Constitutional Law Commons^™

Remedies Symposium: The Brand V. The Man: Considering A Constructive Trust As A Remedy For President Trump's Alleged Violations Of The Foreign Emoluments Clause, Kimberly Breedon, A. Christopher Bryant

ConLawNOW

When the Framers of our national Constitution included the Foreign Emoluments Clause, they did so as a prophylactic against government corruption, but they provided no specified remedy for violations the clause. In this brief essay, we evaluate the viability of an equitable remedy borrowed from the private law of trusts—specifically, the constructive trust—as a potential retrospective remedy for such violations by a President. We first provide context by reviewing the legal claims and requests for relief in three lawsuits currently pending against Donald J. Trump alleging multiple and ongoing Emoluments Clause violations. We then turn to the doctrines governing the …

Vice Presidential Immunity In The Age Of Impeachment: A Fresh Look At The Agnew Precedent, Mark E. Coon

ConLawNOW

Since the 1973 prosecution of incumbent Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, the U.S. Department of Justice has taken the position that sitting Vice Presidents are not constitutionally immune from criminal prosecution in the same way that sitting Presidents are. With the modern rise of prosecution and impeachment as weapons in the political arsenal, the Agnew precedent threatens to upset the constitutional balance of power because it makes Vice Presidents easily removable. This essay argues that the Agnew precedent is incorrect and that Vice Presidents are absolutely immune from prosecution while in office because of the Vice Presidency’s role in the …

When Constitutional Rights Clash: Masterpiece Cakeshop's Potential Legacy, Ken Hyle

ConLawNOW

The narrow question presented to the U.S. Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop is undoubtedly one of great national importance. The decision will likely yield a framework for courts to resolve conflicts that specifically involve religious freedom, artistic expression, and anti-discrimination laws in the context of public accommodations. However, my essay suggests that Masterpiece Cakeshop is an appropriate vehicle for the Court to expound upon a broader, more fundamental constitutional issue: what is the optimal framework for resolving direct conflicts between constitutional rights? The essay begins by exploring the inherent flaw in a framework grounded in the traditional levels of judicial …

Remedies Symposium: Article Iii, Remedies, And Representation, Andrew Coan, David Marcus

ConLawNOW

As articulated by the United States Supreme Court, the principal purpose of Article III standing is to force decisions affecting large numbers of people into the democratic process where all affected parties are represented. The logical implication of this “representation-centered theory” for the proper scope of injunctive relief is straightforward. That relief must not exceed what is reasonably necessary to remedy the particularized injury that sets the plaintiff or plaintiffs apart from the general population. The Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed this logic. Yet courts and commentators, including the Court itself, routinely ignore it. The most prominent recent examples are …

Remedies Symposium: Reexamining Bivens After Ziglar V. Abbasi, Bernard W. Bell

ConLawNOW

In Ziglar v. Abbasi, the U.S. Supreme Court revisited Bivens doctrine, suggesting that courts recognize constitutional tort actions only in cases closely analogous to one of the cases comprising the 1970s/1980s era Bivens trilogy, namely Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, Davis v. Passman, and Carlson v. Green. In doing so the Court set forth several factors that might make a case distinguishable from those 1970s/1980s cases. This essay argues that the key to Ziglar v. Abbasi is not the analogical exercise the Court imposed, but the Court’s concern that Bivens actions could become a mechanism for …

Remedies Symposium: On Critical Junctures, Intercurrence, And Dynamic Political Orders, Paul Baumgardner

ConLawNOW

Relying on contemporary historical-institutionalist literature concerning processes of American political development, this article argues that the nebulous status of religious rights in the United States is largely a recent phenomenon—the result of one coalition (centered around rights protections for the LGBTQ community) growing and making important strides at the same time that a separate "religious rights” coalition attempts to push beyond a disorienting critical juncture. How long this state of intercurrence will persist, and how it will be resolved, are unresolved questions.

