Law Commons^™

Abortion Rights (Symposium: The Supreme Court And Local Government Law; The 1989-90 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of The Death Penalty Jurisprudence Of The October 2007 Supreme Court Term (The Twentieth Annual Supreme Court Review), Richard Klein

Richard Daniel Klein

No abstract provided.

Abortion Rights (Symposium: The Supreme Court And Local Government Law; The 1989-90 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

December 8, 2010: Uphold Proposition 8, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Uphold Proposition 8“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 5, 2010: Seeking Common Ground: A Secular Statement, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Seeking Common Ground: A Secular Statement“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

From One [Expletive] Policy To The Next: The Fcc's Regulation Of "Fleeting Expletives" And The Supreme Court's Response, Brandon J. Almas

Federal Communications Law Journal

After the broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards, during which the lead singer from U2 uttered an expletive on national television, the FCC revisited its prior policy on the use of expletives on the airwaves and declared, for the first time, that "fleeting expletives" are offensive according to community standards and are therefore finable. In a lawsuit filed in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Fox Television Stations, Inc. along with a number of other broadcasters argued that the FCC's new policy was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act and unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Second …

November 7, 2010: How To Fix The Establishment Clause, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “How to Fix the Establishment Clause“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 3, 2010: Pat Tommey A Citizens United Victory, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Pat Tommey a Citizens United Victory“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 14, 2010: Why Is Snyder V. Westboro Baptist Church A Free Speech Case?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Why is Snyder v. Westboro Baptist Church a free speech case?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Oral Dissenting On The Supreme Court, Christopher W. Schmidt, Carolyn Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

In this Article we offer the first comprehensive evaluation of oral dissenting on the Supreme Court. We examine the practice in both historical and contemporary perspective, take stock of the emerging academic literature on the subject, and suggest a new framework for analysis of oral dissenting. Specifically, we put forth several claims. Contrary to the common assumption of scholarship and media coverage, oral dissents are nothing new. Oral dissenting has a long tradition, and its history provides valuable lessons for understanding the potential and limits of oral dissents today. Furthermore, not all oral dissents are alike. Dissenting Justices may have …

Aliens On The Bench: Lessons In Identity, Race And Politics From The First "Modern" Supreme Court, Lori A. Ringhand

Scholarly Works

Every time a Supreme Court vacancy is announced, the media and the legal academy snap to attention. Even the general public takes note; in contrast to most of the decisions issued by the Court, a majority of Americans are aware of and have opinions about the men and women who are nominated to sit on it. Moreover, public opinion about the nominee has a strong influence on a senator's vote for or against the candidate. If the confirmation hearing held before the Senate Judiciary Committee is largely an empty ritual, why do so many people seem so enthralled by it? …

Justice John Paul Stevens - His Take On Takings, Alan C. Weinstein

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This commentary reviews and analyzes Justice John Paul Stevens's role in shaping the Court's views on the takings issue in land use regulation.

July 8, 2010: Seeking “Common Ground”: A Secular Statement, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Seeking “Common Ground”: A Secular Statement“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

July 1, 2010: Justice Antonin Scalia Is Responsible For The Christian Legal Society Case, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Justice Antonin Scalia is Responsible for the Christian Legal Society Case“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Constitutional Interpretation? There's No App For That., Sonja R. West

Popular Media

The confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan begin Monday, and court watchers are steeling themselves for another round of the vacuous Q&A that has become the stuff of modern confirmation hearings.

What she will likely talk about—if she's anything like other recent nominees—is that, if confirmed, she promises to become Kagan the Robot. She will find 100 different ways to assure us that when deciding cases she will do nothing more than mechanically apply the law to the facts. And this is where Kagan needs to throw away the script. The absence of any dialogue on substantive law …

June 10, 2010: Whose Fault Is The Florida “Right To Witness” Law?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Whose Fault is the Florida “Right to Witness” Law?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 6, 2010: Former Justice David Souter’S Harvard Commencement Speech, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Former Justice David Souter’s Harvard Commencement Speech“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 3, 2010: American Religious Democracy, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “American Religious Democracy“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Fcc V. Fox Television Stations And The Fcc's New Fleeting Expletive Policy, Jerome A. Barron

