Constitutional Law Commons^™

Entrapment And The Problem Of Deterring Police Misconduct, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

Many the states currently use a version of the entrapment defense known as the “objective test,” which focuses solely on the extent of police overreaching in the case, and seeks to deter police misconduct by acquitting the defendant. Acquitting defendants as a means of deterring undercover police misconduct, however, is a public policy fraught with problems, and these problems have not been adequately addressed in the literature to date. This article applies the insights of modern deterrence theory to wrongful activity by police in undercover operations. In doing so, three general problems emerge. First, the objective test relies on an …

Toward A New Constitutional Anatomy, Victoria Nourse

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is an important sense in which our Constitution's structure is not what it appears to be--a set of activities or functions or geographies, the 'judicial" or the "executive" or the "legislative" power, the "truly local and the truly national. "Indeed, it is only if we put these notions to the side that we can come to grips with the importance of the generative provisions of the Constitution: the provisions that actually create our federal government; that bind citizens, through voting, to a House of Representatives, to a Senate, to a President, and even, indirectly, to a Supreme Court. In …

All Party Oireachtas Committee On The Constitution Ninth Progress Report, Tom Dunne

Reports

Ireland, like many other countries with high rates of economic growth, is urbanising rapidly. There has been considerable emphasis on planning for this through the National Development Plan, the National Spatial Strategy, development guidelines and other measures. Through these the state intends that a proper planning process will lead growth rather than leaving it to market forces to drive development in what are regarded as undesirable directions. The latter it is feared will lead to unsuitable social, economic or physical outcomes. Unintended results have flowed from the implementation, or flawed implementation of many of these policies and have given rise …

Strikes Through The Prism Of Duties: Is There A Fundamental Duty To Strike Under The Indian Constitution?, Shubhankar Dam

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Much of the debates on the legality of strikes under the Indian Constitution has been on the issue of a right to strike. This paper argues that the constitutionality of strikes may be analysed through the prism of duties, i.e. fundamental duties under Part IVA of the Constitution. Strikes were an integral part of the ideals that inspired India's national struggle against imperialism. And, in this sense, when article 51A exhorts Indians to cherish and follow the noble ideals that inspired our freedom struggle, it includes a fundamental duty to strike. Invoking the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, the paper argues …

Peoples Union For Civil Liberties V Union Of India: Is Indian Democracy Dependent On A Statute?, Shubhankar Dam

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

What is the status of a right to vote in the Indian legal system? Is the right a constitutional/fundamental right? Or is it simply a statutory right? Contrary to the decisions of the Supreme Court in the last five decades, this paper argues that the right to vote is a constitutional right: its textual foundation may be located in Article 326. And, in this sense, the Supreme Court has erred in construing the right to vote as a statutory right under the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951. Interpreting the right to vote as a statutory right has larger implications for …

The Aretaic Turn In Constitutional Theory, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The author argues that the aretaic turn in constitutional theory is an institutional approach to theories of constitutional interpretation ought to be supplemented by explicit focus on the virtues and vices of constitutional adjudicators. Part I, The Most Dysfunctional Branch, advances the speculative hypothesis that politicization of the judiciary has led the political branches to exclude consideration of virtue from the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court Justices and to select Justices on the basis of the strength of their commitment to particular positions on particular issues and the fervor of their ideological passions.

Part II, Institutionalism and Constitutional …

Justice Scalia On The Use Of Foreign Law In Constitutional Interpretation: Unidirectional Monologue Or Co-Constitutive Dialogue, Melissa A. Waters

Scholarship@WashULaw

This short essay explores Justice Antonin Scalia's conservative alternative approach to recent efforts by other Justices to utilize foreign and international legal sources in the Supreme Court's jurisprudence. It discusses Justice Scalia's writings and remarks over the course of the 2003-2004 Supreme Court Term: On the one hand, Justice Scalia consistently denounced the use of foreign legal sources in constitutional interpretation, both in his concurring opinion in Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain and in his keynote address at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law. On the other hand, in his dissent in Olympic Airways v. Husain, Justice Scalia …

Reading Clarence Thomas, Kendall Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

