutionality of the blanket closure. At the heart of their disagreement was the scarce history of deportation hearings and whether such hearings had been closed in the …

Are Police Free To Disregard Miranda?, Steven D. Clymer

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Road Work: Racial Profiling And Drug Interdiction On The Highway, Samuel R. Gross, Katherine Y. Barnes

Michigan Law Review

Hypocrisy about race is hardly new in America, but the content changes. Recently the spotlight has been on racial profiling. The story of Colonel Carl Williams of the New Jersey State Police is a wellknown example. On Sunday, February 28, 1999, the Newark Star Ledger published a lengthy interview with Williams in which he talked about race and drugs: "Today . . . the drug problem is cocaine or marijuana. It is most likely a minority group that's involved with that. " Williams condemned racial profiling - "As far as racial profiling is concerned, that is absolutely not right. It …

Constitutional Dignity And The Criminal Law, James E. Baker

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Criminal law is important because it helps to define who we are as a constitutional democracy. There is much that distinguishes our form of government from others, but certainly much of that distinction is found in the Bill of Rights and in two simple words: due process. All of which help to affirm the value and sanctity of the individual in our society. Broadly then, criminal law helps to define who we are as a nation that values both order and liberty.

That is what many of the greatest judicial debates are about, like those involving Holmes, Hand, Jackson, and …