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Full-Text Articles in Law

Straightforward On Its Face But Mindbending In Its Application: Juror Concurrence In Criminal Trials, Stephen Ehrlich Jan 2013

Straightforward On Its Face But Mindbending In Its Application: Juror Concurrence In Criminal Trials, Stephen Ehrlich

Cleveland State Law Review

Ever since In re Winship in 1970, it is well settled that the Due Process Clause requires a jury to find “proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime.” But as axiomatic as this holding may seem, the distinction between necessary facts of a crime and “mere means” of its commission has confounded courts for years. The Supreme Court, recognizing the need to re-address such an important issue, attempted to provide some guidance in this area through two landmark cases decided just before the turn of the twenty first century: Schad v. Arizona and Richardson …


Medicaid Expansion, The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, And The Supreme Court's Flawed Spending Clause Coercion Reasoning In National Federation Of Independent Business V. Sebelius, L. Darnell Weeden Jan 2013

Medicaid Expansion, The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, And The Supreme Court's Flawed Spending Clause Coercion Reasoning In National Federation Of Independent Business V. Sebelius, L. Darnell Weeden

Cleveland State Law Review

The issue to be addressed is whether the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA or “Obamacare”) manifest goal of promoting the general welfare of the nation by encouraging states to expand their existing Medicaid plans is a coercive use of Congress’ power under the Spending Clause if the federal government permanently picks up at least 90 percent of the cost of the expansion. The Spending Clause grants Congress the power “to pay the Debts and provide for the . . . general Welfare of the United States.” To make certain that federal money given to the States is used …


Interpreting Precise Constitutional Text: The Argument For A “New” Interpretation Of The Incompatibility Clause, The Removal & Disqualification Clause, And The Religious Test Clause—A Response To Professor Josh Chafetz’S Impeachment & Assassination, Seth Barrett Tillman Jan 2013

Interpreting Precise Constitutional Text: The Argument For A “New” Interpretation Of The Incompatibility Clause, The Removal & Disqualification Clause, And The Religious Test Clause—A Response To Professor Josh Chafetz’S Impeachment & Assassination, Seth Barrett Tillman

Cleveland State Law Review

In an article in another journal, Professor Josh Chafetz wrote: “[I]mpeachment maintains the link between removal and death, but attenuates it. . . . Impeachment is . . . a political death—a President who is impeached and convicted is deprived of his continued existence as a political officeholder. And, like death, impeachment and conviction may be permanent.” In this response, it is my purpose to show that Chafetz’s proposed metaphor does not work and, indeed, that inferences drawn from this metaphor lead Chafetz far afield from the Constitution’s original public meaning. But before doing so, I think it might be …


Striking A Balance: Why Ohio's Felony-Arrestee Dna Statute Is Unconstitutional And Ripe For Legistlative Action, Brendan Heil Jan 2013

Striking A Balance: Why Ohio's Felony-Arrestee Dna Statute Is Unconstitutional And Ripe For Legistlative Action, Brendan Heil

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note argues that Ohio’s felony-arrestee DNA statute violates Article I, section 14 of the Ohio Constitution and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The initial physical swab and the subsequent database searches of an arrestee’s DNA sample, while the arrestee is in custody or being prosecuted, do not violate the Fourth Amendment. However, the inclusion of an innocent person’s DNA in Ohio’s DNA database, subject to repeated searches over time, violates both the Ohio and federal constitutional protections against unreasonable searches. Broadly written DNA statutes trample people’s civil rights, and more carefully drawn legislation could meet the …


Toward A Unitary Commerce Clause: What The Negative Commerce Clause Reveals About The Commerce Power, Donald L. R. Goodson Jan 2013

Toward A Unitary Commerce Clause: What The Negative Commerce Clause Reveals About The Commerce Power, Donald L. R. Goodson

Cleveland State Law Review

The Supreme Court’s recent Commerce Clause cases have acknowledged that in order to give full effect to the values of federalism embedded in the Constitution and the related notion that the national government is one of limited powers, some limitation on the commerce power is needed. But without an understanding of why we have the Commerce Clause in the first place, it is difficult to articulate a limitation of the power, much less one that furthers the values of federalism. Unfortunately, the Court’s own precedent in the affirmative Commerce Clause context does not provide doctrinal support for a functionalist approach …