Constitutional Law Commons^™

State Taxation Of Corporate Income From Intangibles: Allied-Signal And Beyond, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

If the field of state taxation has become somewhat of an academic backwater, it is not for want of issues warranting sustained scholarly attention. The Supreme Court alone has provided ample grist for the academic mill by handing down an extraordinary number of significant decisions delineating the federal constitutional restraints on state tax power. Among the state tax questions considered by the Court in recent years, none has figured so prominently and persistently in its deliberations as the states' power to tax the income of multijurisdictional corporations. In Allied-Signal, Inc. v. Director, Division of Taxation, the Court revisited the most …

Justice Blackmun, Federalism, And Separation Of Powers, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

On June 8, 1970, Harry A. Blackmun took his seat on the Supreme Court bench. Few then foresaw that, in the ensuing twenty-three terms of the Court, Justice Blackmun would make contributions to American law that rank no less than monumental. Justice Blackmun has become best known for his landmark opinion in Roe v. Wade and his increasingly pointed defense of libertarian and egalitarian values. During his long tenure on the Court, however, Justice Blackmun also quietly has shaped the law of constitutional federalism and separation of powers.

This reality first came to my attention in 1987, when I received …

Machiavelli And The Politics Of Welfare, National Health, And Old Age: A Comparative Perspective Of The Policies Of The United States And Canada, Camilla Watson

Scholarly Works

This Article maintains that in order to fully comprehend the politics of welfare, retirement security, and national health coverage, it is necessary to examine Machiavellian principles in relation to the variables of economic development and inter-party competition. If the principles of Machiavelli are applied in a slightly different and more constructive manner, they may facilitate reform of the American welfare, retirement, and national health systems. Now that the political balance in the United States has shifted from the conservative to the liberal, the time is ripe to consider reforming the entire Social Security system and instituting a comprehensive national health …

Rights As Trumps, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

In this essay, I question Professor Fallon's strong rejection of the notion that "rights are trumps" by making four points. First, rights are trumps in the single, but important, sense that they preclude the exercise of powers granted to government by the constitutional text. Second, rights sometimes operate as trumps on governmental powers in the very purse sense that they cut off all consideration of governmental interests. Third, even when the Court considers government interests in dealing with rights, it often does so on such a restricted basis that the description of rights as "trumps" remains accurate. Finally, even accepting …

Afterthoughts, Milner S. Ball

Scholarly Works

Professor Richard Fallon delivered a thoughtful Sibley Lection which then served as the stimulating subject for an agreeable afternoon Symposium. The papers collected here offer some evidence of the richness of the conversation Fallon opened. I aim to extend that conversation, and so pay tribute both to the Symposium and its honoree, by submitting some afterthoughts. Fallon's paper, with its breadth and subtlety, resists reduction; however, if I do violence and force it into three sentences in an attempt at understanding, the result runs this way: Interests underlie both individual rights and government powers. These interests are conceptually related. It …

Comparative Analysis Of Concurrent Powers In The United States And In The European Community, Sandrine N. Darrouzet

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis investigates the internal concurrent powers through tax and trade of the European Union with a comparative analysis to the American system and decision-making process.  The thesis starts with an analysis of the roots of concurrent powers in the United States and in Europe. Then, with the subjects of tax and trade, it will determine the nature of concurrent powers. The final part examines the possible solutions to limit the scope of concurrent powers. The thesis also includes a special analysis of Article 3B of the Treaty on European Union which focuses on limits of power conferred upon the …

Behind The Parity Debate: The Decline Of The Legal Process Tradition In The Law Of Federal Courts, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

Whether there is parity between federal and state courts has become a central question in the law of federal courts, dividing judges and commentators into two well-defined camps. Although the issue rarely arose thirty years ago, it now enters into virtually every discussion of the rules concerning access to federal court for constitutional claims. On one side of the debate, advocates of broad federal jurisdiction over constitutional challenges to state action claim that federal courts are better than state courts at adjudicating these controversies. On the other side, advocates of state court jurisdiction insist that state courts are fully adequate …

Experimenting With The "Right To Die" In The Laboratory Of The States, Thomas A. Eaton, Edward J. Larson

