Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Columbia Law Review (48)
- Constitutional law (44)
- SSRN (35)
- Law (30)
- Constitution (21)
-
- Harvard Law Review (20)
- Originalism (19)
- Yale Law Journal (18)
- Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) (17)
- First amendment (17)
- First Amendment (16)
- Judicial review (16)
- Constitutional interpretation (15)
- Federalism (15)
- Free speech (15)
- Freedom of speech (15)
- Supreme Court (15)
- Equal protection (12)
- Texas Law Review (12)
- Campaign finance (11)
- Constitutional theory (11)
- Due process (11)
- Separation of powers (11)
- Constitutional amendment (10)
- Constitutional rights (10)
- Article V (9)
- Virginia Law Review (9)
- Civil rights (8)
- Constitutional Commentary (8)
- Democracy (8)
- Publication Year
Articles 1 - 30 of 491
Full-Text Articles in Law
Courting Censorship, Philip A. Hamburger
Courting Censorship, Philip A. Hamburger
Faculty Scholarship
Has Supreme Court doctrine invited censorship? Not deliberately, of course. Still, it must be asked whether current doctrine has courted censorship — in the same way one might speak of it courting disaster.
The Court has repeatedly declared its devotion to the freedom of speech, so the suggestion that its doctrines have failed to block censorship may seem surprising. The Court’s precedents, however, have left room for government suppression, even to the point of seeming to legitimize it.
This Article is especially critical of the state action doctrine best known from Blum v. Yaretsky. That doctrine mistakenly elevates coercion …
Constitutional Clash: Labor, Capital, And Democracy, Kate Andrias
Constitutional Clash: Labor, Capital, And Democracy, Kate Andrias
Faculty Scholarship
In the last few years, workers have engaged in organizing and strike activity at levels not seen in decades; state and local legislators have enacted innovative workplace and social welfare legislation; and the National Labor Relations Board has advanced ambitious new interpretations of its governing statute. Viewed collectively, these efforts — “labor’s” efforts for short — seek not only to redefine the contours of labor law. They also present an incipient challenge to our constitutional order. If realized, labor’s vision would extend democratic values, including freedom of speech and association, into the putatively private domain of the workplace. It would …
Era Project Faq On The Court Of Appeals Decision In Illinois V. Ferreiro, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Era Project Faq On The Court Of Appeals Decision In Illinois V. Ferreiro, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
Illinois v. Ferriero is a lawsuit filed by the Attorneys General of the last three states that ratified the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) — Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia — asking the court to require that the ERA be officially published by the U.S. Archivist as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. On March 5, 2021, the District Court dismissed the lawsuit on standing grounds, meaning that the three states had not shown that they suffered a legally recognized injury. The court reasoned that the Archivist’s actions have no legal effect and, as such, the states were not harmed by the …
Possible Avenues For Action Related To The Equal Rights Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Possible Avenues For Action Related To The Equal Rights Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
Resolutions have been introduced into both the House and the Senate declaring the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to be fully ratified as the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. There are other legislative steps that—while short of declaring the ERA fully ratified — could be taken to advance the measure toward final ratification, and to create political facts that would reinforce the position that the ERA is already the 28th Amendment.
Testimony To The Senate Judiciary Committee By The Era Project At Columbia Law School And Constitutional Law Scholars On Joint Resolution S.J.Res. 4: Removing The Deadline For The Ratification Of The Equal Rights Amendment, Katherine M. Franke, Laurence H. Tribe, Geoffrey R. Stone, Melissa Murray, Michael C. Dorf
Testimony To The Senate Judiciary Committee By The Era Project At Columbia Law School And Constitutional Law Scholars On Joint Resolution S.J.Res. 4: Removing The Deadline For The Ratification Of The Equal Rights Amendment, Katherine M. Franke, Laurence H. Tribe, Geoffrey R. Stone, Melissa Murray, Michael C. Dorf
Faculty Scholarship
The Equal Rights Amendment Project at Columbia Law School (ERA Project) and the undersigned constitutional law scholars provide the following analysis of S.J.Res. 4, resolving to remove the time limit for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and declaring the ERA fully ratified.
State Constitutional Rights And Democratic Proportionality, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Miriam Seifter
State Constitutional Rights And Democratic Proportionality, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Miriam Seifter
Faculty Scholarship
State constitutional law is in the spotlight. As federal courts retrench on abortion, democracy, and more, state constitutions are defining rights across the nation. Despite intermittent calls for greater attention to state constitutional theory, neither scholars nor courts have provided a comprehensive account of state constitutional rights or a coherent framework for their adjudication. Instead, many state courts import federal interpretive practices that bear little relationship to state constitutions or institutions.