Several years ago, a special issue of The New Yorker entitled "Black in America" included an extraordinary profile of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Authored by Jeffrey Rosen, the article begins with an account of Justice Thomas's interventions in two of the most important cases decided during the Court's previous term. In the first of these cases, Missouri v. Jenkins, the Court was called upon to define the constitutional scope and limits of the federal judicial power to address racial concentration in Kansas City's public schools through salary increases and the creation of magnet programs. In the second …

Valuation Averaging: A New Procedure For Resolving Valuation Disputes, Keith Sharfman

Rutgers Law School (Newark) Faculty Papers

In this Article, Professor Sharfman addresses the problem of "discretionary valuation": that courts resolve valuation disputes arbitrarily and unpredictably, thus harming litigants and society. As a solution, he proposes the enactment of "valuation averaging," a new procedure for resolving valuation disputes modeled on the algorithmic valuation processes often agreed to by sophisticated private firms in advance of any dispute. He argues that by replacing the discretion of judges and juries with a mechanical valuation process, valuation averaging would cause litigants to introduce more plausible and conciliatory valuations into evidence and thereby reduce the cost of valuation litigation and increase the …

Against Same-Sex Marriage, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

The question of the day is, Why should the law limit marriage to heterosexual couples? That is the question posed by the coming debate over the FMA.

No answer fits neatly into our cultural practices. Marriage is already in a very confused state. The way that many married couples live is, in fact scarcely distinguishable from the way some homosexual partners do. Where marriage means to so many heterosexuals: share a bed, share a checkbook and maybe, some day, share parental duties, why exactly is it that two men may not marry? Saying that two men cannot marry appears, from …

Liability Rules For Constitutional Rights: The Case Of Mass Detentions, Eugene Kontorovich

ExpressO

Constitutional law assumes that rights should always be protected by property rules – that is, the government can only take them with the individual’s consent. This Article extends to constitutional law the insights of Calabresi and Melamed’s famous article on property and liability rules. Whether rights should be protected by property rules or liability rules depends on the transaction costs of negotiating a transfer of rights. As transaction costs rise, liability rules become more attractive.

This Article shows that liability rules can have an important role in constitutional law. Using mass detentions in national security emergencies as a case study, …

Affirmative Action: More Efficient Than Color Blindness, Abraham Lee Wickelgren

ExpressO

One of the most compelling reasons against affirmative action is the principle of color blindness, that is, the idea that race is an irrelevant characteristic that should not affect higher education admissions or hiring decisions. Despite its intuitive appeal, this paper shows that adherence to this principle impedes economic efficiency when there has been past discrimination based on color. Past discrimination creates inefficiencies in the economy that persist across generations. Because of this persistence, race is not an irrelevant characteristic for firms and universities looking to hire or admit the best candidates. Affirmative action, not color-blindness, is necessary to reduce …

Marshall V Madison: The Supreme Court And Original Intent, 1803-1835, Gordon Lloyd

School of Public Policy Working Papers

Should the justices of the Supreme Court rely on “original intent” as the foundation for constitutional interpretation? Or should they be free to interpret the Constitution in light of hermeneutical approaches created by current philosophies of law? This essay examines the Marshall Court to determine whether its opinions take their bearings from the American Founding or instead rely on a philosophy of jurisprudence that can be separated from the Founding. The purposes of this essay are fourfold: 1) to provide a comprehensive account of the use of the Framers by the Marshall Court, 2) address the normative question of the …

Delaney Amendment, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

In 1958, U.S. Representative James Delaney of New York added a proviso to the 1938 Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act declaring that the Food and Drug Administration cannot approve any food additive found to induce cancer in a person or animal.

Operation Rescue, Eric S. Yellin

History Faculty Publications

Operation Rescue, founded in 1986, became known as one of the most militant groups opposing a woman’s right to abortion as established in the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade.

Racial Identity, Electoral Structures, And The First Amendment Right Of Association, Guy-Uriel Charles

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Family Research Council And Roe V. Wade, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Thirty years ago in Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court launched what it hoped would be a cultural revolution. Here are the inaugural words: "The right of privacy...is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy".

The revolution has progressed rapidly. The counter-strategies tried so far have been ineffective: we are no closer to overruling Roe than in 1973; the abortion liberty occupies an organizing place in our culture and politics; the number of abortions annually has remained remarkably steady over three decades.

