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Full-Text Articles in Law

Separation Of Santa And State Is Smart, Fair, Alan E. Garfield Dec 2009

Separation Of Santa And State Is Smart, Fair, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.


The Price Of Fame: Brown As Celebrity, Mark Graber Dec 2009

The Price Of Fame: Brown As Celebrity, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

This essay examines the history of Brown I, Brown II, and Bolling in the Supreme Court of the United States. Enduring precedents, the analysis suggests, go through three stages. In the first stage, they fight for survival. This describes Brown during the first decade after that decision was handed down. No Supreme Court Justice asserted, “Brown should be overruled,” but many citations to Brown came in the context of political efforts to reverse or marginalize that decision. In the second stage, precedents fight for extension. This describes Brown in the later Warren and Burger years. Civil rights activists insisted that …


Running Cars, Constitutions And Metaphors Into The Ground, Mark A. Graber Dec 2009

Running Cars, Constitutions And Metaphors Into The Ground, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

Professor Sanford Levinson frequently analogizes the Constitution of the United States to a vehicle that desperately needs repairs. “[R]elying on the present Constitution.” he writes, “is similar to driving a car with very bad brakes and slick tires.” Much commentary on Our Undemocratic Constitution implicitly challenges the automotive metaphor. The Constitution of the United States, supporters profess, is not really as bad as Levinson would have us believe. The following pages take a road less traveled. Ancient constitutional institutions in the United States are suffering from severe wear and tear. Nevertheless, decisions to drive a comparatively unsafe car are often …


Animal Cruelty Vs. Freedom Of Speech, Alan E. Garfield Oct 2009

Animal Cruelty Vs. Freedom Of Speech, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.


La Incidencia De La Acción De Tutela En Las Políticas Públicas, Fernando Castillo Cadena Oct 2009

La Incidencia De La Acción De Tutela En Las Políticas Públicas, Fernando Castillo Cadena

Fernando Castillo Cadena

No abstract provided.


The Future Of Local News Reporting, Alan E. Garfield Sep 2009

The Future Of Local News Reporting, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.


Regulatory Takings: A Chronicle Of The Construction Of A Constitutional Concept, Garrett Power Sep 2009

Regulatory Takings: A Chronicle Of The Construction Of A Constitutional Concept, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

In the American constitutional system the sovereign has the power to enact “regulations which are necessary to the common good and general welfare.” But the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution proscribes that : “No person shall be . . . deprived of . . . property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” And the question of whether a sovereign regulation has “taken” private property without just compensation has puzzled the United States Supreme Court for over two hundred years in over four hundred cases. This paper chronicles …


Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions. 2008 Edition., Garrett Power Sep 2009

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions. 2008 Edition., Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations and Governmental Exactions (2008) is electronically published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in Land Use Control and Environmental Law courses. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and professors and students are free to use it in whole or part. The author requests …


Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions. 2009 Edition., Garrett Power Sep 2009

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions. 2009 Edition., Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Constitutional Limitations on Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations and Governmental Exactions (2009) is electronically published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in Land Use Control and Environmental Law courses. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and professors and students are free to use it in whole or part. The author requests …


A Prayer For Constitutional Comparativism In Eighth Amendment Cases, David C. Gray Aug 2009

A Prayer For Constitutional Comparativism In Eighth Amendment Cases, David C. Gray

David C. Gray

No abstract provided.


Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativist ... Sometimes, David Gray Aug 2009

Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativist ... Sometimes, David Gray

David C. Gray

The burgeoning literature on transjudicialism and constitutional comparativism generally reaffirms the familiar lines of contest between textualists and those more inclined to read the Constitution as a living document. As a consequence, it tends to be politicized, if not polemic. This article begins to shift the debate toward a more rigorous focus on first principles. In particular, it argues that full faith to the basic commitments of originalism, as advanced in Justice Scalia's writings, opinions, and speeches, requires domestic courts to consult contemporary foreign sources when interpreting universalist language found in the Constitution. While the article does not propose a …


Recent Decisions, Phoebe A. Haddon Aug 2009

Recent Decisions, Phoebe A. Haddon

Phoebe A. Haddon

No abstract provided.


An Essay On The Ninth Amendment: Interpretation For The New World Order, Phoebe A. Haddon Jul 2009

An Essay On The Ninth Amendment: Interpretation For The New World Order, Phoebe A. Haddon

Phoebe A. Haddon

No abstract provided.


