Constitutional Law Commons^™

Habeas And Hubris, Barry Friedman

Vanderbilt Law Review

In 1965 the Supreme Court made clear that state prosecutors were virtually free to exercise peremptory challenges to remove blacks from criminal juries for no reason other than their race.' Roughly twenty years later the Supreme Court changed its mind: "The core guarantee of equal protection . . . would be meaningless were we to approve the exclusion of jurors on the basis of such assumptions [of bias], which arise solely from the jurors' race."

The right to counsel experienced a similar reversal of fortune. About fifty years ago the Court decided that "fundamental fairness" and a "universal sense of …

Quasi-Constitutional Law: Clear Statement Rules As Constitu, William N. Eskridge, Jr., Philip P. Frickey

Vanderbilt Law Review

In one of the most celebrated law review articles of all time, Karl Llewellyn argued that the traditional canons of statutory construction are not reliable guides to predicting judicial interpretations, because for every canon supporting one interpretation there is a counter-canon cutting against that interpretation. He accomplished his tour de force in large part by focusing upon the "referential" canons-rules referring the Court to an outside or preexisting source to determine statutory meaning'-and upon the "linguistic" canons-general conventions of language, grammar, and syntax. Llewellyn did not explore in any detail the "substantive" canons, the clear statement rules or presumptions of …

The Costs Of Incoherence: A Comment On Plain Meaning, West Virginia University Hospitals, Inc. V. Casey, And Due Process Of Statutory Interpretation, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Theodore M. Shaw

Vanderbilt Law Review

Karl Llewellyn's classic article on the canons of statutory construction, which we rightly celebrate in this Symposium, is too clever by half. To the reader untutored in the scholarly literature on statutory interpretation, the "thrust but parry" pairing of the canons is a delightful demonstration of how legal argument is structured in a way guaranteed to maintain discretion in the judiciary and to keep lawyers in business. No case involving a statute is clear cut because the canons can lend support to either side. This means that no lawyer is without an argument, and a judge is free to do …

Matching Tests For Double Jeopardy Violations With Constitutional Interests, Eli J. Richardson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Familiar to most Americans, the double jeopardy clause (the clause) of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution represents an idea so basic that the average person probably would feel comfortable attempting to explain it. Courts confronted with the task of fixing the meaning of the clause and the scope of its protection, how- ever, have found the task to be far from simple. The United States Supreme Court has been no exception.

During the 1989 Term, the Supreme Court continued its ongoing efforts to define double jeopardy protection. In Dowling v. United States the Court held that the …

State Constitutional Analyses Of Public School Finance Reform Cases: Myth Or Methodology?, Jonathan Banks

Vanderbilt Law Review

The public education system in the United States fails to educate economically disadvantaged children. Students from poor families are more likely to repeat grades,' to have below average basic academic skills, to drop out of school, and to forego attending college. These gaps in educational achievement translate into an inability to compete effectively in the employment market place. In an attempt to remedy these inequalities, plaintiffs have attacked the most obvious source of disparity: state school financing schemes.

People's Court, Nicholas S. Zeppos

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Supreme Court's opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick' contains the usual cant about the legitimacy of the judicial function. In holding that the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment does not recognize a fundamental right to practice homosexual sodomy, the Court cautioned that "[t]he Court is most vulnerable and comes nearest to illegitimacy when it deals with judge-made constitutional law having little or no cognizable roots in the language or design of the Constitution. What exactly did the Court mean? That the public would refuse to obey judicial judgments if the Court were to recognize rights not "found in" …

Constitutional Limitations On State Power To Hold Parents Criminally Liable For The Delinquent Acts Of Their Children, Kathryn J. Parsley

Vanderbilt Law Review

In late 1988 as part of a comprehensive effort to combat violent street gang activity,' the California legislature passed an amendment to section 272 of California's Penal Code, commonly known as the Parental Responsibility Law. Section 272 originally stated only that every person who commits any act or fails to perform any duty that causes or tends to cause a minor to do a prohibited act is guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor under the California Penal Code, and subject to a maximum fine of twenty-five hundred dollars, one year in jail, or both. When …

The Parsonage Allowance Exclusion: Past, Present, And Future, Matthew W. Foster

Vanderbilt Law Review

Religious freedom has played a pivotal role in the history and cultural development of the United States.' Religion historically has been considered a fundamental aspect of American culture, resulting in the granting of numerous legal rights and privileges to religious personnel and institutions. These grants stem from the protections in the Bill of Rights and include privileges that, though of undoubted importance, are not known widely and may fail to provoke controversy to the same extent as perceived infringements or endorsements of religion.'

