Law Commons^™

Habeas Corpus And Freedom Of Speech, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

This Article will examine substantive attacks on habeas based on the assertion that the petitioner's confinement violates his first amendment rights of free speech, press or assembly. The thesis is that when these rights are at issue, the considerations supporting broad habeas are stronger, and the costs of habeas are lower, than when the petitioner is asserting the violation of a federal procedural right. As a result, the necessary choice of values is more easily resolved in favor of broad first amendment habeas than it is for broad procedural habeas. Essential to this analysis is the premise that a habeas …

Hughes V. Oklahoma: The Court, The Commerce Clause, And State Control Of Natural Resources, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court's recent Commerce Clause opinions reflect an apparent effort to rationalize and modernize the analytical framework for delineating the implied restraints that the Clause imposes on state legislation. In the state tax field, the Court has articulated a coherent set of criteria controlling the validity of state taxes on interstate commerce and has discarded doctrine inconsistent with these standards. In the state regulatory context, the Court has likewise enunciated meaningful decisional principles governing the constitutionality of state regulations affecting interstate commerce and has applied them without substantial concern for their impact on its precedents of an earlier era. …

Local Government "Home Rule": A Place To Stop?, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

In November 1977, the Supreme Court of Georgia rendered a decision in City of Atlanta v. Myers which invalidated a municipal ordinance requiring that police officers and firefighters be residents of the municipality. The public media, in its discussion of the decision, primariily pointed out the residency requirement, the policy behind it, and its advantages and disadvantages to the cause of good government--all important matters. As frequently happens, however, even more crucial considerations in the case may have gone unheralded. From the legal perspective, that is, the importance of the decision and its implications may considerably transcend the factual context …

Preliminary Injunctions And Abstention: Some Problems In Federalism, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

Suppose a federal district court faces a challenge to state action that presents an unsettled issue of state law, a federal constitutional issue, and a plaintiff who will be irreparably harmed if the state is not immediately enjoined. May the court abstain from a decision on the merits, remand the case to the state courts for resolution of the state law issue, and yet grant a preliminary injunction against the challenged state action? Does it follow from the paucity of reported opinions coupling such interim relief with abstention that such a procedure is inconsistent with the policies underlying the abstention …

Extraterritorial Power In Georgia Municipal Law, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

The image of municipal power carries with it the accompanying concept of limitations on that power. One of the seemingly most natural of such limitations is that pertaining to territory. If a municipality is an incorporated entity, composed of precisely described physical boundaries, then its operational existence would normally be presumed to take place within those boundaries. The municipality's power to function outside its limits would thus appear not only unnecessary but foreign to the corporate conception. The problem with such neatness, of course, is its unworldliness. The truism is that neither man nor municipality is an island and that …

State Taxation And The Supreme Court: Toward A More Unified Approach To Constitutional Adjudication?, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court's decisions delineating the constitutional limitations on state tax power have often defied rational analysis. The Court read the commerce clause as forbidding a state tax on the privilege of doing interstate business but not on the privilege of doing interstate business in corporate form. It construed the import-export clause as prohibiting a state tax on bales of imported hemp awaiting use in manufacturing but not on piles of imported ore and plywood awaiting such use. It interpreted the supremacy clause as barring a state tax upon the sale of goods to one government contractor but not to …

State Taxation And The Supreme Court: Toward A More Unified Approach To Constitutional Adjudication?, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court's decisions delineating the constitutional limitations on state tax power have often defied rational analysis. The Court read the commerce clause as forbidding a state tax on the privilege of doing interstate business but not on the privilege of doing interstate business in corporate form. It construed the import-export clause as prohibiting a state tax on bales of imported hemp awaiting use in manufacturing but not on piles of imported ore and plywood awaiting such use. It interpreted the supremacy clause as barring a state tax upon the sale of goods to one government contractor but not to …

A Commerce Power Seesaw: Balancing National League Of Cities, J. Ralph Beaird, C. Ronald Ellington

Scholarly Works

This Article seeks to explore the developing principles of state sovereignty limitations on Congress’ exercise of its granted powers and the potential conflicts in reconciling the enforcement of strong federal policy interests with the allowance to the states of primary control over certain governmental functions. Since both tenth and eleventh amendment questions were raised by the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s ever broadening coverage to state employees and its grant of federal court jurisdiction over enforcement suits, and since the Act precipitated the League of Cities decision, the Court’s treatment of the Act will serve as the primary …

Is Georgia On Their Minds?--Some Legal Aspects Of Investment And Trade By Foreign Business Enterprises, Gabriel M. Wilner, Terry K. Smith

