Law Commons^™

Comfortably Penumbral, Glenn Reynolds, Brannon Denning

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

A followup to "Penumbral Reasoning on the Right", 140 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1333 (1992), this paper notes the increased use, and acceptance, of penumbral reasoning by federal courts in recent years. It suggests that this trend is a positive one, and likely to lead to more, rather than less, fidelity to constitutional text and structure.

Comfortably Penumbral, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Scholarly Works

A followup to "Penumbral Reasoning on the Right", 140 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1333 (1992), this paper notes the increased use, and acceptance, of penumbral reasoning by federal courts in recent years. It suggests that this trend is a positive one, and likely to lead to more, rather than less, fidelity to constitutional text and structure.

Clarification And Disruption: The Effect Of Gasperini V. Center For Humanities Inc. On The Erie Doctrine , J. Benjamin King

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Diversity: The Red Herring Of Equal Protection, Sharon E. Rush

UF Law Faculty Publications

Couching the constitutional inquiry in cases like Bakke and VMI in the context of integration also puts in perspective the diversity justification. Affirmative action policies are constitutional because they integrate state programs. Integration on the basis of race and sex also diversifies state programs. In contrast, attempts to justify sex-segregation in state programs by arguing the policy promotes diversity is irrelevant to an equal protection analysis. Voluntarily created all-female schools should be constitutional because they promote the equal citizenship of women without damaging the equal citizenship stature of men. This is true for voluntarily race-segregated programs for minorities; as well. …

The Least Among Us: Unconstitutional Changes In Prisoner Litigation Under The Prison Litigation Reform Act Of 1995, Julie M. Riewe

Duke Law Journal

I don't like prisoners. Nobody pretends to like them, but every once in a while, one of these people is right. And a society is judged by how it treats the least among it, not the best. I'm not worried about how presidents of banks and chairmen of the board and of country clubs are treated, or star quarterbacks, or other prima donnas. The job of the Constitution is to make sure that everyone is treated properly. [Prisoners] fall[] into the everybody category.

Symbolic Statues And Real Laws: The Pathologies Of The Antiterrorism And Effective Death Penalty Act And The Prison Litigation Reform Act, Mark Tushnet, Larry Yackle

Duke Law Journal

Criminals are not popular. No politician in recent memory has lost an election for being too tough on crime. In 1996, the Republican Congress and the Democratic President collaborated on two major statutes affecting the legal protections available to criminals. The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) modifies the habeas corpus statute in a number of ways, affecting the disposition of federal post-conviction challenges to all criminal convictions, not just those resulting in death sentences. The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) addresses lawsuits filed by prisoners challenging the conditions of their confinement. The PLRA covers both suits …

Public And Private Ordering And The Production Of Legitimate And Illegitimate Legal Rules , Jonathan R. Macey

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Political Boundary Lines, Multiculturalism, And The Liberal State, Sanford Levinson

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Law and Civil Society

The Draw And Drawbacks Of Religious Enclaves In A Constitutional Democracy: Hasidic Public Schools In Kiryas Joel, Judith Lynn Failer

Indiana Law Journal

Symposium: Law and Civil Society

The Language Question In A Rainbow Nation: The South African Experience, Albie L. Sachs

Dalhousie Law Journal

In this, the twenty-second annual Horace E. Read Memorial Lecture, Mr. Justice Albie Sachs reviews the efforts to resolve problems of multilingualism in the new Constitution of South Africa. Writing from experience in the constitution-making process, he reflects on the reality of eleven different languages in South Africa. He discusses the consequent problems of legislative strategy and linguistic rights and the appropriate balance amongst language rights, policy and practice.

Conservatives, Liberals, Romantics: The Persistent Quest For Certainty In Constitutional Interpretation, Frederick M. Gedicks

Vanderbilt Law Review

From the time that Robert Bork issued his first attack on the Warren Court, originalism has belonged to political conservatives. This interpretive theory, which holds that the understanding of the Constitution at the time it was drafted and ratified controls its contemporary meaning, has been regularly utilized by conservative judges and politicians over the last two decades to question the legitimacy of various (mostly liberal) Supreme Court decisions. Given the liberal tilt of the legal academy, it is not suprising that advocates of originalism constitute a minority of constitutional scholars.

Recently, a prominent constitutional theorist with unmistakably liberal credentials announced …

Coming Crisis Of Work In Constitutional Perspective , Kenneth L. Karst

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Going For The Brass Ring: The Case For Same-Sex Marriage , Arthur S. Leonard

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Implications Of The Involuntary Commitment Of Sexually Violent Predators-A Due Process Analysis , Deborah L. Morris

Cornell Law Review

No abstract provided.

All The Supreme Court Really Needs To Know It Learned From The Warren Court, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law Review

It is accepted wisdom among constitutional law scholars that the Supreme Court is now considerably more conservative than it was during the tenure of Chief Justice Earl Warren. In this Article, I hope to suggest that the conventional wisdom is at least partly wrong. In Part I, I suggest that many of the current Court's so-called conservative cases and doctrines are direct descendants of Warren Court cases and doctrines. Although my attribution of similarity is new, the description of the cases and doctrines themselves is entirely unoriginal. Indeed, the history of the two sets of cases-of the Warren Court and …

On The Merits: A Response To Professor Sherry, John C.P. Goldberg

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professor Sherry's Article has three parts. The first is doctrinal and undertakes to demonstrate that the above quoted wisdom is not only false, but patently so. It is apparent, this Part argues, that the current Court has not drifted toward the "right," but has steadfastly held to the principle of justice that animated the Warren Court. This is the principle of "formal neutrality," which generally holds that government may never distinguish among its citizens on the basis of race, creed, or color.