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article focuses on the Supreme Court's decision in FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 129 S. Ct. 1800 (2009). In that case, the Supreme Court upheld an important change in the FCC indecency regulation. In the past, the FCC's policy had been that the broadcast of a single expletive did not violate FCC indecency policy. In order for such fleeting expletives to be actionable, the FCC required that they had to be repetitive and gratuitous. But in 2004, in response to the use of some expletives by entertainers during the Golden Globe Awards, the FCC changed its policy and …

May 1, 2010: The Cross In The Desert Case, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Cross in the desert case“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

The “New” Presumption Against Preemption, Mary J. Davis

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Is there or isn't there a “presumption against preemption”? The Supreme Court continues to mention it, but then does, or does not, apply it in a way that helps us understand what it is. This Article explores the Court's preemption opinions in the last several decades, particularly its most recent pronouncements, and concludes that, indeed, there is a presumption against preemption. It is a "new" presumption in the sense that it is born of the Court's active preemption docket in the last two decades, which has more narrowly defined both express and implied preemption analysis. The "new" presumption is stronger …

April 25, 2010: National Day Of Prayer Constitutional, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “National Day of Prayer Constitutional“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

What Is The Sound Of A Corporation Speaking? “Just Another Voice,” According To The Supreme Court, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

When the Supreme Court overrules itself, and reaches a result different from the conclusions of Congress, the Executive Branch, and more than 20 state legislatures, the Court has the burden of persuasion. Did the five justices in the majority in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission meet that burden? The author argues that the answer is no, setting aside the question of whether the majority reached the "right" conclusion about the constitutionality of limiting corporate spending in election campaigns. In this essay, the author explains her answer and addresses a related question: did the Citizens United majority observe the rules …

March 12, 2010: “In God We Trust” Upheld By The Ninth Circuit, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ “In God We Trust” Upheld by the Ninth Circuit“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

John Paul Stevens And Equally Impartial Government, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

This article is the second publication arising out of the author's ongoing research respecting Justice John Paul Stevens. It is one of several published by former law clerks and other legal experts in the UC Davis Law Review symposium edition, Volume 43, No. 3, February 2010, "The Honorable John Paul Stevens."

The article posits that Justice Stevens's embrace of race-conscious measures to ensure continued diversity stands in tension with his early rejections of affirmative action programs. The contrast suggests a linear movement toward a progressive interpretation of the Constitution’s equality guarantee; however, examination of Stevens's writings in biographical context reveal …

January 23, 2010: Thoughts On Citizens United, The Supreme Court Corporate Speech Case, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Thoughts on Citizens United, the Supreme Court Corporate Speech Case“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Jaunary 21, 2010: What’S Religion Got To Do With It?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What’s religion got to do with it?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 12, 2010: The European Court Of Human Rights, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The European Court of Human Rights“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Harmful Speech And The Culture Of Indeterminacy, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

I advocate two propositions in this Essay: the constitutional law of at least one category of content regulation of free speech is indeterminate, and recognition of this indeterminacy has been and ought to continue to be the Supreme Court's decisional basis for protecting speech against content regulation. Milkovich is worth examining at some length, not only because of the Court's failure to come up with general guidelines (after all, pragmatic indeterminacy predicts that failure!), but also because what the Court did say cannot even guide the lower court on remand.

Did A Switch In Time Save Nine?, Daniel E. Ho, Kevin M. Quinn

Faculty Articles

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s court-packing plan of 1937 and the “switch in time that saved nine” animate central questions of law, politics, and history. Did Supreme Court Justice Roberts abruptly switch votes in 1937 to avert a showdown with Roosevelt? Scholars disagree vigorously about whether Roberts’s transformation was gradual and anticipated or abrupt and unexpected. Using newly collected data of votes from the 1931–1940 terms, we contribute to the historical understanding of this episode by providing the first quantitative evidence of Roberts’s transformation. Applying modern measurement methods, we show that Roberts shifted sharply to the left in the 1936 term. The …