Constitutional Law Commons^™

Public Finance In The American Federal System: Basic Patterns And Current Issues, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

Public finance issues with significant consequences for American federalism have been at the top of the political agenda for the last several years. Indeed, much of the current debate about American federalism has been explicitly about questions of public finance: Which level of government should pay for which programs? What is to be the relationship between financial responsibility and policy-making authority? Should there be some overall limitation on government outlays and receipts?

Thus, one of the first actions of the 104th Congress was passage of a measure, swiftly signed into law by the President, to curb the ability of the …

Constitutional Constancy: Why Congress Should Cure Itself Of Amendment Fever, Kathleen M. Sullivan

Cardozo Law Review

The annual Benjamin N. Cardozo Lecture was delivered at the House of the Association on October 25, 1995, in memory of Benjamin N. Cardozo.

Structures Of Environmental Criminal Enforcement, Michael E. Herz

Articles

No abstract provided.

Legal Indeterminacy: Its Cause And Cure, Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

Legal indeterminacy--the extent to which any particular legal theory cannot provide knowable answers to concrete problems is one of the principal themes of modern jurisprudence. Indeterminacy plays an important role in debates concerning interpretation, the nature of legal obligation, and the character and possibilities of the rule of law. Indeterminacy looms particularly large in debates concerning originalism as a method of constitutional interpretation. Some scholars insist that originalism resolves too few problems to be of much use, while others argue that originalism's indeterminacy is often overstated.

Preface: Double Jeopardy In Washington And Beyond, Justice Philip A. Talmadge

Seattle University Law Review

The prohibition against double jeopardy is of ancient lineage in western civilization. In a ringing and scholarly dissent that rewards reflection, Justice Hugo Black said:

Fear and abhorrence of governmental power to try people twice for the same conduct is one of the oldest ideas found in western civilization. Its roots run deep into Greek and Roman times. Even in the Dark Ages, when so many other principles of justice were lost, the idea that one trial and one punishment were enough remained alive through the canon law and the teachings of the early Christian writers. By the thirteenth century …

Facilitating Choice: Judging The Physician's Role In Abortion And Suicide, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

When I was invited to give this talk I thought, "I'll just give my standard slide show on death in America." I thought I would just talk about the right to die, something I can do in my sleep, and everybody would be happy. And you probably would, since it's a pretty good speech. I am going to give it at a Pennsylvania Judges Conference in a couple of weeks, and they will like it. But it is not very challenging, either for me or for you. So, what I want to explore with you today is how judges have …

Theorists' Belief: A Comment On The Moral Tradition Of American Constitutionalism, Jospeh Vining

Articles

The Moral Tradition of American Constitutionalism is one of those rare works that leads us to face, at the center of law and legal thought, the largest questions about human life and human purpose. There is a special reader's shudder, a certain gestural shift in the chair, reserved for that moment of realizing where one is being led-not to the edge, but to the center, so that the questions become insistent, and whatever we and others say and do in the face of them becomes our response to them.

Constitutional Tragedy In Dying: Responses To Some Common Arguments Against The Constitutional Right To Die, James E. Fleming

Faculty Scholarship

I shall argue for the constitutional right to die, including the right of terminally ill persons to physician-assisted suicide. Indeed, I shall argue that it would be a constitutional tragedy if the Supreme Court were to hold that the Constitution does not protect such a right to die,2 and thus to overrule the Ninth Circuit decision in Compassion in Dying v. Washington3 (to say nothing of the Second Circuit decision in Quill v. Vacco4). First, such a holding would entail that the Constitution sanctions a grievous wrong, a horrible form of tyranny: allowing the state to impose upon some citizens, …

The Original Constitution And Our Origins, John O. Mcginnis

Articles

The question why we should be bound by the original Constitution often is framed as why we should be guided by the dead hand of the past. The notion that this venerable document should be viewed as a possibly unfortunate constraint on our present potential as a society contains an implicit premise about man in history. According to this view, it is open to man to make his history in each generation through some collective cultural process. Given such a premise, it seems plausible to believe that each generation should enjoy the opportunity to decide anew whether to submit to …

The Once And Future Property-Based Vision Of The First Amendment, John O. Mcginnis

Articles

The growth of the information superhighway depends not only on technological developments, but also on our society's commitment to the free flow of information. Paradoxically, however, as the digital revolution in telecommunications is bringing the information superhighway into sharp focus, the justifications for contemporary First Amendment jurisprudence are becoming blurred.

