Constitutional Law Commons^™

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Understanding The Big Three’S Wavering Support Of Environmental And Social Shareholder Proposals, Jeff Schwartz, Jefferson Jensen

Seattle University Law Review

Because of their substantial equity portfolios, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street (the Big 3) are central players in corporate governance. It is, therefore, critical to understand how they vote. One puzzle is that their support for shareholder proposals on environmental and social matters appears to waiver. In 2020, for instance, BlackRock supported 11.1% of environmental proposals at S&P 500 firms. In 2021, it seemingly reversed course, supporting 55.2%. It then flipped again, supporting 32.1% in 2022. Such statistics suggest that the Big 3 are constantly changing their views on these topics. This Article seeks to better understand whether this is …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Moral Politics Theory Applied To Abortion: Utopias, Dystopias, And Dobbs, Susan Ayres

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines Moral Politics Theory (MPT) as a way to understand current tensions in the US concerning reproductive justice. MPT, as developed and researched for over thirty years by cognitive scientist, George Lakoff, provides a way to explain differences in political worldviews. According to Lakoff’s research in Moral Politics and Don’t Think of an Elephant!, conservatives tend to hold a strict-father model, and progressives hold a nurturant-parent model. People in the political middle tend to endorse both models; Lakoff labels those in the middle as “biconceptuals,” and discusses how this group is most susceptible to persuasion because metaphors frame …

Discriminatory Censorship Laws, Jonathan Feingold, Joshua Weishart

Faculty Scholarship

The summer of 2020 ignited global protests for racial justice. Across the United States, millions marched with a modest plea: that America reckon with its racism. For K-12 schools, this moment pushed local communities and district leaders to create more inclusive classrooms and curricula. Yet before the summer had ended, America's antiracist turn provoked a backlash campaign that has proven far more impactful and enduring.

This campaign has featured the rise and spread of "discriminatory censorship laws"-a term we apply to government action designed to demean inclusionary values and to deny students access to critical knowledge, inquiry, and thinking. As …

The Search For Unenumerated Fundamental Rights, Alina Sluzhyvenkova

Student Theses and Dissertations

There are certain rights that are explicitly enumerated in the Constitution, e.g., right to bear arms, right to free speech, right to a speedy and public trial. There are also rights that aren’t specifically written out but are nevertheless enjoyed by people nationwide. Rights that aren’t explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, but which are fundamental to are called the unenumerated rights. Unenumerated rights are just as important and can be derived from natural law, enumerated rights, the Ninth Amendment, precedents, judicial opinions, and substantive due process.

Substantive due process is a principle guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which …

Teaching Dobbs: On The Role Of Ideology In Constitutional Interpretation, Steven J. Heyman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching Constitutional Law In A Crisis Of Judicial Legitimacy, William Baude

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

On Teaching Constitutional Law: Challenges And Opportunities, Christopher W. Schmidt

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching Constitutional Change, Carolyn Shapiro

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Constitutional Law To Constitutional Change, Steven D. Schwinn

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Power To The People: Finding Solutions To Partisan Gerrymandering In A Post-Rucho World Through Independent Redistricting Commissions, Paul T. Ansani

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching Law Amidst Convulsive Doctrinal Change, Harold J. Krent

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

Defining Law But Not Justice, Franciska Coleman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Not To Teach Criminal Law, Evan D. Bernick

Chicago-Kent Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Good Officer: President Trump, General Milley, And The “Necessity” Of Constitutional Fidelity, John C. Dehn

Brooklyn Law Review

Actions taken by General Mark Milley, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to prevent an abuse of presidential power during the waning days of the Trump administration prompted a range of reactions and concerns. This Article leverages these events to explore the circumstances under which a member of the armed forces or senior executive branch official may have a moral or legal right or duty to disobey presidential orders or authorizations that entail a clear violation of the Constitution or federal laws, or that abuse lawful authorities in ways that would subvert the Constitution’s text or vital …