Scholarly Works

The purposes of this Article are twofold. Our first purpose is to reexamine the legal foundations of a patient's right to refuse treatment. The Court's equivocal handling of the federal constitutional issues in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health invites a closer look at state constitutional, statutory and common law. The source of the underlying right will affect state experimentation with substantive and procedural rules in this area. Our second purpose is to describe the current status of the states' experiments with the right to die. That is, we elaborate in more detail on the state constitutional, statutory and …

Justice Scalia And The Commerce Clause: Reflections Of A State Tax Lawyer, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

This paper considers Justice Scalia's substantive views of the restraints that the commerce clause imposes on state taxation. My purpose is to examine critically Justice Scalia's dormant or "negative" commerce clause analysis of the state tax issues on which he has opined and to draw from that examination some general conclusions about Justice Scalia's commerce clause jurisprudence.

Congress's Paramount Role In Setting The Scope Of Federal Jurisdiction, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

Article III presents a conundrum for scholars seeking a coherent explanation of the federal courts' role in our system of government. On the one hand, the framers set up the judiciary as a separate branch with jurisdiction over federal law and other matters of federal interest. They granted federal judges life tenure and undiminishable salary in order to preserve judicial independence from executive and legislative pressure. It is evident from these provisions that the framers saw a need for a strong national judiciary. At the same time, article III explicitly leaves to Congress the decision whether to create any lower …

Governmental Inaction As A Constitutional Tort: Deshaney And Its Aftermath, Thomas A. Eaton, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services is the Supreme Court's first major effort to define the scope of state and local governments' affirmative obligations under the fourteenth amendment. The Court rejected liability against a county welfare agency and a caseworker for failing to prevent a father from severely beating his four-year-old son. The Court intimated that constitutional affirmative duties exist only where the plaintiff is in the state's custody. Scholarly commentary reads the case as announcing a sweeping prohibition against the imposition of affirmative duties in other contexts. Professors Eaton and Wells demonstrate that the DeShaney opinion is …

Preliminary Reflections On Mckesson And American Trucking Associations, Walter Hellerstein

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On June 4, 1990, the Supreme Court issued its long awaited decisions in McKesson Corp v. Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and American Trucking Associations, Inc. v. Smith. Both cases raised the question of whether a taxpayer has a right to a refund of unconstitutional state taxes. This article analyzes these decisions separately and considers the implications of these decisions on future state tax litigation. The article has two purposes: first, to analyze the McKesson and American Trucking Association cases; and second, to consider their implications for future constitutional challenges to state taxes. The article concludes by stating …

Section 301'S Preemption Of State Law Claims: A Model For Analysis, Rebecca White

Scholarly Works

Congress, in section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act, has provided a cause of action for breach of a collective bargaining agreement. This statute has long been interpreted as ousting state law claims for breach of contract when the contract involved is a collective bargaining agreement.

To what extent Congress, in enacting section 301, intended to foreclose other state law claims by the parties to or the individuals covered by a collective bargaining agreement is an issue that has recently gained prominence. The Supreme Court has decided four such cases unanimously in the last four years.

Such contemporary and …

Untangling The Market-Participant Exemption To The Dormant Commerce Clause, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

This article focuses on an important vehicle through which the modern Court has moved to protect local prerogatives: the market-participant exemption to the dormant commerce clause. The core of the Court's dormant commerce clause jurisprudence is well-settled: "The commerce clause, by its own force, prohibits discrimination against interstate commerce, whatever its form or method...” Over the past two decades, however, the Court has lifted this prohibition when states act as "market participants" rather than as "market regulators." Invoking this distinction, the Court has shielded from commerce clause attack blatant favoritism of local interests when a state or municipality buys printing …

Untangling The Market-Participant Exemption To The Dormant Commerce Clause, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

There is no theme more familiar to constitutional law than the clash between federal power and state autonomy. The history of that struggle reveals, by and large, a long losing battle by the states. Over the years, the Supreme Court has recognized far-reaching congressional powers, rebuffed efforts to rein them in through use of the tenth amendment, and saddled the states with every significant restraint imposed by the Bill of Rights. From time to time, however, the currents of constitutional doctrine run in favor of local control. In recent years, for example, the Court has stemmed the tide toward constitutionalizing …

Rhetoric And Reality In The Law Of Federal Courts: Professor Fallon's Faulty Premise, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

Richard Fallon's recent article, "The Ideologies of Federal Courts Law," [74 Va. L. Rev. 1141 (1988)] offers valuable insights into a bewildering body of Supreme Court doctrine. He effectively demonstrates the "substantial doctrinal instability" of this body of law, and also discerns a pattern amid the chaos. Fallon's treatment of the case law and the scholarship is fair-minded, meticulous, and incisive.

