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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Promise Of Telehealth For Abortion, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché
The Promise Of Telehealth For Abortion, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché
Book Chapters
The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a transformation of abortion care. For most of the last half century, abortion was provided in clinics outside of the traditional healthcare setting. Though a medication regimen was approved in 2000 that would terminate a pregnancy without a surgical procedure, the Food & Drug Administration required, among other things, that the drug be dispensed in person. This requirement dramatically limited the medication’s promise to revolutionize abortion because it subjected medication abortion to the same physical barriers of procedural care.
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, that changed. The pandemic’s early days exposed how the …
Medication Abortion Exceptionalism, Greer Donley
Medication Abortion Exceptionalism, Greer Donley
Articles
Restrictive state abortion laws garner a large amount of attention in the national conversation and legal scholarship, but less known is a federal abortion policy that significantly curtails access to early abortion in all fifty states. The policy limits the distribution of mifepristone, the only drug approved to terminate a pregnancy so long as it is within the first ten weeks. Unlike most drugs, which can be prescribed by licensed healthcare providers and picked up at most pharmacies, the Food and Drug Administration only allows certified providers to prescribe mifepristone, and only allows those providers to distribute the drug to …
First Amendment Lochnerism & The Origins Of The Incorporation Doctrine, James Y. Stern
First Amendment Lochnerism & The Origins Of The Incorporation Doctrine, James Y. Stern
Faculty Publications
The 20th century emergence of the incorporation doctrine is regarded as a critical development in constitutional law, but while issues related to the doctrine's justification have been studied and debated for more than fifty years, the causes and mechanics of its advent have received relatively little academic attention. This Essay, part of a symposium on Judge Jeffrey Sutton's recent book about state constitutional law, examines the doctrinal origins of incorporation, in an effort to help uncover why the incorporation doctrine emerged when it did and the way it did. It concludes that, for these purposes, incorporation is best understood as …
Parental Autonomy Over Prenatal End-Of-Life Decisions, Greer Donley
Parental Autonomy Over Prenatal End-Of-Life Decisions, Greer Donley
Articles
When parents learn that their potential child has a life-limiting, often devastating, prenatal diagnosis, they are faced with the first (and perhaps, only) healthcare decisions they will make for their child. Many choose to terminate the pregnancy because they believe it is in their potential child’s best interest to avoid a short and painful life. I argue that these decisions should be protected in the same way that parental healthcare decisions are constitutionally protected after birth—including a parent’s refusal or withdrawal of life-saving treatment for an infant or child who is very sick or dying. Parental autonomy ensures that parents …
The Legal And Medical Necessity Of Abortion Care Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Greer Donley, Beatrice Chen, Sonya Borrero
The Legal And Medical Necessity Of Abortion Care Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Greer Donley, Beatrice Chen, Sonya Borrero
Articles
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, states have ordered the cessation of non-essential healthcare. Unfortunately, many conservative states have sought to capitalize on those orders to halt abortion care. In this short paper, we argue that abortion should not fall under any state’s non-essential healthcare order. Major medical organizations recognize that abortion is essential healthcare that must be provided even in a pandemic, and the law recognizes abortion as a time-sensitive constitutional right. Finally, we examine the constitutional arguments as to why enforcing these orders against abortion providers should not stand constitutional scrutiny. We conclude that no public health purpose …
The Diverging Right(S) To Bear Arms: Private Armament And The Second And Fourteenth Amendments In Historical Context, Alexander Gouzoules
The Diverging Right(S) To Bear Arms: Private Armament And The Second And Fourteenth Amendments In Historical Context, Alexander Gouzoules
Faculty Publications
This article compares the historical evolution of the social understanding of private armament with contemporary legal doctrine on the right to bear arms. The District of Columbia v. Heller decision, which held that the Second Amendment protects a personal right to self-defense, and the McDonald v. City of Chicago decision, which held the Second Amendment to be incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment, both turned on extensive historical analysis. But by reading a broad “individual right to self-defense” into both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, the Court assumed continuity between the social understandings at the time of these amendments’ respective ratifications. …
The Difference Narrows: A Reply To Kurt Lash, Randy E. Barnett, Evan Bernick
The Difference Narrows: A Reply To Kurt Lash, Randy E. Barnett, Evan Bernick
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
No abstract provided.