The Reasons So Many People Support Physician-Assisted Suicide - And Why These Reasons Are Not Convincing, Yale Kamisar

Articles

It would be hard to deny that there is a great deal of support in this country-and ever-growing support-for legalizing physician-assisted suicide (PAS). Why is this so? I believe there are a considerable number of reasons. In this article, I shall discuss five common reasons and explain why I do not find any of them convincing.

We The People[S], Original Understanding, And Constitutional Amendment, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

Recent legal and political activity and renewed academic discussion have focused considerable attention on the nature of the federal system that the founders created some two hundred years ago. In two important decisions in the 1994 Term, the Supreme Court addressed this issue. No fewer than fifteen states have recently passed resolutions reasserting the importance of the Tenth Amendment – the constitutional affirmation of the limits on national authority. Additionally, legal academics have advanced arguments intended to alter settled understandings about the constitutional framework established in 1789. This widespread reexamination of the nature and limitations of our federal system has …

Confusing Punishment With Custodial Care: The Troublesome Legacy Of Estelle V. Gamble, Philip Genty

Faculty Scholarship

For the better part of two centuries, imprisonment has been the primary means of punishment for non-capital offenses in the United States. A person, once convicted, is turned over to an institution that will regulate every minute of her or his life. Yet, despite the central role that prisons have long played in our society, the use of the Constitution to regulate conditions of confinement in prisons is a relatively recent phenomenon. Certainly, part of this has to do with the fact that constitutional litigation did not begin in earnest until the "rediscovery" of the Civil War era civil rights …

The Local Government Boundary Problem In Metropolitan Areas, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

Local government boundaries play an important role in the governance of metropolitan areas by defining local electorates and tax bases and the scope of local regulatory powers and service responsibilities. Yet, the close association of local powers with local boundaries generates spillovers, fiscal disparities, and interlocal conflicts. Real local autonomy is constrained but the local government system fails to provide a means for addressing regional problems. Public choice theorists and political decentralizationists oppose regional governments because of the threat to local autonomy that would result from removing powers from local hands. Richard Briffault's solution to the metropolitan governance problem is …

The Sovereign Immunity Exception Comment, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

Seminole Tribe v. Florida is the 1995 Term's illustration of the importance that a narrow, but solid, five-Justice majority of the Supreme Court attaches to the constitutional underpinnings of "Our Federalism." In Seminole Tribe, this majority declared that Congress lacks authority under its Article I, Section 8 regulatory powers to subject unconsenting states to suits initiated in federal court by private persons. The very same majority had previously made clear its intention to implement the original constitutional understanding of a national government of limited powers, especially when the national government attempted to "commandeer" state legislative and administrative processes. This …

Bork V. Burke, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

I would like to make the case for a conservative alternative to originalism. Much of the discussion that has taken place over the last two days has proceeded on the assumption that there are two choices. One is Robert Bork's originalism, justified by various values near and dear to conservative hearts, such as the rule of law, continuity with the past, the principle of democratic accountability, and so forth. The other is to flee into the hands of the so-called nonoriginalists, and embrace, to quote Judge Easterbrook quoting Justice Brennan, the judge's "personal confrontation with the well-springs of our society." …

The New Ethiopian Constitution: Its Impact Upon Unity, Human Rights And Development, Minasse Haile

Articles

The 1994 Ethiopian Constitution, while intended to address historical injustices, has exacerbated tribalism, human rights violations, and poverty by establishing a flawed federal system based on ethnic affiliation. The Constitution grants excessive autonomy to ethnic-based states, undermining national unity and central authority. Its lack of enforceable limitations on government power, absence of judicial review, and emphasis on secession have created a system prone to instability and human rights abuses. The article argues that the Constitution's structure, inspired by defunct Soviet models, is ill-suited to Ethiopia's needs, threatening its democracy, development, and cohesion.

Wanted: Privacy Protection For Doctors Who Performed Abortions, Angela Christina Couch

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Gay Does Not Necessarily Mean Good: A Critique Of Jeffery Sherman's "Love Speech: The Social Utility Of Pornography", Bridget J. Crawford

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Rhetoric Of Disrespect: Uncovering The Faulty Premises Infecting Reproductive Rights, Elizabeth A. Riley

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Michigan's Proposed Prenatal Protection Act: Undermining A Woman's Right To An Abortion, Mark S. Kende

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.