Law Commons^™

Supermajority Provisions, Guinn V. Legislature And A Flawed Constitutional Structure, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

The constitutional crisis of 2003 was a defining event for Nevada and may prove instructive for the rest of the nation. Among the prominent features in the topography of the crisis were (1) state constitutional provisions that required two-thirds legislative approval for tax increases but only simple majority approval for spending increases and (2) the State Supreme Court’s decisions in Guinn v. Legislature that ended the immediate impasse. Both are focal points of continuing controversy.

Criticism of the Guinn decision has exceeded praise of it – probably in frequency, certainly in passion and rhetorical exuberance. In my view, much of …

"Democratic Despotism" And Constitutional Constraint: An Empirical Analysis Of Ex Post Facto Claims In State Courts, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

This Article explores the history of the Ex Post Facto Clause, including the Supreme Court's seminal 1798 decision in Calder v. Bull, and analyzes the results of a survey of ex post facto claims decided in state courts from 1992-2002, the first study to catalog the types of claims generated among the states, and the institutional response of state courts to them. The author provides an overview of the claims resolved in state courts, examining the nature of the laws challenged, how the challenges fared, and the rationales used by courts in their dispositions. Discussion focuses on two abiding …