I disagree, however, with one aspect of Fallon's thesis. In my view, he falters when identifying sources of the discontinuity in the doctrine. In Part I of his article he argues that the decisions reflect "two sets of incompatible …

The Impact Of Substantive Interests On The Law Of Federal Courts, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

The thesis of this Article is that substantive factors exert a powerful and often unrecognized influence over the resolution of jurisdictional issues, and have done so throughout our history. The chief substantive factors at issue are the government's interest iin regulating behavior on the one hand, and the individual's interest in enforcing constitutional restraints upon government on the other. Part I of this Article examines the relationship between jurisdictional rules and substantive consequences, Part II describes the Court's conventional account of federal courts doctrine in terms of jurisdictional policy and institutional roles, and Part III shows that the reasons set …

State Taxation And The Supreme Court, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

The Supreme Court's outpouring of significant state tax decisions in recent years has elicited little more than a yawn from most constitutional scholars. The nation's preeminent law reviews, which once were filled with articles examining the Court's state tax opinions, pay scant attention to them today. Leading constitutional law casebooks make only passing reference to state taxation. Indeed, the Court itself has expressed ennui over the prospect of adjudicating a seemingly endless stream of state tax controversies. The lack of academic interest in the Court's state tax jurisprudence may be attributable to several factors. Matters of greater cosmic significance -- …

Service Of Process Abroad: A Study Of The Adequate Notice Requirement, Jan H.F. Schamp

LLM Theses and Essays

This LL.M. thesis provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the adequate notice requirement in transnational service of process, examining the interplay between United States constitutional standards, European Communities conventions, and international treaty law. The work begins with a functional analysis of service of process, tracing its dual role as an assertion of territorial jurisdiction and as a mechanism for defendant notification across the American legal system, traditional English Common Law, and the Civil Law tradition. It then undertakes a detailed comparison of the "due notice" requirement under the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution with the analogous protections …

The Constitutionality Of Regional Interstate Banking Laws, Patricia Matton

LLM Theses and Essays

This LL.M. thesis examines the constitutionality of regional interstate banking laws in the United States, tracing the historical development of the dual banking system from the National Bank Acts of the 1860s through the modern era of interstate expansion.  The work analyzes the federal legislative framework governing geographic restrictions on banking, including the McFadden Act's ban on interstate branching and the Douglas Amendment to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, and surveys the three principal legislative approaches to interstate banking (regional entry, regional-with-trigger-to-nationwide entry, and nationwide entry) as adopted by the New England states. The central analysis focuses on …

Is "Internal Consistency" Foolish?: Reflections On An Emerging Commerce Clause Restraint On State Taxation, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

Before 1983, the Supreme Court had never uttered the phrase "internal consistency" in a state tax opinion. Since 1983, however, the Court has invoked the principle of "internal consistency" on four separate occasions in adjudicating the validity of state taxes under the commerce clause. Indeed, by 1987, the Court could refer almost casually to the "internal consistency" criterion as "the test ... we have applied in other contexts." The Court's talk of "internal consistency" cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric. Three of the four taxes that have been put to the "internal consistency" test have flunked it; cases approving taxes …

Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction For Implied Rule 10b-5 Actions: The Emperor Has No Clothes, Margaret V. Sachs

Scholarly Works

Courts have long assumed the existence of exclusive federal jurisdiction over private actions implied from section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and rule 10b-5. The result is not only to restrict forum choice for rule 10b-5 claimants but also to generate a host of questions concerning the extent of federal authority: whether rule 10b-5 actions are exempt from the claim and issue preclusive effects of state court decisions; whether state courts can hear defenses and state-created claims that involve rule 10b-5; and whether federal courts can stay rule 10b-5 actions in deference to state court litigation. In …

