Law Commons^™

The Poor As A Suspect Class Under The Equal Protection Clause: An Open Constitutional Question, Henry Rose

Henry Rose

(Abstract) The Poor as a Suspect Class Under the Equal Protection Clause: An Open Constitutional Question Both judges and legal scholars assert that the United States Supreme Court has held that the poor are neither a quasi-suspect nor a suspect class under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. They further assert that this issue was decided by the Supreme Court in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1 (1973). It is the thesis of this article that the Supreme Court has not yet decided whether the poor are a quasi-suspect …

Science, Public Bioethics, And The Problem Of Integration, Orlando Carter Snead

O. Carter Snead

Public bioethics — the governance of science, medicine, and biotechnology in the name of ethical goods — is an emerging area of American law. The field uniquely combines scientific knowledge, moral reasoning, and prudential judgments about democratic decisionmaking. It has captured the attention of officials in every branch of government, as well as the American public. Public questions (such as those relating to the law of abortion, the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and the regulation of end-of-life decisionmaking) continue to roil the public square.

This article examines the question of how scientific methods and principles can and …

Editorial, Voters Need To Realize Importance Of Selecting Judges, Randy Lee

Randy Lee

No abstract provided.

Thomas Paine And The Rights Of Man In European Jurisprudence: European Caselaw Confronts New York Times V. Sullivan : Different Results, Methods And Considerations: Time To Rethink Sullivan?∗, Allen E. Shoenberger

Allen E Shoenberger

The article compares and contrasts the defamation law of the European Court of Human Rights(ECHR) with that of the United States, with particular reference to NY Times v. Sullivan. It is suggested that american courts should themselves weigh and evalue the facts of defamation (as the NYTimes ct did); and also consider whether justification should be demanded for opinion statements, free attorney appointments for public interest defendants in defamation cases, and consideration given to a sliding scale of defamatory review for public officials who hold non-elected, lower

Death Is Different, But Not Really, Corinna Barrett Lain

Corinna Lain

The Supreme Court’s landmark death penalty rulings over the past several years have renewed scholarly criticism of the Eighth Amendment’s “evolving standards of decency” doctrine, which invalidates a punishment when a national consensus has formed against it. Critics claim that it makes no sense for constitutional protection to follow majoritarian sentiment—particularly in the capital context, where death penalty politics make “tyranny of the majority” more than a theoretical concern. Defenders contend that while majoritarian constitutional protection may be problematic in general, Eighth Amendment protection is different; the text of the “cruel and unusual punishments” clause invites, if not requires, protection …

Haunted By Brown, Robert Lipkin

Robert Justin Lipkin

No abstract provided.