Liberty And Equality Under The First Amendment: Scrutinizing Book Bans Through An Equal Protection Framework, Sarah Ryan

Brooklyn Law Review

While the constitutional text refers only to liberty, equality has been recognized as an implicit principle of the First Amendment. The guarantee of free speech ensures an equal opportunity for every voice to be heard. As school book bans proliferate, the consistent targeting of titles containing themes of race or LGBTQIA+ identity reveals a discriminatory motivation on the part of state actors. The resultant infringement on students’ right to receive information, as well as the unequal treatment of particularly-themed content would seemingly run afoul of both the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause. Given the broad discretion granted to …

The Politics Of Constitutional Dignity Jurisprudence, Daniel Haefke

Brooklyn Law Review

This Article traces the politics of (human) dignity in US constitutional law. It reveals that the notion has undergone a conservative shift, which has resulted from Supreme Court Justices increasingly unleashing dignity’s dormant conservative potential. Legal scholars arguing for prominently including the notion in constitutional jurisprudence reflect the belief that adopting the language of dignity would push the Supreme Court to be more sensitive to progressive political demands. This progressive constitutional dignity optimism is historically plausible yet conceptually misguided. It is historically plausible considering the legacy of constitutional dignity in previous opinions of the Court. As the Article expounds, the …

Rising Temperatures, The Prison Litigation Reform Act, And The Heat Death Of Human Dignity In Texas Prisons, Brianne Wylie

Northwestern University Law Review

This Note seeks to shed light on the life-threatening danger of extreme heat in un-air-conditioned Texas prisons. The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) starkly limits the relief available to those suffering and dying in these prisons. This Note proposes an amendment to the legislation that could create a path toward lasting relief for incarcerated people. After analyzing the effects of increasing heat on the particularly vulnerable prison population, this Note analyzes how the Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit have handled claims alleging constitutionally violative prison conditions under the Eighth Amendment—in short, ineffectively, if at all. This Note then details …

Reconstructing Citizenship, Jenny E. Carroll, James Jeter

Faculty Scholarship

In our republican democracy, voting is a central right of citizenship. Yet millions of voters are routinely disenfranchised as a result of convictions or because their carceral status creates barriers to voting. In the past decade, academic scholarship has focused on the impact of disenfranchisement based on conviction. This work has mapped the legal and social implications of policies that deny voting rights to over five million otherwise eligible voters nationwide. Yet this work has some gaps. First, by focusing solely on conviction-based disenfranchisement, the existing scholarship has largely ignored fatal barriers to voting created (and at times perpetuated) by …

Affirmative Action’S Asian American Problem, Huyen Pham, Joseph Thai

Faculty Scholarship

Asian American opponents of affirmative action have received both credit and blame for their pivotal role in toppling racial preferences in university admissions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA). Allied conservatives highlighted evidence of discrimination against Asian American applicants as a compelling reason to dismantle affirmative action; liberals either denied this discrimination existed or tolerated it as an acceptable cost of helping other minority applicants. But largely unacknowledged is the precipitating history of the Supreme Court’s marginalization of Asian American applicants and its decades of tacit approval of their exclusion from affirmative action programs. This unwritten …

Florida’S Privacy Paradox, Emily Grady

University of Miami Law Review

For almost half a century, Floridians have enjoyed a right to privacy specially guaranteed to them by the Florida constitution. This broad right to privacy, pre-Dobbs, guaranteed several specific rights like the right to have an abortion, the right to be left alone in one’s own home, and the right to be able to direct the upbringing of one’s children, amongst other rights. Despite the fact that these specific rights were nestled in the same broad right to privacy, their treatment has been far from similar in recent years in Florida.

This Note examines the evolution of Florida’s …

The Three Elements Of 303 Creative And How They Limit The Decision’S Impact, Dillon J. Richards

University of Miami Law Review

In 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the Supreme Court held that a state could not use a public accommodation law to require a wedding website business to create websites for gay weddings. As the Court saw it, the First Amendment shielded the company because its owner did not want to express speech supporting same-sex marriage—and being forced to create websites for same-sex weddings would compel just that.

