Constitutional Law Commons^™

Private Religious Choice In German And American Constitutional Law: Government Funding And Government Religious Speech, Ingrid B. Wuerth

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

We will never face Germany's specific problems of religion and government, arising as they do from its particular history. The sharply contested religion cases from Germany in the late 1990s do, however, point to problems with our growing reliance on private religious choice analysis that demand our attention in both government funding and speech cases. To understand the problems of funding religious groups in neutral programs, we must back up and ask the foundational question: what goals may the government pursue with its funding? The broader those goals are defined, the greater the potential distortion of private religious choice, through …

Power And The Subject Of Religion, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

Under the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Nevertheless, congressional actors have on occasion enacted laws that expressly make religion the subject of legislation. Many scholars justify these laws on the grounds that Congress at the time of the Founding had an implied power to legislate on religion if necessary and proper to an enumerated end.

Professor Lash argues that the "implied power" theory cannot withstand historical scrutiny. Whatever "implied power" arguments may have emanated from the original Constitution, those arguments were foreclosed by the adoption of the …

Cases Versus Theory, Richard B. Collins

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Abiding Relevance Of Federalism To U.S. Foreign Relations, Curtis A. Bradley

Faculty Scholarship

In, Agora: Breard (collection of articles re: Breard v. Virgina, 513 U.S. 971 (1994).

Business Subsidies And The Dormant Commerce Clause, Dan T. Coenen

Scholarly Works

In this Article, I seek to respond to the Court's overture with a treatment of of subsidies under the dormant Commerce Clause that moves progressively from the general to the specific. Part I examines key Supreme Court cases to show that the basic question of whether state business subsidies are constitutional remains open and important. Part II then turns to how that question should be resolved, focusing on whether subsidies are fairly distinguishable from ostensibly equivalent, and concededly unlawful, discriminatory tax relief. The thrust of Part II is that both precedent and policy support the traditional, pre-West Lynn Creamer" view …

High-Level, "Tenured" Lawyers, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

Government lawyers can be broadly categorized as either political or civil service appointees. The political appointees constitute a thin layer at or near the top of the hierarchy of government lawyers. They include, most prominently, presidential appointees – "Officers of the United States" who must be nominated and confirmed by the Senate prior to their appointment. They also include a variety of lesser lawyers who are exempt from most of the civil service laws. Such exempt "inferior Officers" include, for example, the lawyers in the White House Counsel's office and so-called "Schedule C" lawyers who hold positions "of a confidential …

Law And Human Dignity: The Judicial Soul Of Justice Brennan, Stephen Wermiel

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Implied Wavier After Seminole Tribe, Kit Kinports

Faculty Scholarship

Part I of this Article briefly traces the history of the Supreme Court's Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence, focusing in particular on the opinions developing the doctrines of implied waiver and abrogation. Part II makes the case that the doctrine of implied waiver retains validity after Seminole Tribe, at least with respect to federal statutes passed pursuant to the Spending Clause that condition the receipt of federal funds on the states' waiver of the Eleventh Amendment and statutes passed under Congress's other Article I powers that regulate an activity voluntarily undertaken by the states. Finally, Part III considers other potential constitutional …

Jam For Justice Holmes: Reassessing The Significance Of Mahon, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

When courts and commentators discuss Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, they use the same word with remarkable regularity: famous. Mahon has achieved this fame in part because it was the occasion for conflict between judicial giants, and because the result seems ironic. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.--the great Lochner dissenter and a jurist generally considered a champion of judicial deference to legislatures in the sphere of economic decision-making--wrote the opinion striking down a Pennsylvania statute barring coal mining that could cause the surface to cave-in. Sharply dissenting from Holmes's opinion was his consistent ally on the Court, Justice Louis …

Translation Without Fidelity: A Response To Richard Epstein’S Fidelity Without Translation, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article is a response to Fidelity Without Translation by Richard Epstein (1997).

Explaining why a body of work is influential is inevitably a complex matter, but part of the success of Professor Epstein’s writings undoubtedly stems from their grounding in the original understanding of the Constitution. He has claimed the mantle of the framers, and that claim gives his reading of the takings clause a deep resonance it would not otherwise have.

Explicitly rejecting Epstein’s reading of the clause and the history that lay behind its adoption, the author has previously advanced his own view of the original understanding …

Textualism And Judgment, Suzanna Sherry

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Textualism, like other foundationalist theories such as originalism, purports to be a grand theory of constitutional interpretation, answering all questions with the same single-minded and narrowly constrained technique. The inevitable result is a diminution of what one might call judgment. Judgment is what judges use to decide cases when the answer is not tightly constrained by some interpretive theory. It is an aspect of what others have called prudence, or pragmatism.' But if one has a theory of constitutional interpretation that is supposed to produce clear answers in a relatively mechanical way, there is little room for the exercise of …

Review Essay / Criminal Procedure As Constitutional Law, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Book review and essay of The Constitution and Criminal Procedure: First Principles by Akhil Reed Amar.

