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Full-Text Articles in Law

Facial And As-Applied Challenges Under The Roberts Court, Gillan E. Metzger Jan 2009

Facial And As-Applied Challenges Under The Roberts Court, Gillan E. Metzger

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Resistance to facial challenges is a recurring theme of the Roberts Court’s early years. Yet close analysis of the Court’s decisions suggests that its approach to facial and as-applied challenges is largely consistent with prior practice. Despite occasional description of as-applied challenges in narrow terms, it has expressly preserved the possibility that as-applied challenges could be brought pre-enforcement and allowed an as-applied challenge to be the vehicle for broad relief. It has also followed the Rehnquist Court in asserting wide remedial discretion to sever statutes to fit constitutional requirements, and even its strategic use of the facial/as-applied distinction is not …


Constitution Notwithstanding: The Political Illegitimacy Of The Death Penalty In American Democracy, Stephen H. Jupiter Jan 1996

Constitution Notwithstanding: The Political Illegitimacy Of The Death Penalty In American Democracy, Stephen H. Jupiter

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment argues that the death penalty is inconsistent with underlying principles of American democracy and is thus illegitimate as a matter of political philosophy, despite its conceded constitutionality. It analyzes the Supreme Court's idiosyncratic treatment of challenges to capital punishment on grounds of due process, equal protection and cruel and unusual punishment, demonstrating the unreliability of such challenges. It examines in detail the death penalty's political implications for the American system of democracy and why those implications render capital punishment illegitimate in our society. It discusses the role of the political process in the abolition of the death penalty. …


Is There A Doctrine In The House? Welfare Reform And The Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine, Jonathan Romberg Jan 1995

Is There A Doctrine In The House? Welfare Reform And The Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine, Jonathan Romberg

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article proposes that courts should subject unconstitutional conditions cases to intermediate scrutiny rather than presuming that a conditioned benefit is either valid or invalid based on its formal attributes. In conducting intermediate scrutiny, courts should consider: (i) the degree of equality or neutrality demanded by the underlying constitutional right; (ii) the importance of the benefit to the recipient; (iii) the germaneness of the condition to the reason the government may legitimately deny the benefit in the absence of the condition, and thus whether the government is attempting to use its economic and regulatory powers to gain leverage over a …


Federal Enforcement Of Civil Rights During The First Reconstruction, Robert J. Kaczorowski Jan 1995

Federal Enforcement Of Civil Rights During The First Reconstruction, Robert J. Kaczorowski

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This essay recounts the heroic efforts of federal legal officers and judges to enforce citizens' rights during the 1870s. Part I sets forth the historical events giving rise to the enforcement effort of the Grant Administration. Part II details the problems which the federal executive branch faced when it aggressively prosecuted civil rights violations. Part III details the problems which the federal judiciary faced in administering the civil rights prosecutions brought by the executive branch. Part IV details the national political problems that eventually ended effective enforcement of federal civil rights laws. This Essay concludes that, notwithstanding the problems faced …


Note: New York City's Restrictive Zoning Of Adult Businesses: A Constitutional Analysis, Rachel Simon Jan 1995

Note: New York City's Restrictive Zoning Of Adult Businesses: A Constitutional Analysis, Rachel Simon

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Part I explores the adult pornography industry in New York City and the constitutional framework developed by both federal and New York State courts to regulate non-obscene pornographic expression. Part II analyzes the City's Adult Zoning Resolution in light of decisions of the New York State Court of Appeals, the United States Supreme Court, and various federal district and circuit courts. Part III proposes changes that will increase the probability that the City's Adult Zoning Resolution will survive constitutional challenges. This Note concludes that although the current version of the City's Adult Zoning Resolution infringes unconstitutionally on adult business owners' …


The Mortgage Subsidy Bond Tax Act Of 1979: An Unwarranted Attack On State Sovereignty, John J. Keohane Jan 1980

The Mortgage Subsidy Bond Tax Act Of 1979: An Unwarranted Attack On State Sovereignty, John J. Keohane

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article examines the constitutionality of repealing the tax exempt status of interest accrued on bonds issued by states and municipalities. It concludes that repealing this tax exemption is unconstitutional, as it would encroach on state's sovereignty inherently protected by the constitution.


The Constitutionality Of Public School Financing Laws: Judicial And Legislative Interaction, Bruce Gitlin Jan 1980

The Constitutionality Of Public School Financing Laws: Judicial And Legislative Interaction, Bruce Gitlin

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note looks at the various ways states fund public education. Then the Note examines the how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision of Board of Education v. Nyquist impacts how states fund public education. Finally, the Note argues that the U.S. Supreme Court should expand, rather than contract, the options available for states to fund public education.


Constitutional Law - Zoning Referenda - Mandatory Referenda On All Municipal Land Use Changes Do Not Violate The Due Process Clause, Beatrice Close Jan 1976

Constitutional Law - Zoning Referenda - Mandatory Referenda On All Municipal Land Use Changes Do Not Violate The Due Process Clause, Beatrice Close

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This case note discusses the United States Supreme Court's decision in City of Eastlake v. Forest City Enterprises, Inc., 96 S. Ct. 2358 (1976), which held that a state's decision to allow mandatory referendums on all municipal land use changes does not violate the due process clause. The case note examines the line of cases, such as Eubanks v. Richmond, 226 U.S. 137 (1912) and Washington ex rel. Seattle Trust Co. v. Roberge, 278 U.S. 116 (1928), that establish the principle that standardless delegations of power to impose restrictions on the property rights of others violated the due process clause …