Law Commons^™

Brief Of Appellant, Davon Jones V. State Of Maryland, No. 547, Paul Dewolfe, Renée M. Hutchins, Matthew T. Healy

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Further Punishing The Wrongfully Accused: Manuel V. City Of Joliet, The Fourth Amendment, And Malicious Prosecution, James R. Holley

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

Manuel v. City of Joliet is before the Supreme Court to determine whether detention before trial without probable cause is a violation of the Fourth Amendment, or whether it is merely a violation of the Due Process Clause. Every circuit except the Seventh Circuit treats this type of detention as being a violation of the Fourth Amendment; only the Seventh Circuit considers this question under the Due Process Clause. This commentary argues that the Supreme Court should look to its precedent, which clearly treats pretrial detention without probable cause as being a Fourth Amendment issue, and reverse the Seventh Circuit. …

November 16, 2016: The End Of The Spritual Thirst For Democracy, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The End of the Spritual Thirst for Democracy“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Legal Scholarship Highlight: The Amicus Machine, Allison Orr Larsen, Neal Devins

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

November 13, 2016: It Was Jobs, Heroin And Disconnection—Not Racism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “It Was Jobs, Heroin and Disconnection—Not Racism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 10, 2016: Don’T Forget That The Game Is Still Rigged, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Don’t Forget that the Game is Still Rigged“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 6, 2016: “Nobody Believes The Numbers Anyway", Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Nobody Believes the Numbers Anyway“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 2, 2016: What Comey Did, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What Comey Did“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Is The Supreme Court Disabling The Enabling Act, Or Is Shady Grove Just Another Bad Opera?, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

After seventy years of trying, the Supreme Court has yet to agree on whether the Rules Enabling Act articulates a one or two part standard for determining the validity of a Federal Rule. Is it enough that a Federal Rule regulates “practice and procedure,” or must it also not “abridge substantive rights”? The Enabling Act seems to require both, but the Court is not so sure, and the costs of its uncertainty are real. Among other things, litigants must guess whether the decision to apply a Federal Rule in a given case will depend upon predictable ritual, judicial power grab, …

The Dormant Commerce Clause As A Limit On Personal Jurisdiction, John F. Preis

Law Faculty Publications

For over 70 years, the Due Process Clause has defined the law of personal jurisdiction. This makes sense, because being forced to stand trial in a far-off state will sometimes be fundamentally unfair. What does not make sense, however, is the Dormant Commerce Clause’s apparent irrelevance to personal jurisdiction. The Dormant Commerce Clause addresses state laws affecting interstate commerce, and a plaintiff’s choice of forum is often a commercially driven choice between different state courts. So why isn’t the Dormant Commerce Clause part of personal jurisdiction doctrine?

This Article makes the case for its relevance, and demonstrates how the Dormant …

Brief Of Appellant, John Hill V. State Of Maryland, No. 2740, Paul Dewolfe, Renée M. Hutchins, Silva Georgian

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.

Hearsay And The Confrontation Clause, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

This speech was delivered to the Wicomico Co. Bar Association on October 28th, 2016. It is an updated version of the 2012 speech, available at http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/all_fac/924/ .

Overview: Only an out-of-court statement ("OCS") offered for the truth of the matter that was being asserted by the out-of-court declarant ("declarant") at the time when s/he made the OCS ("TOMA") = hearsay ("HS"). If evidence is not HS, the HS rule cannot exclude it. The Confrontation Clause also applies only to HS, but even then, only to its subcategory comprising "testimonial hearsay." Cross-references to "MD-EV" are to section numbers of L. MCLAIN, …

October 27, 2016: Republicans About To Practice Supreme Court Shutdown, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Republicans About to Practice Supreme Court Shutdown“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Mdc Rests. V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 76 (Oct. 27, 2016), Alysa Grimes

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

To “provide” health benefits under the Minimum Wage Amendment, an employer need only offer to employees (rather than enroll them in) a qualifying health benefit plan. Tips are not included in an employee’s gross taxable income for calculating maximum health benefit plan premiums.

Mississippi V. Tennessee: Resolving An Interstate Groundwater Dispute, Peter G. Berris

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy Sidebar

This commentary explores the legal background and potential ramifications of Mississippi v. Tennessee: an original jurisdiction case involving a dispute over aquifer groundwater. Although the Supreme Court has addressed water disputes between states in the past, Mississippi v. Tennessee is the first such case to center exclusively on groundwater. As a result the Court has the opportunity to resolve a question of great relevance in an era where access to water is a recurring news story; is aquifer groundwater an interstate resource subject to equitable apportionment, or an intrastate resource subject to state sovereign ownership.

Perry V. Terrible Herbst, Inc., Nev. Adv. Op. 75 (Oct. 27, 2016), Wesley Lemay Jr.