Means, Ends And Original Intent: A Response To Charles Cooper, Michael Wells

Scholarly Works

Charles Cooper believes that the ninth amendment should be read at once more broadly and more narrowly than it is today. In his view, the intent of the Framers was to cabin the power of the federal government. By taking note in the ninth amendment of rights other than those enumerated in the first eight, they sought to ensure that the national government would not exercise powers beyond those listed in the Constitution. Since the aim of the ninth amendment was to keep the federal government one of limited power, it is inappropriate to apply the amendment to the states, …

Commerce Clause Restraints On State Taxation: Purposeful Economic Protectionism And Beyond, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

Few questions in recent years have spawned as much controversy and as little academic interest as the scope of commerce clause restraints on state tax power. The Supreme Court has handed down an extraordinary number of significant decisions addressed to the limitations the commerce clause imposes on state taxation. Yet these decisions have barely caught the eye of the nation's leading law reviews or constitutional scholars. Even those observers who have recognized the Court's renaissance of interest in the dormant commerce clause have largely confined their attention to state regulation, as distinguished from state taxation, of interstate commerce. If there …

Equal Protection Limitations On Choice Of Law Decisions, Anne-Marie Witters

LLM Theses and Essays

In this paper, the author seeks to clarify the implications of contemporary Fourteenth Amendment theory for state autonomy in deciding conflict cases, concentrating on state discrimination against non-residents and aliens. The author argues that laws which distinguish locals from residents of other states should be reviewed under strict scrutiny, just as laws that discriminate against aliens. Also U.S. choice of law methodologies from both past and present are discussed, with the conclusion that modern theories violate the Equal Protection Clause of their systematic preference for forum residents and parochial results. After a review of the European conflicts system, the choice …

The Past And Future Of Constitutional Torts: From Statutory Interpretation To Common Law Rules, Michael L. Wells

Scholarly Works

The cause of action for damages to redress violations of constitutional rights is now firmly established in our law. As recently as 1960, such constitutional tort suits were rare and attracted little attention from scholars. Today, they are a major part of the work of the federal courts and the academic literature is constantly growing. This change can be partly attributed to the expansion of constitutional rights in the 1960s and 1970s, and partly to the 1961 case of Monroe v. Pape. In Monroe, the Supreme Court revived a long-neglected, ninety-year-old statute, 42 U.S.C. 1983, making it the …

A Bicentennial Symposium--The Constitution And Human Values: The Unfinished Agenda, Milner S. Ball

Scholarly Works

The participants in this Symposium share a commitment to explore the question whether law--constitutional law in particular--is one of the humanities and therefore subject to understanding, critique, conceptualization, and practice in freshly humanizing modes. These authors--lawyers, poets, philosophers, writers, activists--make no great claims for their individuals labors or their shared enterprise. They prefer instead to let the work speak for itself.

Legal Perspectives On The Interstate Incidence And Shifting Of State And Local Taxes, Walter Hellerstein

Scholarly Works

Lawyers, especially constitutional lawyers, have long been concerned with the problems associated with the interstate incidence and shifting of state and local taxes. The Constitution has frequently been invoked as a restraint on the states' power to levy taxes on persons, property, or activities outside their borders. Yet the lawyer's view of tax incidence embodied in these constitutional disputes often bears little resemblance to the economist's. In recent years, however, lawyers have sought to import economic concepts of shifting and incidence into the legal analysis of the constitutional limitations on the states' power to export tax burdens to residents of …

Employer And Consultant Reporting Under The Lmrda, J. Ralph Beaird

Scholarly Works

In light of the criticisms of the House and recent constitutional objections, this article reevaluates the viability of the employer and consultant reporting provisions of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Section I discusses the legislative history and purpose of the LMRDA's reporting provisions. Section II examines the courts' treatment of the provisions when attacked on constitutional and statutory grounds.

Conflicts Between Copyright And The First Amendment After Harper & Row, Publishers V. Nation Enterprises, David E. Shipley

Scholarly Works

The relationship between copyright and the first amendment has been discussed repeatedly in the past fifteen years. A free speech privilege has been asserted as a defense in many copyright infringement actions, and the topic has been the subject of lively academic debate. Although no court has held an infringement claim to be defeated by a first amendment defense, considerable attention has been paid to the potential conflict between copyright and free speech interests. Commentators have speculated that in some situations copyright protection could impermissibly abridge the first amendment. The United States Supreme Court's decision in Harper & Row, Publishers …