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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Law
Rationalizing Rational Basis Review, Todd W. Shaw
Rationalizing Rational Basis Review, Todd W. Shaw
Northwestern University Law Review
As a government attorney defending economic legislation from a constitutional challenge under the Fourteenth Amendment—How would you rate your chances of success? Surely excellent. After all, hornbook constitutional law requires only the assembly of a flimsy underlying factual record for economic legislation to pass rational basis review.
But the recent uptick in courts questioning the credibility of legislative records might give pause to your optimism. As a growing body of scholarship has identified, the Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals increasingly invalidate laws under rational basis review despite the presence of an otherwise constitutionally sufficient legislative record. Under this …
Due Process Abroad, Nathan S. Chapman
Due Process Abroad, Nathan S. Chapman
Northwestern University Law Review
Defining the scope of the Constitution’s application outside U.S. territory is more important than ever. In February, the Supreme Court heard oral argument about whether the Constitution applies when a U.S. officer shoots a Mexican teenager across the border. At the same time, federal courts across the country scrambled to evaluate the constitutionality of an Executive Order that, among other things, deprived immigrants of their right to reenter the United States. Yet the extraterritorial reach of the Due Process Clause—the broadest constitutional limit on the government’s authority to deprive persons of “life, liberty, or property”—remains obscure.
Up to now, scholars …
The Fragility Of The Free American Press, Ronnell Andersen Jones, Sonja R. West
The Fragility Of The Free American Press, Ronnell Andersen Jones, Sonja R. West
Northwestern University Law Review
President Donald Trump has faced criticism for attacking the press and for abandoning longstanding traditions of accommodating and respecting it. This Essay argues that the national discussion spurred by Trump’s treatment of the press has fallen short of capturing the true seriousness of the situation. Trump’s assault on the custom of press accommodation follows a generation-long collapse of other major press protections. In order to fully understand the critical juncture at which American press freedom now stands, we must expand the discussion beyond talk of a rogue president’s aberrant attacks on the press and consider the increasingly fragile edifice on …
End The Bloody Taxation: Seeing Red On The Unconstitutional Tax On Tampons, Victoria Hartman
End The Bloody Taxation: Seeing Red On The Unconstitutional Tax On Tampons, Victoria Hartman
Northwestern University Law Review
Why was there so much activism in the United States, and across the world, to end the tampon tax in 2016? This Note situates the movement to end the tampon tax within a broader history of feminist activism related to tampons and menstruation. It also analyzes the constitutional dimensions of the tax on feminine hygiene products and serves as a litigation guide for plaintiffs claiming that a state, city, or county sales tax on feminine hygiene products violates the Equal Protection Clause. Lastly, this Note demonstrates the hardships women face paying this tax and encourages state legislatures and city councils …
The Fallacy Of A Colorblind Consent Search Doctrine, Beau C. Tremitiere
The Fallacy Of A Colorblind Consent Search Doctrine, Beau C. Tremitiere
Northwestern University Law Review
Most searches conducted by police officers are “consensual” and thus beyond the reach of the Fourth Amendment. However, such searches violate the Fourth Amendment when, under the totality of circumstances, consent appears to be a product of coercion—that is, when the consent was involuntary. In 1980, in Mendenhall v. United States, the Supreme Court identified race as a relevant factor courts should consider but failed to explain precisely why race was relevant. After decades of mistreatment and state-sanctioned violence, distrust of law enforcement was rampant in communities of color, and the Mendenhall Court correctly intuited (but failed to describe) the …
The Abraham Lincoln Lecture On Constitutional Law, Steven G. Calabresi
The Abraham Lincoln Lecture On Constitutional Law, Steven G. Calabresi
Northwestern University Law Review
These introductory remarks to the Inaugural Abraham Lincoln Lecture on Constitutional Law were delivered at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law on April 6, 2017.
The Inaugural Abraham Lincoln Lecture On Constitutional Law: Electoral College Reform, Lincoln-Style, Akhil Reed Amar
The Inaugural Abraham Lincoln Lecture On Constitutional Law: Electoral College Reform, Lincoln-Style, Akhil Reed Amar
Northwestern University Law Review
This Inaugural Abraham Lincoln Lecture was delivered at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law on April 6, 2017.
Disentangling The Right Of Publicity, Eric E. Johnson
Disentangling The Right Of Publicity, Eric E. Johnson
Northwestern University Law Review
Despite the increasing importance attached to the right of publicity, its doctrinal scope has yet to be clearly articulated. The right of publicity supposedly allows a cause of action for the commercial exploitation of a person’s name, voice, or image. The inconvenient reality, however, is that only a tiny fraction of such instances are truly actionable. This Article tackles the mismatch between the blackletter doctrine and the shape of the case law, and it aims to elucidate, in straightforward terms, what the right of publicity actually is.
