Law Commons^™

Abortion Rights And Federalism: Some Lessons From The Nineteenth Century United States, Kate Masur

ConLawNOW

The Dobbs decision, which gives states complete control over abortion laws, has unleashed conflicts that resemble the battles that arose when enslaved people fled slave states for free states, and enslavers, in turn, mobilized state and federal power to get them back. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has prompted frequent allusions to slavery and the antebellum United States. The history of those struggles reminds us of the corrosive impact of interstate conflict and of the importance of federal protections for freedom and individual rights. The history of the United States in the nineteenth century …

Toward A Judicial Bulwark Against Constitutional Extravagance - A Proposed Constitutional Amendment For State Consent Over Judicial Appointments, Steven T. Voigt

ConLawNOW

Imagine a championship football game where one team is allowed to pick all of the referees.

Since the beginning of our nation, the line dividing federal and state power has been debated. But it has been decided in the federal courts, where judges were originally chosen by the President with the consent of a Senate that was chosen by the legislatures of the States. Federal judges are still chosen by the President with the consent of the Senate, but the Senate is no longer chosen by the States. With this constitutional change that proponents wrongly argued would not affect state …