The Privileges Or Immunities Clause Abridged: A Critique Of Kurt Lash On The Fourteenth Amendment, Randy E. Barnett, Evan Bernick
The Privileges Or Immunities Clause Abridged: A Critique Of Kurt Lash On The Fourteenth Amendment, Randy E. Barnett, Evan Bernick
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment was virtually eliminated by the Supreme Court in three cases: The Slaughter-House Cases, Bradwell v. Illinois, and United States v. Cruikshank. Today, most constitutional scholars agree that this was a terrible mistake, the effects of which continue to reverberate through our constitutional law. But, as evidenced by the Court’s decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, both the “left” and “right” sides of the Court are reluctant to open the “Pandora’s Box” of uncertainty created by the phrase “privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” …
The Doctor Requirement: Griswold, Privacy, And At-Home Reproductive Care, Yvonne F. Lindgren
The Doctor Requirement: Griswold, Privacy, And At-Home Reproductive Care, Yvonne F. Lindgren
Faculty Works
Supreme Court privacy jurisprudence has traditionally offered greater protection to activities when exercised within the home. This is true in common law as well as across a broad range of constitutional claims. For example, common law privacy identifies the home as a location of solitude and repose, often conceptualized as the “right to be let alone.” Speech, or the right to be free of unwanted messages, is enhanced when the claimant is within the confines of her or his home. Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure and the notion of the reasonable expectation of privacy are enhanced when the …
The Inequality Of America's Death Penalty: A Crossroads For Capital Punishment At The Intersection Of The Eighth And Fourteenth Amendments, John Bessler
All Faculty Scholarship
We live in a divided society, from gated communities to cell blocks congested with disproportionate numbers of young African-American men. There are rich and poor, privileged and homeless, Democrats and Republicans, wealthy zip codes and stubbornly impoverished ones. There are committed "Black Lives Matter" protesters, and there are those who—invoking "Blue Lives Matter" demonstrate in support of America‘s hardworking police officers. In her new article, "Matters of Strata: Race, Gender, and Class Structures in Capital Cases," George Washington University law professor Phyllis Goldfarb highlights the stratification of our society and offers a compelling critique of America‘s death penalty regime—one, she …
Modern Odysseus Or Classic Fraud - Fourteen Years In Prison For Civil Contempt Without A Jury Trial, Judicial Power Without Limitation, And An Examination Of The Failure Of Due Process, Mitchell J. Frank
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Past And Future Of Deinstitutionalization Litigation, Samuel R. Bagenstos
The Past And Future Of Deinstitutionalization Litigation, Samuel R. Bagenstos
Law & Economics Working Papers
Two conflicting stories have consumed the academic debate regarding the impact of deinstitutionalization litigation. The first, which has risen almost to the level of conventional wisdom, is that deinstitutionalization was a disaster. The second story does not deny that the results of deinstitutionalization have in many cases been disappointing. But it challenges the suggestion that deinstitutionalization has uniformly been unsuccessful, as well as the causal link critics seek to draw with the growth of the homeless population. This dispute is not simply a matter of historical interest. The Supreme Court’s 1999 decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which held that unjustified …
Interpreting The Fourteenth Amendment: Two Don'ts And Three Dos, Garrett Epps
Interpreting The Fourteenth Amendment: Two Don'ts And Three Dos, Garrett Epps
All Faculty Scholarship
A sophisticated reading of the legislative record of the framing of the Fourteenth Amendment can provide courts and scholars with some general interpretive principles to guide their application of the Amendment to current legal problems. The author argues that two common legal conceptions about the Amendment are, in fact, misconceptions. The first is that the Amendment was chiefly concerned with the immediate situation of freed slaves in the former slave states. Instead, he argues, the legislative record suggests that the framers were broadly concerned with the rights not only of freed slaves but also of foreign-born immigrants in the North …
The Second Time As Tragedy: The Assisted Suicide Cases And The Heritage Of Roe V. Wade, Seth F. Kreimer
The Second Time As Tragedy: The Assisted Suicide Cases And The Heritage Of Roe V. Wade, Seth F. Kreimer
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Proposed Equal Protection Fix For Abortion Law: Reflections On Citizenship, Gender, And The Constitution, Anita L. Allen
The Proposed Equal Protection Fix For Abortion Law: Reflections On Citizenship, Gender, And The Constitution, Anita L. Allen
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Autonomy's Magic Wand: Abortion And Constitutional Interpretation, Anita L. Allen
Autonomy's Magic Wand: Abortion And Constitutional Interpretation, Anita L. Allen
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Tribe's Judicious Feminism, Anita L. Allen
Tribe's Judicious Feminism, Anita L. Allen
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The First Duty Of Government: Protection, Liberty And The Fourteenth Amendment, Steven J. Heyman
The First Duty Of Government: Protection, Liberty And The Fourteenth Amendment, Steven J. Heyman
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
The Transformation Of The Fourteenth Amendment: Reflections From The Admission Of Maryland's First Black Lawyers, David S. Bogen
The Transformation Of The Fourteenth Amendment: Reflections From The Admission Of Maryland's First Black Lawyers, David S. Bogen
Faculty Scholarship
October 10, 1985, was the one hundredth anniversary of the admission to the bar of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City of Everett J. Waring, the first black lawyer admitted to practice before the state courts in Maryland. This article explores the efforts of African-American lawyers to establish the right to practice law in Maryland and their role in the larger struggle for political and civil rights.
Substantive Due Process And The Scope Of Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells, Thomas A. Eaton
Substantive Due Process And The Scope Of Constitutional Torts, Michael L. Wells, Thomas A. Eaton
Scholarly Works
The thesis of this Article is that both the Supreme Court and its critics have failed to identify and confront the central issue presented by these due process constitutional tort cases. That issue is neither procedural fairness nor the choice between state and federal courts. It is deciding whether a government-inflicted injury to life, liberty, or property violates the substantive protections of the due process clauses and thereby warrants a constitutionally derived tort remedy. In Part II of this Article we examine the Supreme Court's decisions in this area, focusing primarily on Parratt v. Taylor. We demonstrate that neither Parratt …
In Their Own Image: The Reframing Of The Due Process Clause By The United States Supreme Court, J. Ralph Beaird
In Their Own Image: The Reframing Of The Due Process Clause By The United States Supreme Court, J. Ralph Beaird
Scholarly Works
A distinguished constitutional scholar recently pointed out that "many of the important decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States are not based on law in the popular sense of that term." It is true, he noted, that "the court endeavors to identify Constitutional clauses upon which to hang its pronouncements." "[S]ome key words and phrases in the Constitution," however, "are so highly indeterminate that they cannot really qualify as law in any usual sense." Rather, he said, "they are semantic blanks--verbal vacuums that may be filled readily with any one of many possible meanings." Thus, it is not …