Law Commons^™

Same-Sex Marriage, Indian Tribes, And The Constitution, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

A same-sex marriage amendment, depending on the text, might serve to incorporate Indian tribes into the federal union as the third sovereign. The Constitution has not been amended to incorporate Indian tribes into the federal union, rendering their place in Our Federalism uncertain and unpredictable. A same-sex marriage amendment that applies to limit or expand tribal authority to recognize or authorize same-sex marriage could constitute an implicit recognition of Indian tribes as the third sovereign in the American system of federalism. Even an amendment that excludes mention of Indian tribes may have something to say about Indian tribes as the …

El Problema De Las Fuentes Del Derecho: Una Perspectiva Desde La Argumentación Jurídica, Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

Jorge Gonzalez-Jacome

This article argues that there is a very vast complexity in the theory of sources of law. According to the traditional doctrine the sources are ordered in a coherent and precise manner and the interpreter has only to apply a clear hierarchy. However, looking at the way some judges in Colombia have applied their sources, it seems that the traditional way of looking to this problem is not an accurate description of what is happening in practice. Therefore, an alternative way of understanding the practice of our judges is proposed, in order to build a description that shows us in …

Constitutional Thematics And The Peculiar Federal Marriage Amendment, Scott Dodson

Scott Dodson

In these remarks, I argue that the Federal Marriage Amendment would disrupt constitutional themes to the detriment of constitutional interpretation and social constitutionalism.

Hamdan V. Rumsfeld: The Functional Case For Foreign Affairs Deference To The Executive Branch, John C. Yoo, Julian Ku

John C Yoo

The Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld represents a radical new judicial approach to the interpretation of laws relating to foreign affairs. Not only did the Hamdan Court fail to defer to the executive's reasonable interpretations of the relevant statutes, treaties, and customary international law of war relating to military commissions, but it did not even justify its failure to depart from longstanding formal doctrines requiring such deference. In this Essay, we offer a functional defense of the doctrines requiring judicial deference to executive interpretations of laws affecting foreign affairs in wartime; doctrines that the Hamdan Court largely ignored. …

Public Interest Litigation And Role Of The Supreme Court In Ensuring Social Justice In Bangladesh, K. T. Alam, Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

Abu Noman Mohammad Atahar Ali

No abstract provided.

Hate The Vile Campaign Ads? Blame The Supreme Court, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

Can't Touch This! Private Property, Takings, And The Merit Goods Argument, Goutam U. Jois

Goutam U Jois

Over the past several decades, economic theory has gained increasing influence in legal thinking, political theory, and public policy. This article argues that the popular characterization of economics as “value-neutral” obscures the fact that there are fundamental value judgments in any framework influenced by economics. Acknowledging this fact will shift the terms of the debate: instead of a “neutral” policy and one that “imposes values,” we see that both policies in fact entail value imposition to some extent. The public discourse is thus rendered more intellectually honest. The article progresses in three parts. First, I describe the concept of “merit …

Single Subject Rules And The Legislative Process, Michael D. Gilbert

Michael D. Gilbert

Despite generating thousands of cases on important public issues, the single subject rule remains a source of uncertainty and inconsistency. The root of the problem lies in the inability to define the term "subject" using legal doctrine. This paper reexamines the single subject rule through the lens of public choice theory and finds that its purposes are wrongheaded. Logrolling is not necessarily harmful, and improving political transparency requires legislative compromises to be packaged together rather than spread across multiple acts. Riding is not a form of logrolling but an analytically distinct and more threatening practice. This analysis yields a precise, …

Against Sovereignty: A Cautionary Note On The Normative Power Of The Actual, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

Drawing on classical and contemporary jurisprudence and political philosophy, this Essay argues that the Roberts Court should seize the next apt moment to abandon the doctrines of “sovereignty” and “sovereign dignity” that the Rehnquist Court developed over the decade that began with the 1996 decision in the Seminole case. Although pursued in service of the laudable goal of “our federalism,” these doctrines work a corruption of our legal, political, and moral self-understanding. As they do so, they distract the Court and the citizenry from the disciplined commitment to the rule of law and legal justice by which a body politic …

A More Perfect Union, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Upholding Separation Of Power Was Proper, John Gedid

John L. Gedid

No abstract provided.