Section 107 of the Internal Revenue Code grants one of the lesser- known privileges. This statute permits …

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 Constitutionality Of An Off-Dutysmoking Ban For Public Employees:Should The State Butt Out?, Elizabeth B. Thompson

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the past several years, restrictions imposed by states, cities,and municipalities on smoking in public areas have survived court challenges and become almost commonplace.' Likewise, both public and private employers have limited smoking in the workplace. A further restriction that seems to be emerging, however, is a refusal by both the state and a growing number of private employers to hire or to continue to employ smokers. These restrictions limit the employee's freedom to smoke not only in the workplace, but also after working hours and within the privacy of the worker's home.

This Note will address the constitutionality of …

No Call To Glory: Thurgood Marshall's Thesis On The Intent Of A Pro-Slavery Constitution, Raymond T. Diamond

Vanderbilt Law Review

Thurgood Marshall sits as an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court, the only black person ever to do so. Before taking that office he served as the Solicitor General of the United States and as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In these offices he has been called upon to bring his powers of judgment to bear on a multitude of matters concerning this Nation's Constitution. His views on the Constitution, therefore, cannot be easily dismissed.

The 200th anniversary of the Constitution was not only a time of celebration, but also …

Original Intent, The View Of The Framers, And The Role Of The Ratifiers, Ronald D. Rotunda

Vanderbilt Law Review

For much of its history, the Supreme Court has purported to engage in what is called "interpretive" judicial review. Interpretive review occurs when the Court ...

"ascertains the constitutionality of a given policy choice by reference to one of the value judgments of which the Constitution consists-that is, by reference to a value judgment embodied, though not necessarily explicitly, either in some particular provision of the text of the Constitution or in the overall structure of government ordained by the Constitution."

Justice William Brennan, for example, engaged in interpretive review when he argued in his recent Holmes Lecture that the …

The Constitution's Bicentennial: Commemorating The Wrong Document?, Thurgood Marshall

Vanderbilt Law Review

1987 marks the 200th anniversary of the United States Constitution. A Commission has been established to coordinate the celebration. The official meetings, essay contests, and festivities have begun.

The planned commemoration will span three years, and I am told 1987 is "dedicated to the memory of the Founders and the document they drafted in Philadelphia."' We are to "recall the achievements of our Founders and the knowledge and experience that inspired them, the nature of the government they established,its origins, its character, and its ends, and the rights and privileges of citizenship, as well as its attendant responsibilities."

Like many …

Another View: Our Magnificent Constitution, William B. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

Let me start with the observation that I regard myself to be most privileged to be a public servant at a time when we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Constitution a magnificent document that has, in my view, no equal in history and every reason to be feted. It is by now no revelation that the Framers would be aghast at the size and reach of government today; but they would also be enormously proud of how much of their legacy has endured. The vitality of the original Constitution, and its various amendments, is reflected by its ability to …

Federalism, Separation Of Powers, And Individual Liberties, Dennis G. Lagory

Vanderbilt Law Review

In a world that the Framers hardly could have anticipated, the Constitution remains a singularly effective instrument for the pres- ervation of individual liberty. In its allocation of power between the states and the federal government, it provides Americans with multiple champions of their rights--the federal government, which protects a liberty that is constantly evolving to adapt traditional values to new realities, and the state governments, which protect the basic liberties to which mankind has always been entitled. In its allocation of power between the branches of the federal government, the Constitution provides us with a polity possessing powers adequate …

The Coercion Test And Conditional Federal Grants To The States, Donald J. Mizerk

Vanderbilt Law Review

In July of 1984 Congress amended the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982' to require the states either to raise their minimum drinking age to twenty-one or forfeit a percentage of their federal highway grant. This congressional action forced the states to make an extremely difficult decision. The states either could enact a law that their residents might not support or forego the federal highway funds that the states desperately needed to complete important highway improvements. Many states were displeased with both options and challenged the constitutionality of Congress' conditional spending program.

