Law Commons^™

Artis V. District Of Columbia—What Did The Court Actually Say?, Doron M. Kalir

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

On January 22, 2018, the Supreme Court issued Artis v. District of Columbia. A true "clash of the titans," this 5-4 decision featured colorful comments on both sides, claims of "absurdities," uncited use of Alice in Wonderland vocabulary ("curiouser," anyone?), and an especially harsh accusation by the dissent that "we’ve wandered so far from the idea of a federal government of limited and enumerated powers that we’ve begun to lose sight of what it looked like in the first place."

One might assume that the issue in question was a complex constitutional provision, or a dense, technical federal code …

Constitutional Revision: Ohio Style, Steven H. Steinglass

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article looks at state constitutional law in a single state—Ohio—and focuses on the history of constitutional revision in it. Consistent with the Symposium’s theme of popular constitutionalism, the Article reviews the expansion—albeit the slow expansion—of the groups that were permitted to participate in the political process in Ohio as well as the expansion and use of the tools available to those seeking constitutional change. As for the substantive constitutional changes that have taken place in Ohio, the Article reviews them summarily, primarily to put the topic of constitutional revision in context.

To understand constitutional revision in a single state, …

Evictions, Aspiration And Avoidance, Brian E. Ray

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In December 2011 four of the Constitutional Court’s five socio-economic rights cases turned on evictions.2 The Court decided three eviction-related cases in the 2012 term and two more in 2013.3 For a Court that averages fewer than 30 decisions per term 10 decisions in less than two and a half years is an extraordinary level of attention devoted to a single area of constitutional law.4 Does this sustained attention to eviction cases harbinger a significant development in the Court’s approach to the right to housing in FC s 26 and to socio-economic rights more generally? The cases provide some evidence …

The Living Constitution Of Ancient Athens: A Comparative Perspective On The Originalism Debate, Mark J. Sundahl

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article provides a fresh perspective on the originalism debate by undertaking a comparative study of constitutional interpretation in the United States and ancient Athens. By observing how the ancient Athenians resolved the same interpretational problems that face the Supreme Court today, we are able to gain a better understanding of the issues that drive the originalism debate. The study focuses on Athenian practice in 350 B.C., which falls late in the history of the Athenian democracy, well after the legal system had achieved its final form. Like the United States, Athens had a strong tradition of judicial review and …

Foreword: The Ohio Constitution On The Occasion Of Its Bicentennial, Kevin F. O'Neill

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This symposium issue of the Cleveland State Law Review publishes the papers that were presented at a conference marking the bicentennial of the Ohio Constitution. That conference, held here at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in April 2003, examined the history and assessed the vitality of our state constitution. The conference was conceived and its planning was supervised by our Dean, Steven H. Steinglass, who has devoted significant scholarly attention to the Ohio Constitution. In light of my own endeavors in state constitutional law, both as a lawyer and as a scholar, I gladly assisted Dean Steinglass in organizing the conference. …

Constitutional Classifications And The "Gay Gene", Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In this essay the author discusses the use of genetic information to classify individuals for purposes of the law, and more specifically, the impact of the so-called “gay gene” on legal classifications.

The Constitutional Dimension Of A National Products Liability Statute Of Repose, Stephen J. Werber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Constitutional issues arise in regard to many aspects of tort and products liability reform legislation. This article argues that statutes of repose are unconstitutional, with emphasis on open courts or right to remedy (open courts) and equal protection provisions. These issues reflect economic concerns at both federal and state legislative levels that seek to advance strongly perceived public policy. These concerns, in turn, affect substantial substantive rights. Freedom from personal injury, the right to life and safety, reflects more than the mere economic concerns of either the injured party or the product manufacturer. The ability to seek redress for such …

The Road Not Taken: State Constitutions As An Alternative Source Of Protection For Reproductive Rights, Kevin F. O'Neill