Remedies Symposium: Remedies And The Government's Constitutionally Harmful Speech, Helen Norton

ConLawNOW

Although governments have engaged in expression from their inception, only recently have we begun to consider the ways in which the government’s speech sometimes threatens our constitutional rights. In my contribution to this symposium, I seek to show that although the search for constitutional remedies for the government’s harmful expression is challenging, it is far from futile. This search is also increasingly important at a time when the government’s expressive powers continue to grow—along with its willingness to use these powers for disturbing purposes and with troubling consequences.

More specifically, in certain circumstances, injunctive relief, declaratory relief, or damages can …

Remedies Symposium: Remedial Discretion In Constitutional Adjudication: A Codicil, John M. Greabe

ConLawNOW

This symposium paper elaborates on two questions raised by the author’s prior work, Remedial Discretion in Constitutional Adjudication. That paper disagreed with calls for a revival of non-retroactive judicial rulings to facilitate more constitutional innovation and argued that the Supreme Court’s practice of developing doctrines that withhold remedies for constitutional violations—e.g., qualified immunity, exceptions to the exclusionary rule, and harmless-error rules— is both sufficient to facilitate constitutional innovation and preferable to reviving non-retroactivity. Of necessity, the paper also developed a theory of when courts may withhold remedies for constitutional violations and when they may not: courts may withhold remedies responsive …

After Suffrage Comes Equal Rights? Era As The Next Logical Step, Tracy Thomas, Tracey Jean Boisseau

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

No abstract provided.

Unmasking The Teen Cyberbully: A First Amendment-Compliant Approach To Protecting Child Victims Of Anonymous, School-Related Internet Harassment, Benjamin A. Holden

Akron Law Review

In proposing a new rule under the First Amendment to adjudicate anonymous Cyberbullying cases, this Article first reviews and summarizes the First Amendment precedents governing regulation of speech by minors and student speech in the school environment. Second, it reviews and discusses the prevalence of minors’ online harassment or Cyberbullying, including pre-litigation disputes reported in the press. Third, it reviews and summarizes the First Amendment precedents governing the “unmasking” of anonymous speakers. Finally, the Cyberbully Unmasking Test is proposed and applied.

Book Review: James Duane, You Have The Right To Remain Innocent: What Police Officers Tell Their Children About The Fifth Amendment, Cecily J. Mullins

ConLawNOW

In this essay, the student author reviews the book You Have the Right to Remain Innocent by James Duane, which emphasizes the inherent risks of speaking to the police, regardless of whether or not you have something to hide.

Book Review: Deborah Rhode, Women And Leadership, Vaughn Hokanson

ConLawNOW

In this essay, the student author reviews the book Women & Leadership by Deborah Rhode, which offers potential solutions to the all-too-common challenges faced by those seeking to increase the number of women in top leadership positions.

A Look At The Fourth Amendment Implications Of Drone Surveillance By Law Enforcement Today, Mary Mara

ConLawNOW

This paper will examine the current state of drone technology and its increasing prevalence in private and public settings. As police agencies seek to incorporate this new technology into their crime-fighting arsenal, serious Fourth Amendment privacy considerations arise. Although a national debate rages in this country about the impact of modern technology on privacy rights, Congress, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), and the Supreme Court have yet to weigh in on the Fourth Amendment implications of warrantless drone surveillance by law enforcement. Furthermore, while some states have attempted to step into the breach by passing legislation which limits the use …

Sound Principles, Undesirable Outcomes: Justice Scalia's Paradoxical Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence, Mirko Bagaric, Sandeep Gopalan

Akron Law Review

Justice Scalia is renowned for his conservative stance on the Eighth Amendment and prisoners’ rights. Justice Scalia held that the Eighth Amendment incorporates no proportionality requirement of any nature regarding the type and duration of punishment which the state can inflict on criminal offenders. Justice Scalia has also been labelled as “one of the Justices least likely to support a prisoner’s legal claim” and as adopting, because of his originalist orientation, “a restrictive view of the existence of prisoners’ rights.” A closer examination of the seminal judgments in these areas and the jurisprudential nature of the principle of proportionality and …

