Law Commons^™

I Hope This Email Finds You Well: The Eleventh Circuit Addresses The Standard Of Review For Incarcerated Persons’ Outgoing Emails, Olivia Greenblatt

Mercer Law Review

An unfortunate and inevitable aspect of incarceration is separation from the outside world. The various constraints on communication exemplify one of the many ways through which incarceration creates this divide. Maintaining the connections that incarcerated people have with their loved ones and communities is essential for fostering a vital support system, facilitating the exchange of information, aiding in successful reintegration, and reducing recidivism upon release. Unfortunately, instead of encouraging and safeguarding this communication, prisons often curtail it through restrictive methods: visitation is limited, phone calls are costly, physical mail involves a time-consuming and intrusive process, and now, email is being …

Saying The Quiet Part Out Loud: Unenumerated Rights After Justice Thomas’S Dobbs Concurrence, Zachary Mullinax

Mercer Law Review

On May 2, 2022, an anonymous leaker released Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The opinion, dated February 10, overruled the Supreme Court of the United States’s landmark abortion rulings in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey to hold that the U.S. Constitution did not protect a right to obtain an abortion. Following vociferous criticism, the Court decided the case on June 24, 2022, issuing an opinion functionally identical to the leaked draft. Now, after decades of contrary precedent, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause (Due Process Clause) is interpreted …

Compliance Requires Inspection: The Failure Of Gender Equal Pay Efforts In The United States, Renalia Dubose

Mercer Law Review

On Friday, January 29, 2016, President Barack Obama expanded a previous executive order by requiring the Department of Labor to collect wage data based on gender, race, and ethnicity from contractors with at least 100 employees doing business with the federal government. That previous executive order was the April 8, 2014 Executive Order 13665 entitled Non-Retaliation for Disclosure of Compensation Information and was designed to amend the September 24, 1965 Executive Order 11246 entitled Equal Employment Opportunity by President Lyndon Johnson. Executive Order 13665 was issued to require transparency concerning compensation among private entities doing business with the federal government …

What's The Use? The Court Takes A Stance On The Public Use Doctrine In Kelo V. City Of New London, Randy J. Bates Ii

Mercer Law Review

By a 5-4 vote in Kelo v. City of New London, the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of public takings for the purpose of private economic development under the Fifth Amendment's Public Use Clause. In holding that the takings were valid, the Court concluded that it must defer to the state legislature's judgment because the takings were beneficial to the public and were within the state's police power.

"Under Color Of"- What Does It Mean?, Richard H. W. Maloy

Mercer Law Review

After reading the cases dealt with in this Article, I am reminded of the story of the old lady who lived on a hammock in the Everglades. Two census takers rowed out to her abode one day to obtain her statistics. When she asked them why they were there, they answered that they were trying to find out how many people live in the United States. 'You've come to the wrong place," she declared. "Why do you say that?" they asked. "Cause I don't know," was her response. If one is reading this article to find out the meaning of …

City Of Boerne V. Flores: Defining The Limits Of Congress's Fourteenth Amendment Enforcement Clause Power, R. Brent Hatcher Jr.

Mercer Law Review

In City of Boerne v. Flores,'the United States Supreme Court held that through the enactment of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ("RFRA) Congress exceeded its Fourteenth Amendment Enforcement Clause Power. The Court invalidated the statute because of its incongruence and its contradiction of vital principles necessary to maintain the Separation of Powers doctrine.

Bmw Of North America, Inc. V. Gore: The Supreme Court Rejects A Punitive Damage Award On Due Process Grounds, Rob S. Register

Mercer Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States has addressed the validity of punitive damages awards many times over the years, but until now has never overturned one based on a claim of excessiveness under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore is the first case in which the Court reversed and remanded a large punitive damage amount based on those grounds.

How Many Times Was Lochner-Era Substantive Due Process Effective?, Michael J. Phillips

Mercer Law Review

According to Justice David Souter, it is "most familiar history" that back when the Supreme Court took a restricted view of the commerce power, it also "routinely invalidated state social and economic legislation under an expansive conception of Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process." As the word "routinely" suggests, Souter evidently believed that this Lochner Court struck down a large number of laws on substantive due process grounds' during the years 1897 to 1937.

As discussed later, other observers agree. Although they recognize that the old Court rejected more substantive due process attacks than it accepted, they also suggest that cases …

The Creditor, The Debtor And The Fourteenth Amendment, Elwin Griffith

Mercer Law Review

There has been much commentary on the rights and liabilities arising out of the debtor-creditor relationship. Much of that discussion has centered on the constitutional issues related to the use of such remedies as garnishment, attachment, replevin and repossession. The controversial issue in repossession has been the propriety and constitutionality of the self-help provision of §9-503 of the Uniform Commercial Code. These remedies have provoked discussion when creditors have used them without giving notice and a hearing to debtors.