Some public reaction to the Court’s opinion—perhaps understandably—construed the case as a full-on attack on gay rights, giving businesses a so-called license to discriminate that could not be limited to the wedding …

The First Amendment In Education: May Faculty At Public Schools Be Disciplined For Political Hate Speech?, Ken M. Levy

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

At a House hearing on December 5, 2023, the presidents of three universities— Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania—refused to state that certain kinds of hate speech, specifically calls for genocide of Jews, are prohibited on their campuses. The backlash against two of them, Harvard’s Claudine Gay and Penn’s Liz Magill, was swift and devastating; both were successfully pressured to resign. Still, while Professors Gay’s and Magill’s responses were widely criticized as tone-deaf, they were legally correct. At many private, and all public, colleges and universities, even the worst hate speech is generally protected unless it is accompanied by …

Terrorism Should Not Be A Crime: How Political Labels Are Dangerous To American Democracy, Abigail S. Grand

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Note calls for a dismantling of the United States’ current method of prosecuting terrorism, rejecting the “terrorism” label as a mechanism for charging crimes. Prosecutors should instead charge individuals in terrorism cases for their underlying criminal actions rather than rely on material support statutes and political innuendos to secure a conviction. By examining the implications of the terrorism label in post-9/11 America, this Note addresses how a moral panic enabled the executive branch to overstep its constitutional restraints and threatened the delicate balance of powers central to American democracy. Next, it proposes, as many have before, that Article III …

Negara Hukum Kesejahteraan Di Batas Pantai: Paradoks Perlindungan Negara Terhadap Masyarakat Pesisir Di Tengah Perubahan Iklim, Aji Baskoro

Jurnal Ilmu Kesejahteraan Sosial

Climate change poses significant challenges to vulnerable coastal communities in Indonesia. As a welfare state, the Indonesian government is expected to safeguard these vulnerable groups through policies that promote their welfare and sustainable livelihoods. However, current policies create a paradox. This article explores this paradox: on the one hand, Indonesia adheres to the welfare state principle, which demands that all government actions be grounded in law, ensuring public safety and welfare. On the other hand, the policies focus on exploiting natural resources, exacerbating the vulnerabilities of coastal communities, particularly in the face of climate change. The article employs a normative …

Make America Fake Again?: Banning Deepfakes Of Federal Candidates In Political Advertisements Under The First Amendment, Sophie Loewenstein

Fordham Law Review

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has developed rapidly. Accompanying this advancement in sophistication and accessibility are various societal benefits and risks. For example, political campaigns and political action committees have begun to use AI in advertisements to generate deepfakes of opposing candidates to influence voters. Deepfakes of political candidates interfere with voters’ ability to discern falsity from reality and make informed decisions at the ballot box. As a result, these deepfakes pose a threat to the integrity of elections and the existence of democracy. Despite the dangers of deepfakes, regulating false political speech raises significant First Amendment questions. …

Judicial Preview Oleh Mahkamah Konstitusi Sebagai Upaya Preventif Perlindungan Hak Konstitusional (Studi Komperasi Dengan Mahkamah Konstitusi Chili), Elisabeth Sihaloho, Fifiana Wisnaeni

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The existence of the Constitutional Court as stated in the provisions of Article 24C of the 1945 Constitution has established the dignity of the Constitutional Court's position as a Guardian of the Constitution which is understood as a judicial institution that protects the constitutional rights of Indonesia citizens. This research is aimed at solving the problem of the constitutional rights of Indonesia citizens who are often injured through legal products in the form of laws. Therefore, this study focuses on studying, analyzing and comparing how the context of judicial preview or can be understood as a test of a draft …

University Of The District Of Columbia Law Review, University Of The District Of Columbia Law Review

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.