Law Commons^™

Facing The Ghost Of Cruikshank In Constitutional Law, Martha T. Mccluskey

Journal Articles

For a symposium on Teaching Ferguson, this essay considers how the standard introductory constitutional law course evades the history of legal struggle against institutionalized anti-black violence. The traditional course emphasizes the drama of anti-majoritarian judicial expansion of substantive rights. Looming over the doctrines of equal protection and due process, the ghost of Lochner warns of dangers of judicial leadership in substantive constitutional change. This standard narrative tends to lower expectations for constitutional justice, emphasizing the virtues of judicial modesty and formalism.

By supplementing the ghost of Lochner with the ghost of comparably infamous and influential case, United States v. Cruikshank …

Ghosts Of The Past And Hopes For The Future: Article 466 And Societal Expectations, Elizabeth Carter

Journal Articles

This paper traces the history of the law governing component parts Louisiana Civil Code article 466 and its predecessor articles. It notes that civilian methods of interpretation do little to solve the ambiguity inherent in component parts and that stare decisis and jurisprudence constante only confuse the situation. The societal expectations test has been designed to account for these problems and has successfully resolved the ambiguities when it is correctly applied.