Justice Scalia As Neither Friend Nor Foe To Criminal Defendants, Tung Yin

Akron Law Review

At first glance, Justice Scalia may appear to have been something of a “friend” to criminal defendants, as he authored a number of opinions ruling against law enforcement. However, his opinions reflect his fidelity to his constitutional vision of originalism rather than an intent to favor criminal defendants. Nevertheless, these cases are often offered as legitimate examples of how he did not have a purely results-oriented approach to deciding criminal procedure issues. Yet, a closer examination of Justice Scalia’s “defendant-favorable” opinions suggests that the results often have an air of unreality to them. In practice, there is no way for …

Originalism And The Criminal Law: Vindicating Justice Scalia's Jurisprudence - And The Constitution, Adam Lamparello, Charles E. Maclean

Akron Law Review

Justice Scalia was not perfect—no one is—but he was not a dishonest jurist. As one commentator explains, “[i]f Scalia was a champion of those rights [for criminal defendants, arrestees], he was an accidental champion, a jurist with a deeper objective—namely, fidelity to what he dubbed the ‘original meaning’ reflected in the text of the Constitution—that happened to intersect with the interests of the accused at some points in the constellation of criminal law and procedure.” Indeed, Justice Scalia is more easily remembered not as a champion of the little guy, the voiceless, and the downtrodden, but rather, as Texas Gov. …

The Death Penalty And Justice Scalia's Lines, J. Richard Broughton

Akron Law Review

In Justice Scalia’s lone dissenting opinion in Morrison v. Olson, he lamented that, after the Court had upheld a law that he believed violated the separation of powers, “there are now no lines.” Lines were of critical importance to Justice Scalia – in law and in life – and informed much of his work on criminal law issues (Morrison, after all, was a case about the nature of federal prosecutorial authority). In the area of capital punishment, in particular, Justice Scalia saw clear lines that the Court should not cross. He believed that the Constitution contemplates the …

Justice Scalia's Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence: An Unabashed Foe Of Criminal Defendants, Michael Vitiello

Akron Law Review

Justice Scalia’s death has already produced a host of commentary on his career. Depending on the issue, Justice Scalia’s legacy is quite complicated. Justice Scalia’s commitment to originalism explains at least some of his pro-defendant positions. Some of his supporters point to such examples to support a claim that Justice Scalia was principled in his application of his jurisprudential philosophy. However, in one area, Justice Scalia was an unabashed foe of criminal defendants: his Eighth Amendment jurisprudential dealing with terms of imprisonment. There, based on his reading of the historical record, he argued that the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel …

Finding Justice, Laurie L. Levenson

ConLawNOW

In this essay memoralizing remarks presented on Constitution Day, Professor Laurie Levenson reflects on her transition from federal prosecutor to defense attorney as founder of Loyola Law School’s Project for the Innocent. She recounts the stories of two clients freed by the work of the Project. She then discusses how this work revealed blind faith in the Constitution is not enough to ensure that only the guilty are convicted. We need to do better. Levenson argues that we need to realize that constitutional rights only protect individuals if both prosecutors and defense lawyers want those rights to work. A prosecutor …

Perspectives From The Bench On Feminist Judgments, Elinore Marsh Stormer

ConLawNOW

Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer, probate judge in Summit County, Ohio, gave these remarks as part of a panel discussion on feminist judging. The discussion took place at a conference sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Law at the University of Akron in October 2016. Judge Stormer offered insights on her own experience as a woman judge and on the role of judges addressing issues of gender equality in their courts.

The Impact Of Justice Scalia's Replacement On Gender Equality Issues, Wilson R. Huhn

ConLawNOW

The last forty-six years may be accurately described as the era of the modern Republican Supreme Court. As a result of presidential elections, Republican presidents have nominated all ten of the Justices appointed to the United States Supreme Court between 1969 and 1991. Republicans have thus controlled the Court since 1970. During this period the right to gender equality was recognized and the right to marriage equality was realized. However, also during this period many Republican Justices staunchly opposed gender equality, and far more remains to be accomplished.