This Article seeks to begin a new conversation about state constitutional adjudication. It first shows how in myriad defining ways state constitutions differ from the U.S. Constitution: They protect …
States Of Emergency: Covid-19 And Separation Of Powers In The States, Richard Briffault
States Of Emergency: Covid-19 And Separation Of Powers In The States, Richard Briffault
Faculty Scholarship
No event in recent years has shone a brighter spotlight on state separation of powers than the COVID-19 pandemic. Over a more than two-year period, governors exercised unprecedented authority through suspending laws and regulations, limiting business activities and gatherings, restricting individual movement, and imposing public health requirements. Many state legislatures endorsed these measures or were content to let governors take the lead, but in some states the legislature pushed back, particularly — albeit not only—where the governor and legislative majorities were of different political parties. Some of these conflicts wound up in state supreme courts.
This Essay examines the states’ …
Nondelegation Blues, Philip A. Hamburger
Nondelegation Blues, Philip A. Hamburger
Faculty Scholarship
The nondelegation doctrine is in crisis. For approximately a century, it has been the Supreme Court’s answer to questions about transfers of legislative power. But as became evident in Gundy v. United States, those answers are wearing thin. So, it is time for a new approach.
This Foreword goes beyond existing scholarship in showing how underlying principles, framing assumptions, constitutional text, and contemporary analysis are all aligned in barring transfers of power among the branches of government. Rarely in constitutional law does a conclusion about a highly contested question rest on such a powerful combination.
At the same time, …
Administrative Harms, Philip A. Hamburger
Administrative Harms, Philip A. Hamburger
Faculty Scholarship
Administrative power imposes serious wounds on the United States, its Constitution, and its citizens. Therefore, a persuasive defense of administrative power would need to respond to these harms, showing that it is constitutional and otherwise desirable, notwithstanding its many costs. If the administrative state is defensible, it will be necessary to wrestle with all of the damage it incurs.
The Right To Amend State Constitutions, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Miriam Seifter
The Right To Amend State Constitutions, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Miriam Seifter
Faculty Scholarship
This Essay explores the people's right to amend state constitutions and threats to that right today. It explains how democratic proportionality review can help courts distinguish unconstitutional infringement of the right from legitimate regulation. More broadly, the Essay considers the distinctive state constitutional architecture that popular amendment illuminates.
Killing Precedent: The Slaughter-House Constitution, Maeve Glass
Killing Precedent: The Slaughter-House Constitution, Maeve Glass
Faculty Scholarship
This Essay offers a revisionist account of the Slaughter-House Cases. It argues that the opinion’s primary significance lies not in its gutting of the Privileges or Immunities Clause but in its omission of a people’s archive of slavery.
Decades before the decision, Black abolitionists began compiling the testimonies of refugees who had fled slavery. By 1872, this archival practice had produced a published record of Black struggle and become a platform for the celebration of Black resistance and a new era of Black leadership. Although the lead compiler of this record sent a copy to the Chief Justice, the …
Faq On The U.S. Archivist And The Future Of The Equal Rights Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Faq On The U.S. Archivist And The Future Of The Equal Rights Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
On Wednesday, September 21, 2022, the Senate will hold hearings on the nomination of Colleen Shogan as the new Archivist of the United States. This FAQ offers a short primer on what the Archivist does, her official role in the finalization of proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution, including the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and the impact of Archivist action on the validity of the ERA.
The Equal Rights Amendment And Lgbtq Rights, Including Marriage Equality, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
The Equal Rights Amendment And Lgbtq Rights, Including Marriage Equality, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
Below, we provide an analysis of the potential for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to strengthen protections for LGBTQ rights, including marriage equality. Currently pending before the U.S. Senate is a resolution that would lift any congressionally imposed deadline for final ratification of the ERA. Lifting that deadline would remove the last legal impediment to adding the ERA to the Constitution, which would then constitutionalize, and thus secure, rights currently enjoyed by LGBTQ people that are vulnerable to reversal by the Supreme Court in a future case.
Faq On The New York State Equality Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Faq On The New York State Equality Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
Adopted in 1938, the New York State Constitution’s equality protections fall far short of a modern notion of equality that would protect the rights of all New Yorkers. Legislation currently pending in the New York Legislature would update the state’s constitution by prohibiting forms of discrimination that are currently unrecognized by the law.
Era And Abortion Talking Points, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Era And Abortion Talking Points, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade in a leaked draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning 50 years of precedent protecting the fundamental right to abortion. If this draft indeed represents the majority opinion of the Supreme Court, it will be a monumental setback for women's rights and signals that many of the most basic protections in our society, starting with reproductive rights, are under threat.
