Constitutional Law Commons^™

The Ripple Effects Of Slaughter-House: A Critique Of A Negative Rights View Of The Constitution, Michael J. Gerhardt

Vanderbilt Law Review

Upon seeing Niagara Falls for the first time, Oscar Wilde reportedly remarked that it "would be more impressive if it flowed the other way." I have a similar reaction to a series of narrow Supreme Court interpretations of the fourteenth amendment, beginning with the Slaughter-House Cases, decided in 1872, and extending to the 1989 decisions in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services. In Slaughter-House the Court interpreted the privileges or immunities clause of the fourteenth amendment as merely protecting interests other federal laws already protected, while recently the Court interpreted the due …

The Constitution, Racial Preference, And The Supreme Court's Institutional Ambivalence: Reflections On Metro Broadcasting, Robert A. Sedler

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Affordable Housing Forum, Richard F. Bellman, John M. Armentano, Alan Mallach

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gideon V. Wainwright Revisited: What Does The Right To Counsel Guarantee Today?, Michael B. Mushlin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court unanimously held that indigent state felony defendants are constitutionally entitled to the appointment of trial counsel. The opinion aroused wide support, and even enthusiasm, almost from the moment it was announced in 1963. Two and a half decades later this support has not diminished. However, are the words of praise only lip service to the noble idea of the right to counsel? Has Gideon really made a difference? Has its promise of a fair shake for poor criminal defendants been kept, or has Gideon meant only that defendants are provided with the fleeting …

After We're Gone: A Commentary, Michael A. Middleton

Faculty Publications

Professor Bell has placed before us a basic question that must be dealt with by all who wish to resolve the difficulties inherent in governing a free society. That question is one with which the framers of our Constitution grappled and that baffles us still. How does a society effectively govern itself and at the same time guarantee equal liberty for all? More specifically, in the racial context presented by The Chronicle of the Space Traders, when may government act for the benefit of society in a manner that is detrimental to some of its citizens because of their race?

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 …

A Plea For Help: Pleading Problems In Section 1983 Municipal Liability Claims, Evan S. Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Determining A Standard For Housing Discrimination Under Title Viii, Richard C. Cahn

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action Doctrine And The Conflicting Messages Of Croson, Doug D. Scherer

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Civil Rights—State's Failure To Protect Child From Known Abuse Does Not Trigger Liability Under Section 1983. Deshaney V. Winnebago County Department Of Social Services, 109 S. Ct. 998 (1989)., Sarah J. Hefley

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Habeas Corpus Committee - Correspondence, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Habeas Corpus Committee

No abstract provided.

Adverse Inferences From Silence, Department Of Justice Office Of Legal Policy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Report, the eighth in the Truth in Criminal Justice series, assesses the rules relating to the evidentiary consideration of the defendant's silence. Its general conclusion is that the existing restrictive rules in this area are unjustified impediments to the search for truth. The notion that the fifth amendment's prohibition of compelling a person in a criminal case to be a witness against himself bars drawing adverse inferences from the defendant's silence is not well-founded. In practical effect, these rules impede the conviction of the guilty by barring consideration of an aspect of the defendant's conduct-his failure to respond to …

Decoding Richmond: Affirmative Action And The Elusive Meaning Of Constitutional Equality, Michel Rosenfeld

Michigan Law Review

This Article first briefly considers the conceptual and constitutional framework out of which the controversy in Croson emerges. Next, the Article turns to Croson itself, and focuses on the Court's adoption of the strict scrutiny test, on the disagreement among the Justices concerning the test's meaning and implications, and on the Court's use of decontextualization to manipulate the key conceptual and factual issues at stake. Finally, drawing upon the principle of equality of opportunity, the Article endeavors to demonstrate how the adoption of particular principles of substantive equality can lead to a comprehensive and coherent constitutional resolution of the affirmative …

The Sixth Amendment Right To Counsel Under The Massiah Line Of Cases, Department Of Justice Office Of Legal Policy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The sixth amendment guarantees to the accused in a criminal prosecution the right "to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence." In Massiah v. United States, the Supreme Court held this right was violated when there was used against the defendant at trial evidence of incriminating statements deliberately elicited from him by an informant after he had been indicted and in the absence of counsel. In effect, this decision and others that 'followed have created a new constitutional right not to be questioned about pending charges prior to trial except in the presence of an attorney.

