Law Commons^™

The Executive Branch Anticanon, Deborah Pearlstein

Articles

Donald Trump’s presidency has given rise to a raft of concerns not just about the wisdom of particular policy decisions but also about the prospect that executive actions might have troubling longer term “precedential” effects. While critics tend to leave undefined what “precedent” in this context means, existing constitutional structures provide multiple mechanisms by which presidential practice can influence future executive branch conduct: judicial actors rely on practice as gloss on constitutional meaning, executive branch officials rely on past practice in guiding institutional norms of behavior, and elected officials outside the executive branch and the people themselves draw on past …

The Transition Is Already Happening (And It’S Going Fine So Far), Michael Herz, Katherine A. Shaw

Online Publications

Even if Trump were resolved to thwart a smooth transition, much of the process lies entirely outside his control.

Sometime in early to mid-November, if October polling holds and the infrastructure of our democracy basically functions, Joe Biden is likely to be declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. At that point, he will have just more than two months to prepare to take over the leadership of a country still in the grips of a once-in-a-century pandemic, with more than 12 million Americans unemployed, tens of millions of children out of school, and COVID-19 deaths barreling toward 300,000. …

Preparing The Public For A Contested Election, Deborah Pearlstein

Online Publications

While perhaps once thought too far-fetched to discuss out loud in serious company, concerns that Donald Trump will refuse to leave office even if he loses the November election have gained increasing mainstream attention in recent months. Indeed, it would be foolish to assume that such a possibility is out of the question. The president has spent the past four years making clear his desire to remain more than two terms in office, and has worked especially diligently of late to lay the rhetorical groundwork for declaring the results of the federal election – particularly one reliant on absentee voting …

Brief For Plaintiff-Appellant, Alexander A. Reinert

Amicus Briefs

Plaintiff-Appellant Devin Darby ("Plaintiff' or "Darby") brought this action pro se in the District Court, after experiencing several months of excruciating pain while in the care and custody of Appellees-Defendants David Greenman, Rafael Hamilton, and John Doe Nos. 1 and 2 ("Defendants"). Although Plaintiff clearly pleaded the grounds establishing that Defendants violated the constitution by failing to provide treatment for Mr. Darby's painful and swollen gums, the District Court dismissed the action. The District Court entered its dismissal even though no arguments were presented on behalf of Defendant Hamilton and John Doe Nos. 1 and 2. Indeed, at the time …

Response Letter To Chairman Mcgovern On Remote Voting, Deborah Pearlstein

Testimony

Letter sent to Congressman Jim McGovern, Chair of the House Rules Committee. This letter has been entered into the Congressional Record.

"I read with interest an article by Mssrs. Mark Strand and Tim Lang introduced into the record during yesterday’s hearing of the House Rules Committee on H. Res. 965 - Authorizing remote voting by proxy in the House of Representatives. Having written elsewhere in detail about my conviction that the rules change under consideration readily passes constitutional muster, I am grateful for the opportunity to explain why the Strand and Lang position fails to persuade."

Letter To Chairman Mcgovern On Remote Voting, Deborah Pearlstein

Testimony

Letter written to Congressman Jim McGovern, Chair of the House Rules Committee. This letter has been entered into the Congressional Record.

As a professor of constitutional law, and a scholar who has written extensively on separation of powers issues in U.S. Government, I believe adopting procedures to allow for remote voting under these extraordinary circumstances is not only lawful, but essential to the maintenance of our constitutional democracy. Recognizing that specific procedures for remote voting may still be in development, the analysis offered here focuses foremost on the broad scope of Congress’ constitutional authority to regulate its voting procedures.

We Badly Need Congress To Act. We Don’T Need Congress To Act In Person., Deborah Pearlstein

Online Publications

Even as governors across the country impose increasingly restrictive – and eminently necessary – measures to promote teleworking and other forms of social distancing to stem the coronavirus tide, and as lawmakers themselves face the news that they have tested positive for the virus or otherwise must self-isolate, too many members of Congress have remained puzzlingly reluctant to make social distancing possible in their own institution. There was even news on Sunday that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had been spotted at the Senate gym the same morning he found out he’d tested positive for the virus. As Democratic Representatives Eric …

The Myth Of Personal Liability: Who Pays When Bivens Claims Succeed, James E. Pfander, Alexander A. Reinert, Joanna C. Schwartz

Articles

In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, the Supreme Court held that federal law creates a right to sue federal officials for Fourth Amendment violations. For the last three decades, however, the Court has cited the threat of individual liability and the burden of government indemnification on agency budgets as twin bases for narrowing the right of victims to secure redress under Bivens. In its most recent decisions, Ziglar v. Abbasi and Hernandez v. Mesa, the Court said much to confirm that it now views personal liability less as a feature of the Bivens liability rule than …

A Knock On Knick's Revival Of Federal Takings Litigation, Stewart Sterk, Michael C. Pollack

Articles

In Knick v. Township of Scott, the United States Supreme Court held that a landowner who claimed to have suffered a taking at the hands of state or local officials could seek redress in federal court without the need to first seek compensation through state proceedings. This holding raises serious theoretical and practical concerns. On the theoretical side, Knick rests on the implicit assumption that states separate powers among branches of government in the same way the federal government does. It also relies on a second assumption: that relegating taking claims to state court makes them unique. Neither is …

Why Trump’S Lawyers Should Talk Like Lawyers, Katherine A. Shaw

Online Publications

The Constitution says that what’s happening in the Senate right now is a trial. But it’s no ordinary trial: As we’re all now well aware, a Senate trial is a hybrid affair, part law and part politics.

Critical Developments In Housing Policy, Kat Meyers, Cheryl Gonzales, Edward Josephson, Andrew Scherer, Michael C. Pollack

Articles

The 2019 Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice Symposium, Critical Developments in NY Housing Policy, brought leaders in NYC housing law to campus for a discussion on recent changes to tenants’ rights in the 2019 New York Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act.

The event began with a keynote introduction by Kat Meyers, Staff Attorney in the Law Reform Unit of the Legal Aid Society, explaining the context of the new laws.

After a short break, Cardozo's Professor Pollack moderated a panel with participants Honorable Cheryl Gonzales, Supervising Judge in Kings County, Edward Josephson, Director of Litigation …