The Federalism-Rights Nexus: Explaining Why Senate Democrats Tolerate Rehnquist Court Decision Making But Not The Rehnquist Court, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Street Legal: The Court Affords Police Constitutional Carte Blanche, Wayne A. Logan

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Radical Possibility Of Limited Community-Based Interpretation Of The Constitution, Mark D. Rosen

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Pluralism And Democratic Politics: Reflections On The Interpretive Approach Of Baker V. Carr, Guy-Uriel Charles

Faculty Scholarship

Baker v. Carr is one of the Supreme Court's most important opinions, not least because its advent signaled the constitutionalization of democracy. Unfortunately, as is typical of the Court's numerous forays into democratic politics, the decision is not accompanied by an apparent vision of the relationship among democratic practice, constitutional law, and democratic theory. In this Article, Professor Charles revisits Baker and provides several democratic principles that he argues justifies the Court's decision to engage the democratic process. He examines the decision from the perspective of one of its chief contemporary critics, Justice Frankfurter. He sketches an approach, described as …

Al-Khilafah Al-Islamiyyah Menurut Al-Quran : Suatu Kajian Terhadap Kefahaman Masyarakat Islam Di Kuala Lumpur, Abu Zaki Ismail

Student Works (2000-2009)

Kajian ini membincangkan tentang konsep khilafah di dalam Islam berdasarkan kepada perspektif yang dipaparkan di dalam al-Quran. Kajian disasarkan kepada tahap kefahaman masyarakat Islam Malaysia, khususnya di Kuala Lumpur. Sejarah khilllfah Islam yang gilang gemilang telah diakhiri oleh keruntuhan sistem tersebut dengan kejatuhan pemerintahan Islam Turki cUthmaniyyah pada tahun 1924 M. Lantaran itu, muncullah suara-suara di kalangan umat Islam dan ulamaknya untuk kembali kepada sistem khi/Qfah Islam. Penulis cuba melihat reaksi masyarakat Islam sendiri terhadap seruan tersebut selain dari mengenal pasti kefahaman mereka terhadap konsep khilii fah Islam seperti yang digagaskan oleh al-Qur'an. Hasil daripada kajian ini, penuhs dapati: 1. …

Analisis Strategi Retorik Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Iii Tentang Isu-Isu Perlembagaan Negeri Brunei Dan Rancangan Malaysia, 1959-1963, Kee Foong Choong

Student Works (2000-2009)

Kajian retorik ini merupakan satu kajian ke atas teks titah Sultan Omar. Kajian ni meneliti strategi-strategi retorik yang digunakan oleh Sultan Omar ke atas isu Perlembagaan Negeri Brunei dan isu Rancangan Malaysia. Dalam setiap isu itu, aspek-aspek lnvensi, Disposisi dan Gaya Bahasa dikenal pasti dan dihuraikan. Untuk korpus kajian ini, 36 buah titah terpilih Sultan Omar telah digunakan untuk analisis. Satu perbandingan perbezaan kekerapan penggunaan strategi retorik falam ketiga-tiga aspek itu dilakukan bagi setiap isu tersebut. Di samping itu, seni pertitahan Sultan Omar turut dipaparkan. Kaedah analisisnya adalah berdasarkan Hukum Retorik Klasik Aristotle. Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan :iahawa terdapat 35 …

Misunderstood, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Design: Proposals Versus Processes, Donald L. Horowitz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Race-Based Affirmative Action In American Legal Education, Adrien Katherine Wing

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The True Constitutionalist, Raoul Berger, 1901-2000: His Life And His Contribution To American Law And Politics, Gary L. Mcdowell

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

When Raoul Berger turned ninety a little over a decade ago, he was presented with a book of letters from friends and admisrers. Those sending their good wishes were among America's most distinguished jurists, public officials and scholars, including Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, former Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Professor Philip B. Kurland. The collection was introduced by a letter from former President Ronald Reagan.

Thick And Thin: Interdisciplinary Conversations On Populism, Law, Political Science, And Constitutional Change, Mark A. Graber

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Challenges To Racial Redistricting In The New Millennium: Hunt V. Cromartie As A Case Study, Guy-Uriel Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court As A Strategic National Policymaker, Lee Epstein, Jack Knight, Andrew D. Martin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.