Ink Blot Or Not: The Meaning Of Privileges And/Or Immunities, Richard Aynes Jul 2009

Ink Blot Or Not: The Meaning Of Privileges And/Or Immunities, Richard Aynes

Richard L. Aynes

This article examines the meaning of the terms privileges and immunities as used in Article IV of the U.S. Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment. It begins by tracing the American use of the terms to April 10, 1606 in the first Charter of Virginia. Building upon the work of other scholars and citing original documents, it concludes that these words has a well-established meaning as “rights” well before the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted. The article notes that in Justice Miller’s decision in the Slaughter-House Cases he refers to the privileges and immunities of Corfield v. Coryell as “those rights which …


The Countermajoritarian Difficulty: From Courts To Congress To Constitutional Order, Mark A. Graber May 2009

The Countermajoritarian Difficulty: From Courts To Congress To Constitutional Order, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

This review documents how scholarly concern with democratic deficits in American constitutionalism has shifted from the courts to electoral institutions. Prominent political scientists are increasingly rejecting the countermajoritarian difficulty as the proper framework for studying and evaluating judicial power. Political scientists, who study Congress and the presidency, however, have recently emphasized countermajoritarian difficulties with electoral institutions. Realistic normative appraisals of American political institutions, this emerging literature on constitutional politics in the United States maintains, should begin by postulating a set of democratic and constitutional goods, determine the extent to which American institutions as a whole are delivering those goods, and …


The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Of 2008: A Case Study Of The Need For Better Congressional Responses To Federalism Jurisprudence, Harper Jean Tobin May 2009

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Of 2008: A Case Study Of The Need For Better Congressional Responses To Federalism Jurisprudence, Harper Jean Tobin

Harper Jean Tobin

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) is the first new civil rights statute enacted since the “federalism revolution” of 1995-2001, in which the Supreme Court announced new limitations on congressional authority. Among other things, these decisions invalidated civil rights remedies against states, declaring that Congress had failed to amass sufficient evidence of the need for legislation. Although passed in the shadow of these decisions, GINA’s limited legislative history makes it vulnerable to attack – potentially limiting its protections for millions of state employees. States will likely attack GINA on two grounds: first, that Congress relied only on its …


Maryland And The Constitution Of The United States: An Introductory Essay, William L. Reynolds Apr 2009

Maryland And The Constitution Of The United States: An Introductory Essay, William L. Reynolds

William L. Reynolds

The State of Maryland and the attorneys who practice in it have played a profound role in the history of the Constitution of the United States. That relationship should not surprise anyone: after all, Maryland was one of the original thirteen states, and its proximity to the nation’s capitol ensured that its lawyers would play an active role in the bar of the Supreme Court. Although the case names alone would make that history apparent – McCulloch v. Maryland, Brown v. Maryland, Federal Baseball – I am not aware of a serious scholarly effort to bring that history to the …


Luther Martin, Maryland And The Constitution, William L. Reynolds Apr 2009

Luther Martin, Maryland And The Constitution, William L. Reynolds

William L. Reynolds

Reviews the life and contributions of Maryland lawyer and scholar Luther Martin (1748-1826).


The Price Of Fame: Brown As Celebrity, Mark A. Graber Apr 2009

The Price Of Fame: Brown As Celebrity, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

This essay examines the history of Brown I, Brown II, and Bolling in the Supreme Court of the United States. Enduring precedents, the analysis suggests, go through three stages. In the first stage, they fight for survival. This describes Brown during the first decade after that decision was handed down. No Supreme Court Justice asserted, “Brown should be overruled,” but many citations to Brown came in the context of political efforts to reverse or marginalize that decision. In the second stage, precedents fight for extension. This describes Brown in the later Warren and Burger years. Civil rights activists insisted that …


Matters Of Judgment: The "Forum Of Principle" Revisited, Mark A. Graber Apr 2009

Matters Of Judgment: The "Forum Of Principle" Revisited, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

No abstract provided.


How The Diversity Rationale Lays The Groundwork For New Discrimination: Examining The Trajectory Of Equal Protection Doctrine, Michael Helfand Feb 2009

How The Diversity Rationale Lays The Groundwork For New Discrimination: Examining The Trajectory Of Equal Protection Doctrine, Michael Helfand

Michael A Helfand

This Article advocates differentiating between two distinct categories of equal protection cases. The first-what I have termed indicator cases-are instances where courts consider whether there are sufficient factual indications to demonstrate the existence of aprimafacie equal protection violation. The second-violation casesare instances where courts consider, having already determined the existence of an equal protection violation, whether there is a good enough justification for a prima facie equal protection violation. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has not differentiated between these two different types of cases. This has led to a string of decisions where the Supreme Court has erroneously looked for justifications …


A First Amendment For Second Life: What Virtual Worlds Mean For The Law Of Video Games, Marc Blitz Jan 2009

A First Amendment For Second Life: What Virtual Worlds Mean For The Law Of Video Games, Marc Blitz

Marc J. Blitz

No abstract provided.


Counsel And Confrontation, Todd E. Pettys Jan 2009

Counsel And Confrontation, Todd E. Pettys

Todd E. Pettys

Responding to the Court’s recent reworking of its confrontation jurisprudence, I argue that, under the Anglo-American common-law principles that the Confrontation Clause now incorporates, defendants are not entitled to an attorney’s assistance when interrogating witnesses prior to trial. Although the Assistance of Counsel Clause and the Due Process Clauses will pick up the slack in many cases, I contend that there are other instances in which the Constitution now leaves unrepresented defendants responsible for cross-examining witnesses on their own. I suggest that legislative reform may be necessary to ameliorate the new constitutional landscape’s deficiencies.


