Law Commons^™

Copyright And "The Exclusive Right" Of Authors, L. Ray Patterson

Scholarly Works

The purpose of this essay is to define and explore the meaning of "the exclusive Right" in the Intellectual Property Clause of the United States Constitution as related to the promotion of learning, the public domain, and authors. Without a clear understanding of this key term, one is likely to be unaware that lower federal courts are continually making rulings contrary to both the Copyright Clause and the Copyright Act. The classic example is the judicially created sweat-of-the-brow copyright, which in 1991 -- after seventy-five years of precedent -- the Supreme Court decreed to be unconstitutional. Other bad precedents, such …

State Taxation Of Corporate Income From Intangibles: Allied-Signal And Beyond, Walter Hellerstein

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If the field of state taxation has become somewhat of an academic backwater, it is not for want of issues warranting sustained scholarly attention. The Supreme Court alone has provided ample grist for the academic mill by handing down an extraordinary number of significant decisions delineating the federal constitutional restraints on state tax power. Among the state tax questions considered by the Court in recent years, none has figured so prominently and persistently in its deliberations as the states' power to tax the income of multijurisdictional corporations. In Allied-Signal, Inc. v. Director, Division of Taxation, the Court revisited the most …

Justice Blackmun, Federalism, And Separation Of Powers, Dan T. Coenen

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On June 8, 1970, Harry A. Blackmun took his seat on the Supreme Court bench. Few then foresaw that, in the ensuing twenty-three terms of the Court, Justice Blackmun would make contributions to American law that rank no less than monumental. Justice Blackmun has become best known for his landmark opinion in Roe v. Wade and his increasingly pointed defense of libertarian and egalitarian values. During his long tenure on the Court, however, Justice Blackmun also quietly has shaped the law of constitutional federalism and separation of powers.

This reality first came to my attention in 1987, when I received …

Lee V. Weisman: Whither The Establishment Clause And The Lemon V. Kurtzman Three Pronged Test?, Thomas A. Schweitzer

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No abstract provided.

The Eleventh Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Be Compelled To Render The Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel, Richard Klein

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No abstract provided.

Afterthoughts, Milner S. Ball

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Professor Richard Fallon delivered a thoughtful Sibley Lection which then served as the stimulating subject for an agreeable afternoon Symposium. The papers collected here offer some evidence of the richness of the conversation Fallon opened. I aim to extend that conversation, and so pay tribute both to the Symposium and its honoree, by submitting some afterthoughts. Fallon's paper, with its breadth and subtlety, resists reduction; however, if I do violence and force it into three sentences in an attempt at understanding, the result runs this way: Interests underlie both individual rights and government powers. These interests are conceptually related. It …

Rights As Trumps, Dan T. Coenen

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In this essay, I question Professor Fallon's strong rejection of the notion that "rights are trumps" by making four points. First, rights are trumps in the single, but important, sense that they preclude the exercise of powers granted to government by the constitutional text. Second, rights sometimes operate as trumps on governmental powers in the very purse sense that they cut off all consideration of governmental interests. Third, even when the Court considers government interests in dealing with rights, it often does so on such a restricted basis that the description of rights as "trumps" remains accurate. Finally, even accepting …

Machiavelli And The Politics Of Welfare, National Health, And Old Age: A Comparative Perspective Of The Policies Of The United States And Canada, Camilla Watson

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This Article maintains that in order to fully comprehend the politics of welfare, retirement security, and national health coverage, it is necessary to examine Machiavellian principles in relation to the variables of economic development and inter-party competition. If the principles of Machiavelli are applied in a slightly different and more constructive manner, they may facilitate reform of the American welfare, retirement, and national health systems. Now that the political balance in the United States has shifted from the conservative to the liberal, the time is ripe to consider reforming the entire Social Security system and instituting a comprehensive national health …

How To Limit Gerrymandering, Michael Lewyn

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No abstract provided.