One consequence …

Federal Habeas Corpus Review Of State Judgments, Department Of Justice Office Of Legal Policy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Report carries out a review of the historical development of the federal habeas corpus jurisdiction; examines its contemporary character and operation; and discusses relevant policy considerations. The Report concludes that federal habeas corpus as a post-conviction remedy for state prisoners should be abolished or limited as far as possible. The limited reform proposals that were passed by the Senate in 1984 and that are currently before Congress as Title II of the proposed Criminal Justice Reform Act provide the best immediate prospect for improvement.

Inventing Judicial Review: Israel And America, Robert A. Burt

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Decoding Richmond: Affirmative Action And The Elusive Meaning Of Constitutional Equality, Michel Rosenfeld

Articles

The article critiques the Supreme Court's inconsistent approach to affirmative action, particularly its adoption of the strict scrutiny test in *City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co.*, which has led to confusion and conflict in equal protection jurisprudence. The author argues that the strict scrutiny test is an inadequate framework for addressing affirmative action cases, advocating instead for a substantive equality approach centered on the principle of equality of opportunity. This approach would better address the complexities of systemic discrimination and its multifaceted effects, as highlighted by Justice Marshall's ecological mode of interpretation in *Croson*. The article ultimately challenges the …

Arguments Appealing To Racial Prejudice: Uncertainty, Impartiality, And The Harmless Error Doctrine, Steven D. Debrota

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

What Shapes Perceptions Of The Federal Court System?, Theodore Eisenberg, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Two hundred years is a long time. It is too long after formation of a court system to ask such basic questions as (1) what cases occupy the system, and (2) whether even informed professionals have a reasonable picture of what goes on within the system. Nonetheless, continuing debate about the volume and makeup of litigation in general and of federal court litigation in particular requires legal scholars to address these questions. Professor Marc Galanter's work on the litigation explosion questions central assumptions about the nature and growth of the federal docket. Our prior work undermines widely held views about …

Let's Re-Do Runyon: Questions To Guide Justice White; Response, Theodore Eisenberg

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Problematic Standards Of Reasonableness: Qualified Immunity In Section 1983 Actions For A Police Officer's Use Of Excessive Force, Kathryn R. Urbonya

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ii. Constitutional Law & Civil Rights

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mastery, Slavery, And Emancipation, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

Hegel's dialectic of master and slave in the Phenomenology of Mind portrays a master unable to win genuine recognition from a slave because unwilling to confer it. The dialectic implies that freedom has to be conceived as association based on mutual respect, rather than independence. This article offers a communitarian interpretation of emancipation inspired by Hegel's dialectic of master and slave. It proceeds from an account of slave society which, like Hegel's dialectic, equates slavery with the denial of social recognition. This account argues that the experience of slave society led both the masters and the slaves to conceive of …

Circumventing Racism: Confronting The Problem Of The Affirmative Action Ideology, Christopher T. Wonnell

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Section 1983 And The Due Process Clause: Crossing The Constitutional Line, Linda G. Gay

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Habeas Corpus Committee - Correspondence, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Habeas Corpus Committee

No abstract provided.

Housing Discrimination, Richard F. Bellman ,Esq., Richard Cahn ,Esq.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Movement To Assimilate The American Indians: Jurisprudential Study, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

In 1934, the United States made a revolutionary shift in Indian policy. Laws were passed that ended most assimilation measures and began, instead, a preservation and promotion of tribalism. Why did this happen? What changes in American thought, politics and economy could precipitate such a reversal? Felix Cohen, a former special assistant to the Attorney General, and known as the "Blackstone of American Indian Law," noted: "Like the miner's canary, the Indian marks the shifts from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the …

Public Official's Qualified Immunity In Section 1983 Actions Under Harlow V. Fitzgerald And Its Progeny: A Critical Analysis, Stephen J. Shapiro

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article discusses the development of immunities in section 1983 actions. Part II examines the application of Harlow and its progeny to a variety of situations. This discussion shows that broadened qualified immunity produces anomalous results under some circumstances by granting immunity to officials who have acted in a clearly culpable manner. Part III discusses the appropriateness of the Harlow standard and determines that it is neither supported by the legislative history of section 1983 nor by legitimate policy concerns. Finally, Part IV proposes several solutions that would protect deserving public officials from personal damage liability without …