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Full-Text Articles in Law
Why The Burger Court Mattered, David A. Strauss
Why The Burger Court Mattered, David A. Strauss
Michigan Law Review
A review of Michael J. Graetz and Linda Greenhouse, The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right.
How Is Constitutional Law Made?, Tracey E. George, Robert J. Pushaw Jr.
How Is Constitutional Law Made?, Tracey E. George, Robert J. Pushaw Jr.
Michigan Law Review
Bismarck famously remarked: "Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." This witticism applies with peculiar force to constitutional law. Judges and commentators examine the sausage (the Supreme Court's doctrine), but ignore the messy details of its production. Maxwell Stearns has demonstrated, with brilliant originality, that the Court fashions constitutional law through process-based rules of decision such as outcome voting, stare decisis, and justiciability. Employing "social choice" economic theory, Professor Stearns argues that the Court, like all multimember decisionmaking bodies, strives to formulate rules that promote both rationality and fairness (p. 4). Viewed through the lens …
Counter-Revolution In Constitutional Criminal Procedure? Two Audiences, Two Answers, Carol S. Steiker
Counter-Revolution In Constitutional Criminal Procedure? Two Audiences, Two Answers, Carol S. Steiker
Michigan Law Review
For the purposes of my argument, I adapt Professor Meir Dan-Cohen's distinction (which he in turn borrowed from Jeremy Bentham) between "conduct" rules and "decision" rules. Bentham and Dan-Cohen make this distinction in the context of substantive criminal law; for their purposes, "conduct" rules are addressed to the general public in order to guide its behavior (for example, "Let no person steal") and "decision" rules are addressed to public officials in order to guide their decisionmaking about the consequences of violating conduct rules (for example, "Let the judge cause whoever is convicted of stealing to be hanged"). But as any …
Consequences Of Supreme Court Decisions Upholding Individual Constitutional Rights, Jesse H. Choper
Consequences Of Supreme Court Decisions Upholding Individual Constitutional Rights, Jesse H. Choper
Michigan Law Review
The thrust of this Article is to attempt to ascertain just what differences the Court's judgments upholding individual constitutional rights have made for those who fall within the ambit of their protection. It seeks to address such questions as: What were the conditions that existed before the Court's ruling? How many people were subject to the regime that was invalidated by the Justices? Was the Court's mandate successfully implemented? What were the consequences for those affected? At a subjective level, were the repercussions perceived as salutary by those (or at least most of those) who were the beneficiaries of the …
Egalitarianism And The Warren Court, Philip B. Kurland
Egalitarianism And The Warren Court, Philip B. Kurland
Michigan Law Review
As late as 1966, an English philosopher could say that the word "equality," unlike the words "freedom," "liberty," and "justice," was not a "value word" but only a descriptive one. He was not denigrating the term or the concept. He was saying that "when people talk about equality in a political or moral context what they really mean to talk about is some closely evaluative concept, such as impartiality or justice." What may have been true in England in 1966 was only partially true in the United States. While the word "equality" may still be used here to invoke other …
The Warren Court And Desegregation, Robert L. Carter
The Warren Court And Desegregation, Robert L. Carter
Michigan Law Review
When Chief Justice ·warren assumed his post in October 1953, the underpinnings of the "separate but equal" concept had become unmoored beyond restoration. Full-scale argument on the validity of apartheid in public education was only weeks away, and the portent of change in the constitutional doctrine governing American race relations was unmistakable. Although the groundwork had been carefully prepared for the Chief Justice's announcement in Brown v. Board of Education that fundamental principles forbade racial segregation in the nation's public schools, the decision, when it was delivered on :May 17, 1954, was more than a break with the past. In …