Since Justice Scalia’s death, the Supreme Court has been deadlocked on a …

A Missed Opportunity To Clarify Students' First Amendment Rights In The Digital Age, Elizabeth Shaver

Akron Law Faculty Publications

In the last decade, the federal circuit courts have grappled with the issue whether, and to what extent, school officials constitutionally may discipline students for their off-campus electronic speech. Before 2015, three federal circuit courts had extended school authority to off-campus electronic speech by applying a vague test that allows school officials to reach far beyond the iconic “schoolhouse gate” referenced in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969) Two other federal circuits had avoided the issue altogether by deciding the cases before them on other grounds. In 2015, …

Legal Resources On The Trump Immigration Ban, Center For Constitutional Law

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

This resource bibliography provides legal resources related to the litigation over the presidential immigration ban issued on Jan. 27, 2017. These resources include the executive order, key court decisions, and explanatory commentary.

The Religious Freedom Waltz: Going Forward While Moving Back, Audra L. Savage

ConLawNOW

Although religious freedom has the distinction as the “first freedom,” it is not first in terms of protected rights. Religious freedom is under attack and if not shielded from potential threats, this quintessential American right may be lost altogether. Or at least, this is what U.S. law professors Andrew Koppelman and Steven D. Smith would have one believe, according to books each professor recently published. Unfortunately, they are not exaggerating. Volumes of articles and tomes have been written questioning, critiquing and criticizing (and lamenting, blasting and ridiculing) the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court adjudicating the religion clauses of the …

Open Data, Charles Roman

ConLawNOW

With two recent initiatives, OhioCheckbook.com and DataOhio, Ohio is on the cutting edge of the open data movement, and with the right decisions and policies, it can become one of the leading states in the nation for access to open data, voluntarily and proactively released by the government. It is the future of public records. Rather than merely responding to requests, governments can post information online and citizens can more easily access the data thanks to advances in technology. Technology has changed the way public records are collected, stored, and made available. People no longer have to make requests for …

Assault Weapon Bans: Can They Survive Rational Basis Scrutiny?, Clayton E. Cramer

ConLawNOW

In the last two decades, legislatures and courts have been increasingly willing to argue that a certain class of firearms termed “assault weapons” are not protected by the Second Amendment, and may be regulated or banned even though functionally identical firearms are not generally subject to such laws. Do such underinclusive bans survive even the lowest level of scrutiny: rational basis?

Tying The Knot With A Surname? The Constitutionality Of Japan's Law Requiring A Same Marital Name, Koji Higashikawa

ConLawNOW

The Japanese Supreme Court issued a decision denying married women the right to retain their separate maiden name legally after marriage. It upheld the constitutionality of an old law requiring both marital partners to adopt the same surname. This essay by a Japanese scholar provides insight and explanation into the Supreme Court’s decision.

Why We Need Reed: Unmasking Pretext In Anti-Panhandling Legislation, Joseph Mead

ConLawNOW

The First Amendment severely disfavors content-based restrictions on speech in public areas. In its 2015 decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, the Supreme Court clarified the test for determining whether a speech restriction is content-based, ratcheting up the number of laws subject to strict scrutiny. While this decision has been criticized by some, I argue that, at least in the context of anti-panhandling legislation, Reed was a needed answer to local governments passing overly broad restrictions motivated by a desire to drive an unpopular type of speech from the city square. I use anti-panhandling ordinances from three local jurisdictions—the …

Are The Secrecy Order Compensation Provisions Of The Patent Act Constitutional Under The Fifth Amendment?, Adam J. Citrin

Akron Intellectual Property Journal

The secrecy order provisions of the Patent Act' raise a number of issues under the U.S. Constitution. The primary focus of this note is on the Fifth Amendment issues raised by the Invention Secrecy Act.

Domestic Disorders: Suffrage And New York's Constitutional Convention Of 1867, Felice Batlan

ConLawNOW

In this essay, Felice Batlan discusses New York State’s Constitutional Convention of 1867. She argues that it is (at least in part) the outcome of this convention and the antagonisms that it created that further propelled Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan Anthony to align with interests opposing African-American suffrage. It also shows the absolute mess of pursuing suffrage on a state by state basis and how legislators themselves equated the voting of African American men with women’s suffrage. The essay is part of a larger project in conversation with scholarship about Reconstruction in the North and a second body of …