This Article explains how, in the absence of a clear enunciation of its …
Adverse Interests And Article Iii, Ann Woolhandler
Adverse Interests And Article Iii, Ann Woolhandler
Northwestern University Law Review
In an important article in the Yale Law Journal, James Pfander and Daniel Birk claim that adverseness is not required by Article III for cases arising under federal law. This Article takes the position that Pfander and Birk have not made the case for reconsidering adversity requirements for Article III cases. Adverseness may be present when there is adversity of legal interests, even when adverse argument is not present. From this perspective, a number of Pfander and Birk’s examples of non-contentious jurisdiction manifested adverseness. In rem-type proceedings such as bankruptcy and prize cases required the determination of adverse interests, …
Excessive Lethal Force, Melissa Hamilton
Excessive Lethal Force, Melissa Hamilton
Northwestern University Law Review
This Essay considers the use by Dallas police officers of a robot armed with plastic explosives to kill a suspected gunman on a shooting rampage in 2016. In the wake of Dallas, many legal experts in the news maintained that the police action was constitutional. The commentators' consensus was that as long as the police had the right to use lethal force, then the means of that force is irrelevant. This Essay argues the contrary. Under the current state of the constitutional law on the police use of force on a suspected felon, excessive lethal force is a valid consideration. …
After Flint: Environmental Justice As Equal Protection, David A. Dana, Deborah Tuerkheimer
After Flint: Environmental Justice As Equal Protection, David A. Dana, Deborah Tuerkheimer
Northwestern University Law Review
This Essay conceptualizes the Flint water crisis as an archetypical case of underenforcement—that is, a denial of the equal protection of laws guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Viewed as such, the inadequacy of environmental regulation can be understood as a failure that extends beyond the confines of Flint; a failure that demands a far more expansive duty to protect vulnerable populations.
Immigration Exceptionalism, David S. Rubenstein, Pratheepan Gulasekaram
Immigration Exceptionalism, David S. Rubenstein, Pratheepan Gulasekaram
Northwestern University Law Review
The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence is littered with special immigration doctrines that depart from mainstream constitutional norms. This Article reconciles these doctrines of “immigration exceptionalism” across constitutional dimensions. Historically, courts and commentators have considered whether immigration warrants exceptional treatment as pertains to rights, federalism, or separation of powers—as if developments in each doctrinal setting can be siloed. This Article rejects that approach, beginning with its underlying premise. Using contemporary examples, we demonstrate how the Court’s immigration doctrines dynamically interact with each other, and with politics, in ways that affect the whole system. This intervention provides a far more accurate rendering of …
Voting, Spending, And The Right To Participate, Robert Yablon
Voting, Spending, And The Right To Participate, Robert Yablon
Northwestern University Law Review
While the law governing the electoral process has changed dramatically in the past decade, one thing has stayed the same: Courts and commentators continue to view voting in elections and spending on elections through distinct constitutional lenses. On the spending side, First Amendment principles guide judicial analysis, and recent decisions have been strongly deregulatory. On the voting side, courts rely on a makeshift equal protection-oriented framework, and they have tended to be more accepting of regulation. Key voting and spending precedents seldom cite each other. Similarly, election law scholars typically address voting and spending in isolation.
This Article challenges the …
What Lurks Below Beckles, Leah M. Litman, Shakeer Rahman
What Lurks Below Beckles, Leah M. Litman, Shakeer Rahman
Northwestern University Law Review
This Essay argues that if the Supreme Court grants habeas relief in Beckles v. United States, then it should spell out certain details about where a Beckles claim comes from and who such a claim benefits. Those details are not essential to the main question raised in the case, but the federal habeas statute takes away the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to hear just about any case that would raise those questions. For that reason, this Essay concludes that failing to address those questions now could arbitrarily condemn hundreds of prisoners to illegal sentences and lead to a situation where the …
Riley And Abandonment: Expanding Fourth Amendment Protection Of Cell Phones, Abigail Hoverman
Riley And Abandonment: Expanding Fourth Amendment Protection Of Cell Phones, Abigail Hoverman
Northwestern University Law Review
In light of the privacy concerns inherent to personal technological devices, the Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in 2014 recognizing the need for categorical heightened protection of cell phones during searches incident to arrest in Riley v. California. This Note argues for expansion of heightened protections for cell phones in the context of abandoned evidence because the same privacy concerns apply. This argument matters because state and federal courts have not provided the needed protection to abandoned cell phones pre- or post-Riley.