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Minimum Wage Amendment (MWA) of the Nevada Constitution does not have a specific statute of limitations provision. Because the MWA is closely analogous to recovery for back pay under NRS 608.260, the two-year statute of limitations provision in NRS 608.260 applies, and not the catch-all four-year period from NRS 11.220.

Nev. Yellow Cab, Et Al., V. Eighth Jud. Dist. Ct., 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 77 (Oct. 27, 2016)., Beatriz Aguirre

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court, sitting en banc, considered a writ of mandamus challenging a district court order denying a motion dismiss and motion for summary judgment. The Court held that its previous decision in Thomas v. Nevada Yellow Cab Corp. applied retroactively. As a result, the Minimum Wage Amendment (the “Amendment”) to the Nevada Constitution passed by Nevada voters in 2006 included taxicab driver wages.

The Armstrong Evolution, Michael Pappas

Maryland Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

October 20, 2016: Why Tolerate Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Why Tolerate Religion“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Process Without Procedure: National Security Letters And First Amendment Rights, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Each year, the FBI uses tens of thousands of NSLs to obtain “transactional records” related to telephone calls, emails, text messages, online forums, and other communicative activity. NSLs are usually accompanied by nondisclosure orders that prevent recipients from speaking about or acknowledging the requests. Although over 100,000 NSLs have been issued since 2001, there have been fewer than 10 known judicial challenges.

I argue that the absence of procedural safeguards within the NSL authority has created a de facto regime of automatic compliance with the requests, endangering First Amendment rights in the process. NSLs are explicitly directed at uncovering the …

October 15, 2016: So, Hallowed Secularism Is Getting Somewhere, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “So, Hallowed Secularism is Getting Somewhere“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 10, 2016: No, Trump Was Not Advocating Sexual Assault, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “No, Trump Was Not Advocating Sexual Assault“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 8, 2016: Nihilism Looks Like This, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Nihilism Looks Like This“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Brief For Amici Curiae Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, Citizen, And Remedies Scholars In Support Of Respondent: Lynch V. Morales-Santana, Judith Resnick, Stephen I. Vladeck, Mier Feder, Muneer I. Ahmad, Erwin Chemerinsky, Gillian E. Metzger, Gerald L. Neuman, Linda Bosniak, Michael C. Dorf, Burt Neuborne, Doug Rendleman, David L. Shapiro, Michael J. Wishnie

Scholarly Articles

None available.

October 2, 2016: Three Days At Regent Law School, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Three Days at Regent Law School“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

From Economic Inequality To Economic Freedom: Constitutional Political Economy In The New Gilded Age, K. Sabeel Rahman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Constitution Day Lectures, Maxwell L. Stearns, Paula A. Monopoli, Larry S. Gibson, Robert Koulish, David J. Maher

Maryland Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Presidential Constitutional Interpretation, Signing Statements, Executive Power And Zivotofsky, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores whether the President should interpret the Constitution aggressively and, if so, whether the President should act on such aggressive interpretations. Part I examines whether the presidential oath and other constitutional duties obligate the President to interpret the Constitution. Part II considers constitutional signing statements as the manifestation of an aggressive approach to presidential constitutional interpretation. Part III considers whether the Constitution is a legal document or a political document, and how that determination might affect how aggressive the President should be when interpreting the Constitution. Part IV considers how the Supreme Court's and Congress's constitutional interpretations might …

Normative History And Congress's Enforcement Power Under The Reconstruction Amendments, Edward Cantu

Faculty Works

As an originalist matter, what degree of logistical power did the Framers of the Reconstruction Amendments want Congress to have in actualizing the substantive guarantees of those amendments? In the 1990s the Court, seeking to revive its federalism vigilance, answered: "relatively limited power." Scholars pounced, and it quickly became "settled" in the scholarly literature that the Court had misread the historical record regarding the Framers' intent. Despite the scholarly reactions, the Roberts Court has carried the Rehnquist Court's torch on this interpretative matter. As such, strident accusations of conservative judicial activism toward the Roberts Court have paralleled the charges leveled …

Separation Of Powers, Executive Authority, And Suspension Of Disbelief, Nat Stern

Scholarly Publications

The growth of federal executive power to a magnitude not foreseen at the Constitution's adoption has been largely enabled by favorable rulings by the Supreme Court. Though not invariably sustaining executive prerogative, the Court has rejected challenges to executive power on a scale sufficient to afford the Executive enormous latitude to carry out and shape federal policy. In assessing whether the Executive has overstepped its bounds in particular cases, scholars and Justices alike frequently debate whether a formalist or functional approach more faithfully implements the Constitution's system of separation of powers. Transcending these two schools of interpretation, however, is a …