Law Commons^™

“Reasoning-Lite” In The Violent Video Game Case, Alan Garfield

Alan E Garfield

One might have expected that the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the violent video game case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n, would have been a thoughtful balancing of society’s competing interests in protecting freedom of speech and protecting children from harm. After all, the Supreme Court had held decades earlier that the government could deny minors access to soft-porn, or what the Court called “girlie magazines.” So one could have assumed the Court would seriously consider California’s claim that minors also needed sheltering from the grittier world of violent video game rapes, beheadings, and ethnic cleansings. Yet, as Justice Scalia’s …

Religious Arbitration And The New Multiculturalism: Negotiating Conflicting Legal Orders, Michael A. Helfand

Michael A Helfand

This Article considers a trend towards what I have termed the "new multiculturalism," where conflicts between law and religion are less about recognition and symbolism and more about conflicting legal orders. Nothing typifies this trend more than the increased visibility of religious arbitration, whereby religious groups use current arbitration doctrine to have their disputes adjudicated not in U.S. courts and under U.S. law, but before religious courts and under religious law. This dynamic has pushed the following question to the forefront of the multicultural agenda: under what circumstances should U.S. courts enforce arbitration awards issued by religious courts in accordance …

Marbury Versus Madison: Documents And Commentary, Mark Graber, Michael Perhac

Mark Graber

Marbury versus Madison combines documents and analytical essays timed for the bicentennial year (2003) of one of the most important Supreme Court cases. This timely collection will explain: the constitutional, political, philosophical background to judicial review the historical record leading to this landmark case the impact of the decision since 1803 its impact on the world stage, especially for new and emerging democratic nations. Also includes a listing of all the Supreme Court cases citing Marbury an an annotated Marbury v. Madison.

Rethinking Abortion: Equal Choice, The Constitution, And Reproductive Politics, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

Mark Graber looks at the history of abortion law in action to argue that the only defensible, constitutional approach to the issue is to afford all women equal choice--abortion should remain legal or bans should be strictly enforced. Steering away from metaphysical critiques of privacy, Graber compares the philosophical, constitutional, and democratic merits of the two systems of abortion regulation witnessed in the twentieth century: pre-Roe v. Wade statutory prohibitions on abortion and Roe's ban on significant state interference with the market for safe abortion services. He demonstrates that before Roe, pro-life measures were selectively and erratically administered, thereby …

Dred Scott And The Problem Of Constitutional Evil, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil concerns what is entailed by pledging allegiance to a constitutional text and tradition saturated with concessions to evil. The Constitution of the United States was originally understood as an effort to mediate controversies between persons who disputed fundamental values, and did not offer a vision of the good society. In order to form a "more perfect union" with slaveholders, late-eighteenth-century citizens fashioned a constitution that plainly compelled some injustices and was silent or ambiguous on other questions of fundamental right. This constitutional relationship could survive only as long as a bisectional consensus …

The Difference Between The Occupiers And The Tea Party? The Meaning Of Freedom, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Fighting For The Debtor's Soul: Regulating Religious Commercial Conduct, Michael A. Helfand

Michael A Helfand

Although courts often think of religion in terms of faith, prayer, and conscience, many religious groups are increasingly looking to religion as a source of law, commerce, and contract. As a result, courts are being called upon to regulate conduct that is simultaneously religious and commercial. In addressing such cases, some courts minimize the religious features of the case and simply focus on its secular elements while others over-exaggerate the religious features of the case and thereby refuse to adjudicate the dispute on Establishment Clause grounds. As an example of this dynamic, I explore the constitutionality of imposing sanctions for …

Encyclopedia Of The Supreme Court Of The United States, David Tanenhaus, Kay Kindred, Felice Batlan, Alfred Brophy, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

This 5-volume set focuses on the substance of American law, the processes that produce its legal principles, and the history of the Supreme Court, from its creation to the present. One of the encyclopedia's distinguishing themes is the examination of case law, the essential texts that form the backbone of legal and pre-legal study in the United States. Overview essays address the history of such topics as citizenship, due process, Native Americans, racism, and contraception, emphasizing the social context of each and the social and political pressures that shaped interpretation. This approach plays directly into the cutting-edge field known as …