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Lawyers seeking constitutional protection for reproductive rights have relied almost exclusively on a liberty/privacy theory under the Federal Constitution. In the wake of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, this theory may be seen as providing a floor of minimum protection-preventing states from banning abortion outright. But it is not strong enough to prevent states from enacting restrictions on the availability of abortion. Thus, the battle over reproductive rights may be seen as shifting from one phase ("Can abortion be banned?") to another ("How far can states go in restricting access to abortion'?"). If proponents of reproductive freedom are …

The Role Of Public Opinion In Constitutional Interpretation, James G. Wilson

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article seeks to answer two questions. First, to what degree has public opinion influenced American constitutional interpretation, both on and off the Supreme Court, over the past two centuries? Second, how much weight, if any, should constitutional decision-makers give to public opinion, however that protean concept is defined? The Article initially places these queries in a contemporary context by considering the extended discussion of public opinion in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey opinions of Justice Souter, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and Justice Scalia. Justice Souter partially relied on public opinion to not overrule the constitutional right to an abortion created …

American Constitutional Conventions: The Judicially Unenforceable Rules That Combine With Judicial Doctrine And Public Opinion To Regulate Political Behavior, James G. Wilson

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The concept of nonjusticiability, reflected primarily through the “political question” and the “standing” doctrines, fails to give the Supreme Court (and the rest of us) adequate guidance on how to resolve many constitutional disputes, such as impeachment procedures and standards, congressional expulsions, the scope of federal court jurisdiction, and the use of force abroad. These two doctrines put the Supreme Court on the horns of a false dichotomy. The Court tends to withdraw completely from an issue and from enforcing a textual passage, such as the Republican Guarantee Clause, whenever it makes a determination of nonjusticiability. Conversely, once the Court …

Transcending Conventional Supremacy: A Reconstruction Of The Supremacy Clause, S. Candice Hoke

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Perhaps because the predominant strands of contemporary Supremacy Clause jurisprudence originate in two of the most venerable cases in the Court's history, the Court and academics alike have sidestepped some of their problematic pronouncements. In Part I, this Article questions the legacy of McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden, finding their Supremacy Clause principles unacceptably nationalistic and hence unfaithful to the balance of the Constitution. While their centralizing tendencies may have been understandable during the nation's infancy, their raison d'être has evaporated; the pendulum of state versus national regulatory power on matters other than individual liberties has swung too …

The Tax Court, Article Iii, And The Proposal Advanced By The Federal Courts Study Committee: A Study In Applied Constitutional Theory, Deborah A. Geier

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Spurred by the report issued by the Federal Courts Study Committee, this article explores the constitutionality of the Tax Court as an Article I court.

Reconstructing Section Five Of The Fourteenth Amendment To Assist Impoverished Children, James G. Wilson

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Liberal lawyers encounter grim alternatives caused by the Supreme Court's relentless shift to the right, particularly if they consider stare decisis a major constitutional value. They can attack specific decisions, demonstrating inconsistencies with prior cases, conclusory reasoning and/ or poor policy. They can use history, jurisprudence or even literature to make broad-based critiques of the Court's increasing callousness. They can propose counter-doctrine which is consistent with existing caselaw. The third response may appear quixotic, even naive, given the present Court. Nevertheless, exploration of progressive alternatives illuminates existing doctrine and provides potential openings if the Court ever decides to become more …

The Flag Salute Cases And The First Amendment, Stephen W. Gard

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The flag salute cases have been a source of endless fascination for legal and historical scholars. Most of this large body of scholarship has focused on the apparent oddity of Justice Frankfurter's view that there was no constitutional infirmity in the "petty tyranny" of a governmental requirement that school children engage in a hypocritical affirmation of belief. Unfortunately, the doctrinal importance of the opinions of Justices Jackson and Frankfurter in the flag salute cases as contrasting statements on the interpretation of the freedom of speech guarantee of the first amendment and the function of the judiciary in preserving our most …

Book Review, Stephen W. Gard

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The author reviews Justice Hugo Black and the First Amendment, edited by Everette E. Dennis, Donald M. Gillmor and David L. Grey.