The states' legal challenge has initiated renewed discussion …

The Implications Of Prison Privatization On The Conduct Of Prisoner Litigation Under 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, Susan L. Kay

Vanderbilt Law Review

Prisoners often seek redress in federal courts through causes of action brought under 42 U.S.C. Section 19831 for violations of their constitutional rights caused by the overall condition of their confinement or by one specific condition or incident. Although commentators disagree over the extent to which these cases burden federal district courts, they agree that prisoner litigation constitutes a large percentage of the civil rights litigation in district courts. One of the attractions of prison privatization for state and local governments is the belief that contracting prison management to private firms will relieve the government of the burden of defending …

The President And Faithful Execution Of The Laws, Arthur S. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Constitution is explicit: The President "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Lurking, however, within that seemingly unambiguous language are several constitutional problems-some resolved, some partially resolved, some the subject matter of continuing controversy. As the power of the Presidency has aggrandized since 1789, particularly during the past half century, the question of the meaning to be given to that phrase-and by whom-in different contexts has moved to the forefront of issues involving the separation of governmental powers. This Essay will use the label "separation of governmental powers," although it long has been known that the constitutional …

Miranda And The State Constitution: State Courts Take A Stand, Mary A. Crossley

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note examines how state courts have interpreted state constitutional guarantees of the privilege against self-incrimination independently of the Supreme Court's construction of the fifth amendment. Part II focuses on the historical and theoretical underpinnings of state constitutional law and examines state courts'renewed reliance on their state constitutions. Part III discusses the Supreme Court's interpretation of the fifth amendment in Miranda and its progeny. Part IV presents the states' response to Supreme Court holdings and surveys state court decisions interpreting state constitutions' self-incrimination provisions more broadly than the fifth amendment. Finally, Part V examines the potential for further growth in …

The Constitutionality Of Statutes Of Repose: Federalism Reigns, Josephine H. Hicks

Vanderbilt Law Review

The development of common-law tort liability, especially since the late 1950s and early 1960s, has broken many of the barriers to plaintiff recovery. The abrogation of the privity requirement, the evolution of the discovery rule, and the advent of strict liability were primary agents in this "assault upon the citadel."' These developments have threatened many potential tort defendants, particularly members of the manufacturing and construction industries and the medical profession. In response to lobbying pressure from these groups, many state legislatures have adopted measures to limit tort recoveries. One of the measures most popular among defendants has been the enactment …

Constitutional Limitations On State Taxation Of Corporate Income From Multinational Corporations, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article explores the Supreme Court's treatment, leading up to and including the Container decision, of state taxation of corporate income from multinational operations. Part II highlights the Court's development, prior to 1982, of the basic principles of federal limitations on the states' taxing powers that guided its decision in Container. Part III takes a more detailed look at two 1982 Supreme Court cases, ASARCO, Inc. v. Idaho State Tax Commission and F.W. Woolworth Co. v. Taxation and Revenue Department, in which the states suffered a setback in their efforts to extend the reach of their taxing powers over income …

Punishment And Juvenile Justice: A Conceptual Framework For Assessing Constitutional Rights Of Youthful Offenders, Martin R. Gardner

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article attempts to provide an analytical framework for identifying the punitive aspects of the juvenile justice system. The Article proposes a framework that is extrapolated from Supreme Court cases which define punishment in contexts outside the juvenile area. Several commentators have criticized the Court's definitional efforts, some because of perceived inadequacies in the developed definitions, others because of the belief that the very enterprise of defining constitutional rights in terms of the presence or absence of punishment is misguided . Although many of these criticisms of the Court's record are understandable, the alleged defects are less detrimental to an …

Constitutional Limitations On Governmental Participation In Downtown Development Projects, David M. Lawrence

Vanderbilt Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to investigate the constitutional boundaries that surround the most common forms of governmental participation. Part II of the Article discusses the constitutional limitations on property transactions in which the government either uses its power of eminent domain to condemn land for private downtown development, acquires land for the same purpose through a voluntary sale by the owner of the land, or subsidizes private development by its method of conveying property to the developer. Part III of the Article then discusses the problems that arise when a downtown project includes both public and private facilities, …