“What’S Yours Can Be Mine: Are There Any Private Takings After City Of New London V. Kelo?” , David A. Schultz

David A Schultz

This article examines the use of eminent domain in light of the Kelo v. City of New London Supreme Court decision. After a review of state takings litigation the conclusion is that the courts can and still do find that private takings can occur but that the judiciary is able to protect against them.

Constitution, Kirk W. Junker

Kirk W Junker

Independence Day Honors Lofty Concept, Hard-Won Reality, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

A Return To Objectivity In Admiralty Tort Jurisdiction?, Graydon S. Staring

Graydon S. Staring

This paper discusses an important opinion, Tagliere v. Harrah’s Illinois Corp. giving effect to words long ignored in the Admiralty Extension Act in the setting of materials adapted from some of a longer article in preparation, tentatively entitled “The Admiralty Jurisdiction Whole: Delusions of “Purpose”.

Marital Status As Property: Toward A New Jurisprudence For Gay Rights, Goutam U. Jois

Goutam U Jois

The issue of same-sex marriage has received much attention over the past few years, with significant focus on the role of the judiciary. For example, the first legal gay marriages in the country took place after a court decision in Massachusetts, and no state has sanctioned same-sex marriage through the legislative process. Proponents of same-sex marriages generally justify their creation on civil rights grounds, relying in particular on equal protection and due process arguments. However, the preservation of same-sex marriage can be defended on other grounds as well. I examine one such alternative theory, that of property rights. In this …

Inconstitucionalidad Del Sistema Electoral, Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

No abstract provided.

Science-Belief Tension Is Natural, Alan E. Garfield

Alan E Garfield

No abstract provided.

Our Anticompetitive Patriotism, Todd E. Pettys

Todd E. Pettys

In this article, I contend that the nation’s seemingly exclusive claim to citizens’ patriotism significantly shields the federal government from the competitive forces that the Framers believed would restrain Congress’s and the President’s ability to govern in objectionable ways. I argue that, because America is a nation-state built upon certain core convictions about public life, there are strong connections in this country between the entity about which people feel patriotic and the sovereign that people would like to govern many—perhaps even most—of their important public affairs. I argue that American patriotism was constructed in a manner that led nineteenth- and …

"One Person, One Vote, And The Constitutionality Of The Winner-Take-All Allocation Of Electoral Votes", David A. Schultz

David A Schultz

The winner-take-all method of allocating electoral votes in presidential races is the norm among states, yet nowhere in the Constitution is this practice mandated. This article contends that the winner-take-all allocation of electors unconstitutionally magnifies the battleground states' influence on the final Electoral College tally and that these inequities cannot be reconciled with the principle of one-person, one-vote that the US Supreme Court articulated in the landmark Reynolds v. Sims. In 1966 the Supreme Court declined to hear a case contesting the constitutionality of the winner-take-all system based on the one person, one vote, principle. It is time for the …

Harmonizing Plural Societies: The Case Of Lasallians, Families, Schools – And The Poor, Patrick Mckinley Brennan

Patrick McKinley Brennan

The modern state characteristically assumes or asserts a monopoly over “group persons” and their right to exist; group persons are said to exist at the pleasure or concession of the state. According to Catholic social teaching, by contrast, these unities of order -- such as church and family, as well as corporations and schools and the like -- are, at least in potency, ontologically prior to the state. Such group persons both constitute conditions of the possibility of human flourishing and, correlatively, impose limitations on the “sovereign” state. Such group persons are not mere concessions of an unbounded state: They …