What Comes Now? Religious Liberty And The End Of Roe, Law, Rights, And Religion Project
What Comes Now? Religious Liberty And The End Of Roe, Law, Rights, And Religion Project
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
New York, NY – The Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School, an academic think tank that conducts research and policy analysis on the complex ways in which religious liberty rights interact with other fundamental rights, has a number of materials that can help to shed light on three key issues around the possible end of Roe v. Wade in light of the draft Supreme Court opinion released yesterday.
Biden Administration Revises Federal Government Position On Validity Of The Equal Rights Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Biden Administration Revises Federal Government Position On Validity Of The Equal Rights Amendment, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
Today the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) released a new opinion on the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). This opinion revises a 2020 OLC opinion issued under the Trump administration that declared the ERA a dead letter.
How Federalism Built The Fbi, Sustained Local Police, And Left Out The States, Daniel C. Richman, Sarah Seo
How Federalism Built The Fbi, Sustained Local Police, And Left Out The States, Daniel C. Richman, Sarah Seo
Faculty Scholarship
This Article examines the endurance of police localism amid the improbable growth of the FBI in the early twentieth century when the prospect of a centralized law enforcement agency was anathema to the ideals of American democracy. It argues that doctrinal accounts of federalism do not explain these paradoxical developments. By analyzing how the Bureau made itself indispensable to local police departments rather than encroaching on their turf, the Article elucidates an operational, or collaborative, federalism that not only enlarged the Bureau’s capacity and authority but also strengthened local autonomy at the expense of the states. Collaborative federalism is crucial …
Countering The New Election Subversion: The Democracy Principle And The Role Of State Courts, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Miriam Seifter
Countering The New Election Subversion: The Democracy Principle And The Role Of State Courts, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Miriam Seifter
Faculty Scholarship
Among the threats to American democracy, the most serious may also be the most banal: future elections will be compromised by quiet changes to the law. State legislators across the country have introduced bills that give them power to reject the will of voters. They have established sham audits and investigations. And they have created new criminal offenses that undermine professional election administration. While power-shifting legislation, audits, and criminal penalties advertise their fealty to law, they threaten the franchise and electoral integrity, as well as nonpartisan, expert election administration. Because of its ostensibly legal, even legalistic, character, however, the new …
The Legal Origins Of Catholic Conscientious Objection, Jeremy K. Kessler
The Legal Origins Of Catholic Conscientious Objection, Jeremy K. Kessler
Faculty Scholarship
This Article traces the origins of Catholic conscientious objection as a theory and practice of American constitutionalism. It argues that Catholic conscientious objection emerged during the 1960s from a confluence of left-wing and right-wing Catholic efforts to participate in American democratic culture more fully. The refusal of the American government to allow legitimate Catholic conscientious objection to the Vietnam War became a cause célèbre for clerical and lay leaders and provided a blueprint for Catholic legal critiques of other forms of federal regulation in the late 1960s and early 1970s — most especially regulations concerning the provision of contraception and …
Federalism And Equal Citizenship: The Constitutional Case For D.C. Statehood, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Olatunde C.A. Johnson
Federalism And Equal Citizenship: The Constitutional Case For D.C. Statehood, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Olatunde C.A. Johnson
Faculty Scholarship
As the question of D.C. statehood commands national attention, the legal discourse remains stilted. The constitutional question we should be debating is not whether statehood is permitted but whether it is required.
Commentators have been focusing on the wrong constitutional provisions. The Founding document and the Twenty-Third Amendment do not resolve D.C.’s status. The Reconstruction Amendments — and the principle of federated, equal citizenship they articulate — do. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, as glossed by subsequent amendments, not only establishes birthright national citizenship and decouples it from race and caste but also makes state citizenship a constitutive component of …
A Theory Of Constitutional Norms, Ashraf Ahmed
A Theory Of Constitutional Norms, Ashraf Ahmed
Faculty Scholarship
The political convulsions of the past decade have fueled acute interest in constitutional norms or “conventions.” Despite intense scholarly attention, existing accounts are incomplete and do not answer at least one or more of three major questions: (1) What must all constitutional norms do? (2) What makes them conventional? (3) And why are they constitutional?