Scholarly Works

This article will focus on the legal environment within the State in regard to foreign investment and trade. In making this survey it is also necessary to note briefly the full context in which foreign investment and trade is accomplished. The State cannot act or fail to act in areas dictated by the economic, political, and social philosophies held by its citizens. Likewise, the State cannot act in areas in which the Federal Government has acted pursuant to the United State Constitution. Among the areas in which the State is prohibited or preempted from acting are foreign affairs, especially in …

Selected Oddities In Georgia Municipal Law, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

Generally speaking, practitioners, jurists, professors, legislators, and students desire certainty in the law. For those interested in the law of municipal corporations in Georgia, however, that search for certainty is frequently frustrating, if not impossible. In his Article, Professor Sentell points to a number of Georgia constitutional and statutory rules which, when read with the interpretations of these provisions by the Georgia courts, generate uncertainty and confusion for one confronted with a question in municipal corporation law. The discussion begins with a look at the definitional uncertainty of what is a municipal corporation under Georgia law, turns next to an …

A New Role For An Ancient Writ: Postconviction Habeas Corpus Relief In Georgia (Part Ii), Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Scholarly Works

In Part I of this Article, appearing in Volume 8 of the Georgia Law Review at page 313, Professor Wilkes traced the development of postconviction habeas corpus in Georgia up to 1967. In this the second part of the Article, he examines the background and passage of the Georgia Habeas Corpus Act of 1967. Finally, Professor Wilkes assesses the degree to which the Act has fulfilled its purposes, and suggests several possible changes for the future.

Some Reflections On The State Taxation Of A Nonresident's Personal Income, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

With respect to the taxation of personal income, it was plain by 1940 that states were constitutionally free to tax residents on all personal income wherever earned and nonresidents on personal income earned within the state, even though these two principles, taken together, meant that an individual's income might be subject to double-taxation by different states. The Supreme Court, after toying with the idea for a decade, finally rejected the invitation to forge the due process clause into a tool for preventing multiple taxation and reverted to the ruling law of an earlier era that left the solution of such …

Discretion In Georgia Local Government Law, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

The initial question in evaluating the ability of a municipal corporation to control the affairs of its citizens is the existence of an allocation of power from the state sovereign. Once such power is found, Georgia courts traditionally view any activity within the scope of that power as a privilege of citizenship in a municipal corporation, controlled at the generally unrestricted discretion of the local government. But when and how do such privileges become rights? With an overview of the typical positions taken by Georgia courts on the power of local governments to control the affairs of their citizens, Professor …

A New Role For An Ancient Writ: Postconviction Habeas Corpus Relief In Georgia (Part I), Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Scholarly Works

Because it has been esteemed in this state for centuries, the writ of habeas corpus has played a significant role in the history of Georgia civil liberties. Indeed, one Georgia court early state that "[w]hen the writ is applied for, no inquiry is made as to the complexion of the petitioner, or the place of his permanent allegiance. All of every condition, of every country and of every complexion are equally entitled to it, the native of South Africa, not less than the Peer of the Realms." In the first part of his Article, Professor Wilkes examines the origins of …

Book Review: From Confederation To Nation: The American Constitution, 1835-1877 By Bernard Schwartz (1973), Donald E. Wilkes Jr.

Scholarly Works

From Confederation to Nation is a constitutional history of the United States in the nineteenth century. To be more exact, it is an examination of the operation of the Federal Constitution from 1835 (the year of John Marshall's death) to 1877 (the end of Reconstruction).

Although the book is. rather short (only 243 pages, including index), it is packed with information and analysis. None of the important American constitutional developments of the period is excluded from discussion. The thesis of the book is that between 1835 and 1877 the United States was transformed from a loose confederation with a weak …

Unconstitutionality In Georgia: Problems Of Nothing, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

Professor Sentell's Article examines the apparently well-established principle in Georgia that an unconstitutional statute is an absolute nullity. Against the backdrop of City of Atlanta v. Gower, Professor Sentell first focuses on the developmen of-the-void-from-inception doctrine and then reviews its application in Georgia. Finally, he concludes that this principle has had a substantial impact upon constitutional and legislative law in this state.

Book Review: Sexual Freedom And The Constitution (1973), Wayne Mccormack

Scholarly Works

Book Review of SEXUAL FREEDOM AND THE CONSTITUTION, by Walter Barnett (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973).