Professor Sherry's second project is to explain why constitutional scholars have failed to recognize this obvious consistency. Her …

Cadenced Power: The Kinetic Constitution, Laura S. Fitzgerald

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Aspects Of Physician-Assisted Suicide After Lee V. Oregon, Simon Canick

Faculty Scholarship

On November 8, 1994, Oregon voters narrowly passed the highly controversial Death with Dignity Act (Measure 16), which marked the first time that physician-assisted suicide was explicitly legalized anywhere in the world. In Lee v. Oregon, a group of physicians, several terminally ill persons, a residential care facility, and individual operators of residential care facilities sought to enjoin enforcement of the new law, claiming various constitutional infirmities. The U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon enjoined enforcement of the law, acknowledging that it raised important constitutional issues including possible violations of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of …

A Real World Perspective On Choice Of Law, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

The Buck Does Not Stop Here: Supervisory Liability In Section 1983 Cases, Kit Kinports

Journal Articles

The appropriate standard for supervisory liability in Section 1983 cases has been a source of considerable disagreement among federal courts of appeals. In the absence of established Supreme Court authority on the subject, courts have rejected vicarious and negligence liability in favor of a higher culpability requirement, but they have not agreed on precisely what form this higher standard should take. In this article, the Author addresses the need for a uniform standard consistent with the statute's twin goals of compensating the victims of constitutional violations and deterring constitutional infractions.

The author notes at the outset that lower courts have …

Anticipating Hong Kong's Constitution From A U.S. Legal Perspective, John M. Rogers

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article explores the possible nature of Hong Kong's Constitution after July, 1997, and discusses alternative ways of interpreting and enforcing the constitution. The author first proposes three definitions for the word "constitution'" (1) how political power is actually "constituted," (2) a written document and (3) a referent for disputes. The author then explains Hong Kong's unusual constitutional status where Hong Kong will be governed under a written constitution the Basic Law. and at the same time, many aspects of the Basic Law will be "guaranteed" by an international agreement, the Joint Declaration. The author proceeds to evaluate the means …

Toward A Conceptual Framework For Assessing Police Power Commitment Legislation, Eric S. Janus

Faculty Scholarship

Recent litigation and scholarship have begun to focus on the substantive limits of the state's power to use civil commitment as a social control tool. Courts and commentators describe civil commitment as grounded on two powers of the state: the parens patriae interest and the police power. This Article seeks an analytical framework for defining the boundaries of police power commitments in which justification rests on the interests of the public rather than on the interests of the committed individual.

Baltimore Bound: Article Xiii, Section 1, "New Counties," Of The Maryland Constitution And The Baltimore City Annexation Acts Of 1888 And 1918, Michele Lefaivre

Legal History Publications

This paper examines the extension of Baltimore's boundaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century within the legal process which authorized it.

Jewish Legal Theory And American Constitutional Theory: Some Comparisons And Contrasts, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In this article, Levine explores some of the ways in which Jewish law may shed light on issues in American constitutional theory. While acknowledging that there are fundamental differences between a religious legal system and a secular one, he attempts to show that certain conceptual similarities between American law and Jewish law allow for meaningful yet cautious comparison of the two systems. Part I provides a broad historical and analytical overview of interpretation in Jewish law. Part II of the Article offers a specific conceptual framework for comparing Jewish law with American law. Levine considers questions of flexibility in legal …

Arendt, Tushnet, And Lopez: The Philosophical Challenge Behind Ackerman's Theory Of Constitutional Moments, Candice Hoke

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Let Justice Flow Like Water: The Role Of Moral Arugument In Constitutional Interpretation , David L. Fitzgerald

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unconstitutionality Of State And Local Enactments In The United States Restricting Business Ties With Burma (Myanmar), David Schmahmann, James Finch

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

As a punitive measure against the military regime in Burma, state and municipal governments in the United States have adopted laws penalizing firms that conduct business in that nation. This Article analyzes the validity of these statutes and ordinances under various provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

After introducing the nature of this development and the constitutional issues raised, Part II of this Article proceeds to examine the character of the local enactments and the political backdrop which lead to their adoption. In Part II, the Authors analyze four federal constitutional issues surrounding the local legislation: implied preemption by federal legislation, …

Off The Precipice: Massachusetts Expands Its Foreign Policy Expedition From Burma To Indonesia, David R. Schmahmann, James Finch, Tia Chapman

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article considers the wisdom and constitutionality of a proposed Massachusetts law penalizing companies that do business with Indonesia. In the March 1997 issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, two of the authors expressed concerns about the constitutionality of state and local restrictions on business ties with Burma (Myanmar). This Article applies a similar analysis to conclude that the proposed legislation is an unconstitutional violation of the Supremacy Clause and the Foreign Commerce Clause. The authors also argue that the federal government has clearly preempted action by Massachusetts: first by providing aid to Indonesia under the generalized system …

Utilitarianism Left And Right: A Response To Professor Armour, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Brief Of Lone Wolf, Principal Chief Of The Kiowas, To The Supreme Court Of The American Indian Nations, S. James Anaya

Publications

No abstract provided.