Warrantless Aerial Surveillance: A Constitutional Analysis, Kurt L. Schmalz

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development endorses the qualified open view approach, but proposes a new list of considerations to be applied when evaluating an aerial surveillance case. This proposed analysis rejects the open fields doctrine. Instead, courts should apply the Katz test to aerial surveillance. The per se open view approach,however, which holds that no reasonable expectation of privacy can exist in any open area visible from the air, is too narrow to ensure protection of the public's privacy rights. A broader view of the open view approach, which will subject government air surveillance to the warrant requirement in certain circumstances, strikes …

Social Order And The Limits Of Law: A Theoretical Essay, Arthur S. Miller

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professor Jenkins maintains that Americans demand that "the law solve all of [their] problems and secure all of [their] purposes." The result is that we "so overload the legal apparatus that it short circuits, creating a spectacular display of fireworks but affecting nothing save its own wreckage."' That assertion, even if only partially accurate, merits close and continuing attention. Jenkins' analysis of that hypothesis--that proposition-is at once thought-provoking and illuminating. We are all in his debt for having written such a challenging book, even though I have some fundamental disagreements with how he develops that theme. Jenkins' work is a …

Aesthetic Regulation Under The Police Power: The New General Welfare And The Presumption Of Constitutionality, Beverly A. Rowlett

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Article will examine the existing methods of analysis employed by courts in reviewing primarily aesthetic regulations, as well as the way in which those methods have been affected by the courts' continually evolving interpretation of the concept of general welfare. The Article argues that in many cases in which regulations based solely or primarily on aesthetic considerations have been upheld, the essential constitutional inquiries have been misdirected. This is because "nonaesthetic" justifications are asserted that either are wholly derived from aesthetic benefits, or have no basis in fact--and need none because of the presumption of constitutionality. Because the more …

Point, Counterpoint: The Evolution Of American Political Philosophy, William H. Rehnquist

Vanderbilt Law Review

I would suggest to you that during the more than two centuries that have elapsed since the American Revolution, American political philosophy has been notable principally for the contrapuntal themes that rise and fall as the nation matures. Numerous commentators have pointed out that certain ideals have long been widely shared by Americans: individual autonomy, liberty, equality, and a belief in limited, decentralized government.1 But no one would be so bold as to describe the present government of the United States as embodying those ideals. We have a strong national government that, with occasional lapses, impinges more and more on …

Democracy And Distrust: A Theory Of Judicial Review, Michael Conant

Vanderbilt Law Review

This review is a critique of the major themes in Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review,' by Professor John Hart Ely of Harvard Law School. Ely primarily addresses the amount of discretion exercised by Supreme Court justices in deciding constitutional cases, a fundamental issue since few scholars today would contest the actual existence of the judicial review power of the Court. Ely's thorough scholarship presents a fine discussion of the Court's legitimacy when it extends its discretion beyond the base of the actual constitutional language. Professor Ely misses the mark, however, in his argument that certain open-ended constitutional …

The Civil Investigative Demand: A Constitutional Analysis And Model Proposal, Anthony J. Mcfarland

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Note first traces the initial judicial reaction to administrative demands for information and administrative investigations and delineates the constitutional requirement set forth therein. The Note next examines the development of CIDs and analyzes decisions upholding their constitutionality. This Note contends that most courts either have incorrectly applied current administrative standards to the CID or have failed to apply such standards altogether. The analysis is broken down into six parts,each dealing with a separate constitutional basis for a CID challenge. Because most suits that contest CIDs are based on fourth amendment search and seizure issues, the bulk of this Note …

Due Process For Hill-Burton Assisted Facilities, Margaret L. Huddleston

Vanderbilt Law Review

The need to make health care available to all Americans does not justify the impairment of governmental contracts with Hill-Burton grantees. When substantial rights are greatly impaired by retroactive legislation, the need for a strong governmental justification becomes more acute. The impairment caused by the post-1947 Hill-Burton regulations, particularly the 1979 regulations, is neither reasonable nor necessary in light of the nature and extent to which they impair substantial private rights. The recent Hill-Burton regulations attempt to make health care more available to Americans,but the Government seeks to do this without additional financial expenditure on its part. Although the goal …