Federalizing Through The Franchise: The Supreme Court And Local Government, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

Decisionmaking at the local government level has been significantly affected by both national legislation and federal court decisions seeking to protect the right to vote. Indeed, Professor Sentell feels that the Supreme Court, through decisions invalidating restrictions on the franchise, has involved itself to an unparalleled degree in heretofore purely local affairs. In examining these decisions, the author queries if legitimate voting regulations may be now imposed by local governments. In so doing he focuses upon the Court's equal protection analysis of extraordinary majority vote requirements and elections restricted to certain segments of the electorate and upon the expansive judicial …

Hawkins V. Town Of Shaw: The Court As City Manager, C. Ronald Ellington, Lawrence F. Jones

Scholarly Works

For over one hundred years Congress and the federal courts have pursued the goal of racial equality in the United States. In areas such as voting rights, public accommodations, and housing, Congress and the courts have interacted closely, with broad judicial interpretations upholding major remedial legislation. Moreover, when confronted by official state sources of racial discrimination, courts have traditionally responded to the clear command of the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment without awaiting congressional action. Brown v. Board of Education stands as perhaps the best known instance in which a court has, on its own, ordered the elimination …

The Principle Of Nondivisiveness And The Constitutionality Of Public Aid To Parochial Schools, C. Ronald Ellington

Scholarly Works

The establishment clause issues in the three cases now before the Supreme Court [Tilton v. Richardson, Lemon v. Kurtzman, DiCenso v. Robinison] will be explored in this article in the light of a postulate and three derivative maxims which, it is suggested, are implicit in the Court's earlier religion clause cases, particularly Walz v. Tax Commission. It is the author's view that the establishment clause intends that government no be a divisive force in matters of religion and that analysis grounded in such a premise provides the surest delineation of the interests at stake in …

Municipal Annexation In Georgia: Nay-Sayers Beward (Plantation Pipe Line Co. V. City Of Bremen), R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

In the Fall 1967 issue of the Georgia Law Review, there appeared a somewhat ambitious effort to survey the law of municipal annexation in Georgia. That rather stuffy treatment at least served to demonstrate the existence of a history on the subject dating from the beginning of time in this State. It also purported to make one or two daring thrusts at formulating principles then apparently settled and at identifying legal points around which further evolution might be anticipated.

Some apparently believed that these thrusts were more negative than daring and that they reflected an approach which was basically …

Warrantless Searches And Seizures, Mack Allen Player

Scholarly Works

The fourth amendment to the Constitution has two basic clauses. The first, the reasonableness clause, protects the people against unreasonable searches and seizures. The second, the warrant clause, sets forth conditions under which a warrant may issue. Searches and seizures made pursuant to a warrant are, quite obviously, governed by the commands of the warrant clause. However, the effect of the warrant clause upon searches and seizures made without warrants is not clear from the amendment itself, and the Supreme Court has failed to develop a consistent interpretation of the proper role of that clause.

False Or Suppressed Evidence: Why A Need For The Prosecutorial Tie, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

Many United States Supreme Court decisions have overturned criminal convictions for the reason that the government employed false evidence to obtain the conviction or failed to disclose relevant evidence important to the defense. In reversing federal or state judgments, the Court often has located direct proof of wrongdoing by the prosecutor. The notorious "bloody shorts" case is an example in point.' There, the state introduced as evidence a pair of men's "blood-stained" undershorts to achieve conviction of the accused. When the blood turned out to be red paint, the Supreme Court granted habeas corpus relief to the defendant because "[it …

Avery V. Midland County: Reapportionment And Local Government Revisited, R. Perry Sentell Jr.

Scholarly Works

Earlier in the pages of this Review the judicial application of the "one-man-one-vote" standard to local government is discussed in detail. As noted, the United States Supreme Court did not completely evolve this standard for state legislatures until June, 1964. Since that time, the state courts and the lower federal courts have been inundated with litigation raising the question of the basic applicability of the standard to local governments in this country, as well as a host of accompanying inquiries. This litigation and the courts' reactions to it were extensively traced. At the close of its term, however, the Court …

The Supreme Court, The Individual And The Criminal Process, E. Hunter Taylor Jr.

Scholarly Works

The sweeping social changes presently occurring in this country are having important effects on the law. The impact of this philosophical revolution upon th elaw is manifesting itself most directly and vividly in the Supreme Court of the United States where the entire concept of "individual liberty and freedom" is undergoing far-reaching change. One of the most important changes is occurring in the development of constitutional rules of criminal procedure, particularly those applicable to the states through the fourteenth amendment. Most of the particular longstanding announced aims of the Court, e.g., protection against the conviction of the innocent and prevention …

Appointed Counsel In Criminal Prosecutions: A Study Of Indigent Defense, Ronald L. Carlson

Scholarly Works

Attorney Carlson surveyed Iowa for the American Bar Association's study of the defense of indigent accused persons, and in this Article the results of that study are disclosed. The author sets forth recent constitutional developments involving appointments of counsel in criminal cases, then reviews criminal procedure and practice as it relates to the indigent. Survey techniques utilized in the study are revealed, and the responses obtained from jurists, prosecutors, and defense attorneys throughout the jurisdiction are detailed. Finally, he advances recommendations to assist in meeting the challenge of justice for the poor.