Law Commons^™

Constitutional Criminal Law, Peggy Natale

Mercer Law Review

This year, the Eleventh Circuit issued opinions on a variety of criminal constitutional law cases, including decisions granting writs of habeas corpus on several death row inmates, and in three cases addressing ineffective assistance of counsel. What follows is a summary of some of the most important criminal constitutional cases for 1992. No effort has been made to make an exhaustive review of. all of the court's criminal cases for the year.

Constitutional Civil Law, Albert Sidney Johnson, Susan Cole Mullis

Mercer Law Review

During the 1992 survey period, the most noticeable aspect of the constitutional civil law jurisprudence of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit was the large body of circuit jurisprudence concerning the First Amendment, both in the context of ballot access and the rights of public employees. The Eleventh Circuit also issued several opinions on constitutionalized procedural issues such as standing, abstention, preclusion, and ripeness. The court's receptiveness to these preliminary defenses provides an opportunity for government defendants to avoid litigation on the merits in appropriate cases.

Once again, the circuit's qualified immunity opinions illustrate the continuing …

Introduction, Sidney D. Watson

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making The Case For A Constitutional Right To Minimum Entitlements, Erwin Chemerinsky

Mercer Law Review

When first asked to be on the Poverty Law Section's panel on a constitutional right to minimum entitlements, I was flattered but somewhat surprised at the choice of topic. Although the plight of the poor is obviously a serious and growing national disgrace, there is little likelihood that the United States Supreme Court will provide a solution. The current Court is extremely conservative and, with four conservative Justices under age fifty-five, likely will remain that way for decades to come. There is more chance that I will become the starting center for the Los Angeles Lakers (I am five foot …

Utopian Dangers: Chemerinsky's "Right To Minimum Subsistence", Dennis D. Dorin

Mercer Law Review

Susan Bandes, a strong proponent of the theory that positive rights are encompassed by the Constitution, nevertheless dismisses arguments for a constitutionally mandated minimum subsistence as "utopian." A brief critique of Erwin Chemerinsky's "Making the Case for a Constitutional Right to Minimum Entitlements" may tell us why.

Professor Chemerinsky sets a somewhat modest goal for his article. He seeks to delineate what he believes to be the main steps in the development of a viable argument in support of a constitutional right to minimum entitlements.' He does this provocatively, summarizing and invoking, although not going far beyond, the relatively small …

Comment On: Making The Case For A Constitutional Right To Minimum Entitlements, Peter J. Ferrara

Mercer Law Review

Professor Chemerinsky advocates a sweeping, truly revolutionary change in constitutional law to provide for a constitutional right to minimum government assistance from welfare/entitlement programs. He is to be commended for his uncompromising boldness and unyielding faithfulness to his convictions. Unfortunately, his Article otherwise consists of bad law, bad economics, bad social policy, and erroneous factual assertions.

The Poverty Of Academic Rhetoric, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Mercer Law Review

Erwin Chemerinsky puts forth the unlikely proposition that now is the time to develop a revitalized argument for a constitutional right to subsistence- level entitlements. While not detailing the actual content of such an argument, he outlines what he believes to be the necessary steps of the argument, leaving for another day the task of actually defining and defending those steps. In Chemerinsky's view, the argument would entail recognition that (i) [p]overty and the plight of the poor are serious social problems; (ii) the government has a responsibility to provide individuals with the essentials that are necessary for survival; (iii) …

Slavery And Race: An Essay On New Ideas And Enduring Shibboleths In The Interpretation Of The American Constitutional System, Joseph E. Claxton

Mercer Law Review

The signers of the Declaration of Independence boldly announced that "[w]e hold these truths to be self-evident," but more than two centuries later the debate over the nature and meaning of "these truths" still is waged with vigor and, on many occasions, great passion. Indeed, the descriptive term "self-evident" is enough in itself to inspire fundamental disagreement. To Americans about to enter a twenty-first century era of ultra-technology, it sometimes must seem that unless an idea is as "self-evident" as the arithmetical concept that 1 + 1 = 2, it is not self-evident at all.

The "self-evident" truth that "all …