The Myth Of The Written Constitution, Todd E. Pettys Jan 2009

The Myth Of The Written Constitution, Todd E. Pettys

Todd E. Pettys

Many Americans have long subscribed to what this Article calls the myth of the written constitution—the claim that the nation’s Constitution consists entirely of those texts that the sovereign American people have formally ratified, and the claim that the will of the American people, as expressed in those ratified texts, determines the way in which properly behaving judges resolve constitutional disputes. Drawing on two different meanings of the term myth, this Article contends that neither of those claims is literally true, but that Americans’ attachment to those claims serves at least three crucial functions. Subscribing to the myth helps to …


Fact Suppression And The Subversion Of Capital Punishment: What Death Penalty Foes On The Supreme Court And In The Media Do Not Want The Public To Know, Lester --- Jackson Jan 2009

Fact Suppression And The Subversion Of Capital Punishment: What Death Penalty Foes On The Supreme Court And In The Media Do Not Want The Public To Know, Lester --- Jackson

LESTER JACKSON

The U.S. Supreme Court and other courts, aided by the media in suppressing critical information about case facts and case law, have all but abolished capital punishment, turning what's left into a costly and agonizing farce. While pretending to superlative morality, dishonesty, especially half-truth, is central to their cause. An egregious example was Roger Coleman, widely but with knowing falsity portrayed as a choir boy executed because heartless judges impatiently refused to hear evidence of his innocence. Going further, in myriad cases, death sentences are reversed or banned when guilt is not even disputed. This is achieved by focusing upon …


Abolishing The Time Tax On Voting, Elora Mukherjee Jan 2009

Abolishing The Time Tax On Voting, Elora Mukherjee

Elora Mukherjee

A “time tax” is a government policy or practice that forces one citizen to pay more in time to vote compared with her fellow citizens. While few have noticed the scope of the problem, data indicate that, due primarily to long lines, hundreds of thousands if not millions of voters are routinely unable to vote in national elections as a result of the time tax, and that the problem disproportionately affects minority voters and voters in the South. This Article documents the problem and offers a roadmap for legal and political strategies for solving it. The Article uses as a …


Heller’S Constitutional Dialogue: How The Supreme Court’S Choice Of Language In District Of Columbia V. Heller Is Instructive For Anticipating Future Interpretations Of The Second Amendment., Jason E. Niehaus Jan 2009

Heller’S Constitutional Dialogue: How The Supreme Court’S Choice Of Language In District Of Columbia V. Heller Is Instructive For Anticipating Future Interpretations Of The Second Amendment., Jason E. Niehaus

Jason E Niehaus

This article was an analysis of the language used by the Supreme Court in its decision in District of Columbia v. Heller to predict (ultimately correctly) the Court's later ruling regarding the Incorporation of the Second Amendment.


The American Admiralty: Division And Devolution, Graydon S. Staring Jan 2009

The American Admiralty: Division And Devolution, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

THE AMERICAN ADMIRALTY: DIVISION AND DEVOLUTION By Graydon S. Staring* Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION II. DEVELOPMENT AND DEFINITION AS A CUSTOM- ARY REGIME A. Early Development B. The Jurisdiction Developed as of 1789 C. The Substance of Admiralty Undivided III. DIVISION AND DEVOLUTION A. The Transfer of Essential Functions 1. The Navy Itself 2. Lawmaking, Regulatory and Police Powers B. Devolutions to Departments, Agencies and Courts 1. To Department of Homeland Security a) U.S. Coast Guard b) Bureau of Customs and Border Security 2. To the Army Corps of Engineers 3. To NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service 4. To …


Constitutional Law Of Islamic Republic Iran: Experience Of Conservative Modernization, Leonid Berlyavskiy Jan 2009

Constitutional Law Of Islamic Republic Iran: Experience Of Conservative Modernization, Leonid Berlyavskiy

Leonid G. Berlyavskiy

The Constitution of Iran of 1979 stipulated transition from the parliamentary monarchy to the new form of rule –the theocratic republic. All sources of the constitutional law in the Islamic Republic Iran should correspond to the shiit to version of the Moslem law that practically puts all mundane legislation of the state in the subordinated position. Among the supreme bodies of Iran there has been established the special branch of authorities - the institutes of authorities of clergy ( Council of experts, the spiritual leader of the country, Council of keepers of the Constitution, Committee of observance of the Islamic …


The Original Meaning Of The Constitution's “Executive Vesting Clause”—Evidence From Eighteenth Century Drafting Practice, Robert G. Natelson Jan 2009

The Original Meaning Of The Constitution's “Executive Vesting Clause”—Evidence From Eighteenth Century Drafting Practice, Robert G. Natelson

Robert G. Natelson

Advocates of presidential power from the days of George Washington at least to the time of George W. Bush have claimed that the Constitution’s so-called “Executive Vesting Clause,” the first sentence of Article II, not only designates the President as chief executive, but also confers broad authority. Some commentators support that view, while others maintain that the President’s powers are limited to those enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution. This study addresses the previously-overlooked question of which interpretation is more consistent with contemporaneous drafting customs. It concludes that treating the “Executive Vesting Clause” as a mere designation is consistent with those …