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Full-Text Articles in Law
Campaign Finance, Federalism, And The Case Of The Long-Armed Donor, Todd E. Pettys
Campaign Finance, Federalism, And The Case Of The Long-Armed Donor, Todd E. Pettys
Todd E. Pettys
In its ruling last Term in McCutcheon v. FEC, the Court struck down federal campaign-finance laws that limited the aggregate amount of money that Shaun McCutcheon and other would-be campaign donors could give to a variety of political committees and to individuals running for Congress in states and districts other than their own. Chief Justice Roberts began his opinion for the plurality by declaring that "[t]here is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders." Retired justice John Paul Stevens has argued that the Court's ruling in McCutcheon is "a grossly …
State Habeas Relief For Federal Extrajudicial Detainees, Todd E. Pettys
State Habeas Relief For Federal Extrajudicial Detainees, Todd E. Pettys
Todd E. Pettys
I argue that the Court’s nineteenth-century rulings in Ableman v. Booth and Tarble’s Case marked a little-known but sharp break with state courts’ decades-long practice of granting habeas relief to federal extrajudicial detainees. I contend that the Court’s reasoning in those cases is unpersuasive, and that modern efforts to rationalize those cases’ outcomes fare no better. I also argue that the Suspension Clause bars Congress from stripping state courts of their power to grant habeas relief to persons being extrajudicially detained by federal authorities.
Our Anticompetitive Patriotism, Todd E. Pettys
Our Anticompetitive Patriotism, Todd E. Pettys
Todd E. Pettys
In this article, I contend that the nation’s seemingly exclusive claim to citizens’ patriotism significantly shields the federal government from the competitive forces that the Framers believed would restrain Congress’s and the President’s ability to govern in objectionable ways. I argue that, because America is a nation-state built upon certain core convictions about public life, there are strong connections in this country between the entity about which people feel patriotic and the sovereign that people would like to govern many—perhaps even most—of their important public affairs. I argue that American patriotism was constructed in a manner that led nineteenth- and …
Competing For The People's Affection: Federalism's Forgotten Marketplace, Todd E. Pettys
Competing For The People's Affection: Federalism's Forgotten Marketplace, Todd E. Pettys
Todd E. Pettys
Returning to forgotten themes in the Federalist Papers, the article argues that the state and federal governments compete with one another for the “affection” of their citizens and for the regulatory power that often accompanies that affection. The article further contends that citizens and politicians are able fully to participate in this affection-driven marketplace only if three prerequisites are met: each sovereign must be assured of an opportunity to demonstrate its competence; each sovereign must enjoy a significant measure of autonomy from the other; and the two sovereigns’ dealings with one another must be sufficiently transparent to enable citizens to …