Constitutional Democracy, Human Dignity, And Entrenched Evil, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

The following essay pays tribute to Sandy Levinson's thoughts on constitutional compromises by paying tribute to the thoughts on constitutional compromises by our common mentor, Walter Murphy. Rather than directly engage in a dialogue with Compromise and Constitutionalism, the analysis below joins the preexisting dalogue between Professors Levinson and Murphy on how to construct a decent polity among people who have deep disputes over what constitutes political decency. Walter Murphy is unfortunately largely known to legal audiences only through the work of such outstanding mentees as Sandy Levinson, Jim Fleming, Christopher Eisgruber, Andrew Koppelman, Jennifer Nedelsky, and Robert George. Walter …

The Herman Cain Blame Game, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

The Hidden Costs Of Choice, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Interview With Professor Kent Greenfield About His Book “The Myth Of Choice: Personal Responsibility In A World Of Limits”, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

Professor Kent Greenfield’s newest release, The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits (Yale University Press), is a broad-reaching view of the dynamics of choice.

Greenfield’s book begins with his knowledge of law and then ranges widely, tapping areas as diverse as sociology, the study of brain activity, and religious freedoms. He draws on scholarly commentary, news reports, political research polls and his own life decisions to complete the picture of choice and its many dimensions. Examining choice and its influence on public policy and legal theory, The Myth of Choice serves as a catalyst to challenge …

When Kids Are Left In Cars: Blame The Brain, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Constitution Day, Happy Illegal Holiday!, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Aep V. Connecticut And The Future Of The Political Question Doctrine, James R. May

James R. May

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Environmental Rights Worldwide, James May, Erin Daly

Erin Daly

No abstract provided.

The Debt Ceiling Impasse: It's Madison's Fault, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Stare Decisis And Foreign Affairs, Michael Van Alstine

Michael P. Van Alstine

This article examines whether the jurisprudential and institutional premises of the doctrine of stare decisis retain their validity in the field of foreign affairs. The proper role of the judicial branch in foreign affairs has provoked substantial scholarly debates—historical, institutional, normative—since the very founding of the republic. Precisely because of the sensitivity of the subject, the Supreme Court itself has both cautioned about the judicial branch’s comparative lack of expertise in the field and recognized a web of deference doctrines designed to protect against improvident judicial action. Notwithstanding all of this, however, neither the Supreme Court nor any scholar has …

The Constitutionalization Of Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel, Richard Klein

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court Criminal Law Jurisprudence - October 2008 Term, Richard Klein

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

Employment Discrimination: Recent Developments In The Supreme Court (Symposium: The Supreme Court And Local Government Law, 1993-1994 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Women And Law: A Comparative Analysis Of The United States And Indian Supreme Courts’ Equality Jurisprudence, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Why San Francisco’S Proposed Circumcision Ban Violates The First Amendment, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

No abstract provided.

Reforming Limited Liability Law, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

The "Sweat Lodge Guru" Guilty Verdict: Recognizing The Deadly Influence Of Authority, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

France And Belgium Have Banned The Burqa. Should America Follow Suit?, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

The Brady Act: Shot Down By The Tenth Amendment, Patricia Rooney

Patricia Rooney

No abstract provided.

Obama, Libya, And Executive Power, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.

Conflict Of Interest That Led To The Gulf Oil Disaster, Peter J. Honigsberg

Peter J Honigsberg

On April 20, 2010, British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, killing eleven people and spilling billions of gallons of oil into the gulf. In the days and weeks that followed, the media pointed to the Minerals Management Services (MMS), the regulatory agency responsible for managing offshore drilling, as being complicit with BP. The MMS issued permits for deepwater drilling in violation of its regulations; provided hundreds of exemptions to the regulations; maintained lax monitoring and enforcement procedures; allowed the companies to draft regulations that suited their interests and objectives; and engaged in inappropriate relationships …

12 Laws Tea Partiers Would Repeal If They Could, Kent Greenfield

Kent Greenfield

No abstract provided.