This Article advances an original theory of constitutional norms that answers these questions. First, it defines them and explains their general character: they are normative, contingent, and arbitrary practices that implement constitutional text and principle. Most scholars have foregone examining how norms are conventional or …
Discriminatory Taint, Kerrel Murray
Discriminatory Taint, Kerrel Murray
Faculty Scholarship
The truism that history matters can hide complexities. Consider the idea of problematic policy lineages. When may we call a policy the progeny of an earlier, discriminatory policy, especially if the policies diverge in design and designer? Does such a relationship condemn the later policy for all times and purposes, or can a later decisionmaker escape the past? It is an old problem, but its resolution hardly seems impending. Just recently, Supreme Court cases have confronted this fact pattern across subject matters as diverse as entry restrictions, nonunanimous juries, and redistricting, among others. Majority opinions seem unsure whether or why …
The Insular Cases Run Amok: Against Constitutional Exceptionalism In The Territories, Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus
The Insular Cases Run Amok: Against Constitutional Exceptionalism In The Territories, Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus
Faculty Scholarship
The Insular Cases have been enjoying an improbable — and unfortunate — renaissance. Decided at the height of what has been called the “imperialist” period in U.S. history, this series of Supreme Court decisions handed down in the early twentieth century infamously held that the former Spanish colonies annexed by the United States in 1898 — Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam — “belong[ed] to, but [were] not a part of, the United States.” What exactly this meant has been the subject of considerable debate even as those decisions have received unanimous condemnation. According to the standard account, the …
Courts, Constitutionalism, And State Capacity: A Preliminary Inquiry, Madhav Khosla, Mark Tushnet
Courts, Constitutionalism, And State Capacity: A Preliminary Inquiry, Madhav Khosla, Mark Tushnet
Faculty Scholarship
Modern constitutional theory deals almost exclusively with the mechanisms for controlling the exercise of public power. In particular, the focus of constitutional scholars lies in explaining and justifying how courts can effectively keep the exercise of public power within bounds. But there is little point in worrying about the excesses of government power when the government lacks the capacity to get things done in the first place. In this Article, we examine relations between the courts, constitutionalism, and state capacity other than through limiting state power. Through a series of case studies, we suggest how courts confront the problem of …
Era Project Olc Letter, Katherine M. Franke, David E. Pozen, Erwin Chemerinsky, Melissa Murray, Laurence H. Tribe, Martha Minow, Geoffrey C. Stone, Cary Franklin, Michael C. Dorf, Victoria Nourse
Era Project Olc Letter, Katherine M. Franke, David E. Pozen, Erwin Chemerinsky, Melissa Murray, Laurence H. Tribe, Martha Minow, Geoffrey C. Stone, Cary Franklin, Michael C. Dorf, Victoria Nourse
Faculty Scholarship
The Equal Rights Amendment Project at Columbia Law School (“ERA Project”) and the undersigned scholars submit this letter at the request of your office to provide legal analysis of the January 6, 2020 Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel Memorandum to the National Archives and Records Administration on the Equal Rights Amendment (“2020 OLC Memo”).
Structural Biases In Structural Constitutional Law, Jonathan S. Gould, David E. Pozen
Structural Biases In Structural Constitutional Law, Jonathan S. Gould, David E. Pozen
Faculty Scholarship
Structural constitutional law regulates the workings of government and supplies the rules of the political game. Whether by design or by accident, these rules sometimes tilt the playing field for or against certain political factions – not just episodically, based on who holds power at a given moment, but systematically over time – in terms of electoral outcomes or policy objectives. In these instances, structural constitutional law is itself structurally biased.
This Article identifies and begins to develop the concept of such structural biases, with a focus on biases affecting the major political parties. Recent years have witnessed a revival …
Is A Science Of Comparative Constitutionalism Possible?, Madhav Khosla
Is A Science Of Comparative Constitutionalism Possible?, Madhav Khosla
Faculty Scholarship
Nearly a generation ago, Justice Scalia and Justice Breyer debated the legitimacy and value of using foreign law to interpret the American Constitution. At the time, the matter was controversial and invited the interest of both judges and scholars. Foreign law had, after all, been relied on in significant cases like Roper v. Simmons and Lawrence v. Texas. Many years on, there is still much to be debated — including the purpose and potential benefits of judicial engagement with foreign law — but “comparative constitutional law” has unquestionably emerged as a field of study in its own right. We …
The Era Brief October 2021, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
The Era Brief October 2021, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
We are excited to return to campus and rejoin the vibrant law school community. Our work at the ERA Project has taken on a renewed sense of urgency as we seek to advance sex equality in a time when the right to bodily autonomy is under threat from restrictions on reproductive and transgender rights.
The Equal Rights Amendment And The Equality Act: Talking Points, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
The Equal Rights Amendment And The Equality Act: Talking Points, Center For Gender And Sexuality Law
Center for Gender & Sexuality Law
The Equal Rights Amendment, first proposed nearly 100 years ago, is still needed today.
- The ERA is a constitutional amendment that would protect against discrimination on the basis of sex—including on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
- The ERA would also usher in advancements in sex equality in all three branches of government, empower advocates, and encourage recognition of related forms of discrimination such as pregnancy discrimination.
- By including the ERA in our Constitution, the United States would catch up with the more than 100 other countries with constitutional protections against sex-based discrimination.