Why The Defense Of Marriage Act Is Not (Yet?) Unconstitutional: Lawrence, Full Faith And Credit, And The Many Societal Actors That Determine What The Constitution Requires, Mark D. Rosen

Mark D. Rosen

This Article argues that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is not unconstitutional - at least not yet. DOMA provides that States need not recognize same-sex marriages (or judgments in connection with such marriages) performed in sister States. The Article first shows that the Supreme Court's recent opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down as unconstitutional state laws that criminalized sodomy, has not invalidated the DOMA. Lawrence is best understood as having left undecided the constitutional status of same-sex marriage, and the Article explains the benefits of the Court's having held back its constitutional judgment on this subject at …

El Principio Contra Homine Y El Pretendido Derecho De Acceso, Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

Juan Carlos Riofrío Martínez-Villalba

No abstract provided.

Kramer's Popular Constitutionalism: A Quick Normative Assessment, Sarah K. Harding

Sarah K. Harding

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Education For The People Themselves, Sheldon Nahmod

Sheldon Nahmod

No abstract provided.

Observations On The Folly Of Using Student Evaluations Of College Teaching For Faculty Evaluation, Pay, And Retention Decisions And Its Implications For Academic Freedom, Terence Lau, William Wines

Terence Lau

Research on student teaching evaluations is vast. An examination of this research demonstrates wide disagreements but also substantial consensus of authority for the proposition that student evaluations should be used only with extreme care, if at all, in making personnel decisions. A number of reasons cause administrators to use teaching evaluations for personnel decisions. The literature, however, is virtually unanimous in its condemnation of norming student evaluations in order to rank classroom performances. Current cases on academic freedom indicate some retrenchment by the Circuits from broader pronouncements in earlier Supreme Court cases. This paper concludes that the use of non-validated …

Constitutional Safeguards For Silent Experiments In Living: Libraries, The Right To Read, And A First Amendment Theory For An Unaccompanied Right To Receive Information, Marc Blitz

Marc J. Blitz

No abstract provided.

Las Paradojas De La Democracia Deliberativa / The Paradoxes Of Deliberative Democracy, Andres Palacios Lleras

Andrés Palacios Lleras

Este artículo argumenta por qué la teoría de la democracia deliberativa es problemática y paradójica, y por lo tanto inadecuada para desarrollar las instituciones democráticas contemporáneas, o para reemplazarlas por otras. Es una teoría problemática porque parte de una postura epistemológica difícilmente sostenible. Es paradójica porque a pesar de ser presentada como incluyente a nivel social, la idea de deliberación que presenta y considera como deseable, es demasiado exigente como para ser realizada por toda clase de personas; y es de hecho, elitista en este aspecto. Pero también porque señala que las instancias que están mejor diseñadas para tomar decisiones …

Choosing A Chief Justice: Presidential Prerogative Or A Job For The Court?, Todd E. Pettys

Todd E. Pettys

After identifying the original rationales for our longstanding tradition of permitting the President and Senate to decide which of the Court’s nine members will serve as Chief Justice, I argue that those rationales are anachronistic, that the tradition creates unnecessary conflicts of interest and separation-of-powers concerns, and that the Court’s members should be permitted to decide for themselves which of them will serve as Chief Justice.

Beyond Romer And Lawrence: The Right To Privacy Comes Out Of The Closet, Nancy C. Marcus

Nancy C Marcus

This article examines significant developments in the Supreme Court's privacy rights jurisprudence through the Rehnquist era with a look ahead toward the future of privacy and liberty protections under a new Court. The article explores several problems faced by privacy rights proponents, ranging from opposition to unenumerated constitutional rights generally to more recent tradition-based challenges to privacy protections. Tracing the historic roots of privacy rights, the article reveals the original intent of the Constitution's drafters to establish an evolving constitution with inalienable unenumerated individual rights, including a right to privacy which encompasses an affirmative liberty interest in autonomy. The article …