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Full-Text Articles in Law

Stephenmfeldmannothingnew.Pdf, Stephen M. Feldman Dec 2016

Stephenmfeldmannothingnew.Pdf, Stephen M. Feldman

Stephen M. Feldman

Recent events have seemed to inject politics into American judicial institutions.  As a result, many observers worry that the Supreme Court, in particular, has become politicized.  According to this view, the Justices should decide cases in accordance with the rule of law and be unmoved by political concerns.  These worries arise from a  mistaken assumption: that law and politics can be separated and independent in the process of judicial decision making.  But at the Supreme Court (as well as in the lower courts, for that matter), decision making arises from a law-politics dynamic.  Adjudication in accord with a pure rule …


The End Of Preclearance As We Knew It: How The Supreme Court Transformed Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act, Peyton Mccrary, Christopher B. Seaman, Richard Valelly Sep 2015

The End Of Preclearance As We Knew It: How The Supreme Court Transformed Section 5 Of The Voting Rights Act, Peyton Mccrary, Christopher B. Seaman, Richard Valelly

Christopher B. Seaman

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to obtain “preclearance” of proposed electoral changes from the United States Department of Justice or a three-judge panel in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. This provision, which is set to expire in August 2007, has successfully reduced racial and ethnic discrimination in voting.The United States Supreme Court determined in a 5-4 decision, Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board, 528 U.S. 230 (2000), that Section 5's prohibition on the enforcement of electoral changes which have a discriminatory purpose …


Property As A Fundamental Constitutional Right? The German Example, Gregory Alexander Dec 2014

Property As A Fundamental Constitutional Right? The German Example, Gregory Alexander

Gregory S Alexander

No abstract provided.


Protecting Free Exercise Of Religion Under The Indian And The United States Constitutions - The Doctrine Of Essential Practices And The Centrality Test, Khagesh Gautam Prof. Oct 2014

Protecting Free Exercise Of Religion Under The Indian And The United States Constitutions - The Doctrine Of Essential Practices And The Centrality Test, Khagesh Gautam Prof.

Khagesh Gautam

Free-exercise of religion is a constitutionally protected right under both U.S. and Indian Constitutions. The U.S. Supreme Court has traditionally reviewed the constitutional claims arising out of the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause in a ‘religion-neutral’ way. The Indian Supreme Court reviews similar claims in a ‘religion-central’ way. While the U.S. Supreme Court does not examine the sincerity of the religious belief and the centrality or essentialness of the religious practice while reviewing a free-exercise claim, the Indian Supreme Court does look into these things in order to see whether a given religious act should be given free-exercise protection.
However, …


The United States Supreme Court: A Creative Check Of Institutional Misdirection?, Fletcher N. Baldwin Jul 2013

The United States Supreme Court: A Creative Check Of Institutional Misdirection?, Fletcher N. Baldwin

Fletcher N. Baldwin

In the Comment which follows Professor Baldwin presents a brief for an extremely creative Supreme Court. In contrast to those who suggest limiting the function of the Court, either by subject matter or by judicial restraint, the author would have it protect the compact upon which the community is based, by taking an active role to insure that the compensation implied in the compact flows in fact not only to the community but to the individual.


2002 U.S. Supreme Court Term Includes Zoning Referendum Case, Patricia E. Salkin May 2013

2002 U.S. Supreme Court Term Includes Zoning Referendum Case, Patricia E. Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin

No abstract provided.


Chief Justice Roberts's Marbury Moment: The Affordable Care Act Case (Nfib V. Sebelius), Stephen M. Feldman Dec 2012

Chief Justice Roberts's Marbury Moment: The Affordable Care Act Case (Nfib V. Sebelius), Stephen M. Feldman

Stephen M. Feldman

This essay is derived from the Jerry W. Housel/Carl F. Arnold Lecture, delivered on November 3, 2012 at the University of Wyoming College of Law. The work discusses Chief Justice John Roberts's decision in the Affordable Care Act case in light of its political significance as compared to the Madison v. Marbury case. The essay briefly summarizes the ACA case and goes on to focus on Congress's commerce power. It examines the constitutional doctrine that preceded the case and then explores how Roberts changed the doctrine.


Obscenity, Internet, Free Press And Free Speech - Constitutions Of India And The United States, Khagesh Gautam Prof. Dec 2012

Obscenity, Internet, Free Press And Free Speech - Constitutions Of India And The United States, Khagesh Gautam Prof.

Khagesh Gautam

No abstract provided.


What Is A Lawyer? A Reconstruction Of The Lawyer As An Officer Of The Court, Deborah Hussey Freeland Dec 2011

What Is A Lawyer? A Reconstruction Of The Lawyer As An Officer Of The Court, Deborah Hussey Freeland

Deborah M. Hussey Freeland

This paper engages with the central question in legal ethics concerning the lawyer's role, analyzing this fundamental question in terms of professional identity. Literature in this debate frames the lawyer either as a professional who exists entirely to serve her client (the "standard conception"), or as a professional whose primary duties are to the legal system. I reposit and examine the lawyer's professional identity as an officer of the court--an identity marginalized by those who favor the standard conception--noting that the phrase was coined to draw attention to a supplanting threat to legal professionalism. Providing a uniquely detailed examination of …


Conservative Eras In Supreme Court Decision Making: Employment Division V. Smith, Judicial Restraint, And Neoconservatism, Stephen M. Feldman Dec 2010

Conservative Eras In Supreme Court Decision Making: Employment Division V. Smith, Judicial Restraint, And Neoconservatism, Stephen M. Feldman

Stephen M. Feldman

Commentators often describe Employment Division v. Smith as the beginning of a new era in free exercise decision-making. Before Smith, the Supreme Court typically articulated and applied a strict scrutiny standard to resolve free exercise exemption claims. After Smith, the Court deferred to the political process, upholding any reasonable law of general applicability. From a doctrinal standpoint, this description of Smith is perfectly accurate and informative. In this Essay, I argue that from a legal-political standpoint, Smith manifests the culmination of one type of judicial conservatism -- a traditionalist conservatism that had been developing since the 1970s. Judicial restraint and …


Diagnosing Power: Postmodernism In Legal Scholarship And Judicial Practice (With An Emphasis On The Teague Rule Against New Rules In Habeas Corpus Cases, Stephen M. Feldman Dec 1993

Diagnosing Power: Postmodernism In Legal Scholarship And Judicial Practice (With An Emphasis On The Teague Rule Against New Rules In Habeas Corpus Cases, Stephen M. Feldman

Stephen M. Feldman

Whereas modernists constantly attempt to reduce the meanings of texts to an essential core or single truth, postmodernists are antifoundationalists and anti-essentialists. According to postmodernists, the meaning of a text is never grounded or stable, and therefore one can always find multiple meanings or truths. Thus, one performs a postmodern flip by taking a segment of a text, event, or concept that apparently has been reduced to a static meaning or truth and suggesting the possible existence of another meaning or truth. The postmodern flip then is completed by exploring how this new meaning or truth of the segment of …