The Courts And The Congress: Should Judges Disdain Political History?, Peter L. Strauss

Faculty Scholarship

In an earlier article in these pages, Professor John Manning argued that the use of legislative materials by courts in effect permits Congress to engage in delegation of its authority to subunits of the legislature, in violation of the separation of powers. Professor Strauss, acknowledging that the previous generation of courts may have excessively credited the minutiae of legislative history, responds that judicial attention to the political history of legislation is required, not forbidden, by considerations of constitutional structure. Only awareness of that history will promote interpretation reflective of the context and political moment of Congress's action. Our history of …

The Dream That Will Not Die: Martin Luther King, Jr., And The Continuing American Revolution, Henry Mcgee

Faculty Articles

Professor Henry W. McGee, Jr. reviews Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, By David J. Garrow. Bearing the Cross depicts Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while neither a lawyer nor a judge, belonged in the pantheon of American constitutional giants. From the Gethsemane of an Alabama jail, Dr. King carried the cross of freedom to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and ultimately to his own crucifixion on the balcony of a Memphis motel. The story of how a black Baptist minister caused the Constitution to be applied to all Americans is one …

The Federal System As Bill Of Rights: Original Understandings, Modern Misreadings, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Focus On Faculty, Richard D. Friedman

Other Publications

Professor Richard Friedman talks about his scholarship and work.

Confrontation: The Search For Basic Principles, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the accused in a criminal prosecution the right "to be confronted with the Witnesses against him."' The Confrontation Clause clearly applies to those witnesses who testify against the accused at trial. Moreover, it is clear enough that confrontation ordinarily includes the accused's right to have those witnesses brought "face-toface," in the time-honored phrase, when they testify.2 But confrontation is much more than this "face-to-face" right. It also comprehends the right to have witnesses give their testimony under oath and to subject them to crossexamination. 3 Indeed, the Supreme Court has treated the accused's …

On The Meaning And Impact Of The Physician-Assisted Suicide Cases. (Symposium: Physician-Assisted Suicide: Facing Death After Glucksberg And Quill), Yale Kamisar

Articles

I read every newspaper article I could find on the meaning and impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's June 1997 decisions in Washington v. Glucksberg' and Vacco v. Quill.2 I came away with the impression that some proponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) were unable or unwilling publicly to recognize the magnitude of the setback they suffered when the Court handed down its rulings in the PAS cases.

Is Roe V. Wade Obsolete?, Robert A. Destro

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

‘Mixed’ Constitutions: Product Of An East-Central European Constitutional Melting Pot, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Scholarly Articles

Part I of this Article discusses the difficulties involved in attempting to classify the new constitutions using traditional criteria. Part II examines the processes involved in the adoption of the various components of existing constitutional models into the constitutions of the East-Central European states, including separate analysis of the distributions of power, the structures of the legislatures, the electoral systems, the systems of governance and mechanisms of judicial enforcement provided by these instruments. Finally, Part III makes observations and draws conclusions regarding the processes examined in Part II.

Constitutional Qualms Concerning: Government Restrictions On Tobacco Product Advertising, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

This Article evaluates the constitutionality of a representative series of congressional proposals to limit tobacco advertising. Federal legislation codifying the tobacco settlement included possible restrictions on outdoor advertising, a prohibition on the use of cartoon images, permitting only tombstone format for advertisements in publications that target a youth audience, a prohibition on the sale or gift of promotional items bearing tobacco product names or logos, a ban on industry sponsorship of sporting and other cultural events, and restrictions on Internet promotions. The Author suggests that upon seeking to prevent tobacco companies from encouraging illegal tobacco use by minors, the FDA's …

Compelled Lawyer Representation And The Free Speech Rights Of Attorneys, Leora Harpaz

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the Supreme Court's decision in Hurley v. Irish-American and compares it to the decision in Stropnicky v. Nathanson. It then considers whether there are sufficient distinctions between the two cases so as to defeat the First Amendment argument that was successful in Hurley. It concludes that the differences between the two cases are not sufficiently significant from the point of view of the First Amendment and that the application of the state public accommodation statute to a lawyer's ideologically motivated decision not to represent a client violates the First Amendment.

The Status Of Constitutional Religious Liberty At The End Of The Millennium, Kurt T. Lash

Law Faculty Publications

I have the privilege of introducing the 1998 Bums Lecture Symposium- Religious Liberty in the Next Millennium: Should We Amend the Religion Clauses of the United States Constitution? My role in this Symposium is to acquaint you with the religion clauses of the Constitution- where they came from- where they've been- and where they seem to be today. Our Symposium contributors, Professors Kent Greenawalt and Robert George will discuss just where they think the religion clauses should go in the future.

Breard And The Federal Power To Require Compliance With Icj Orders Of Provisional Measures, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Among the puzzling aspects of the Breard episode was the Clinton administration's claim that the decision whether or not to comply with the Order of the International Court of Justice requiring the postponement of Breard's execution lay exclusively in the hands of the Governor of Virginia. The ICJ's Order provided that"[t]he United States should take all measures at its disposal to ensure that Angel Francisco Breard is not executed pending the final decision in these proceedings." The Clinton administration argued that the Order was not binding, but it also took the position that, even if the order were binding, …

Night And Day: Coeur D’Alene, Breard, And The Unraveling Of The Prospective-Retrospective Distinction In Eleventh Amendment Doctrine, Carlos Manuel Vázquez

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Supreme Court's decision in Edelman v. Jordan has been read to establish a distinction between suits seeking prospective relief from a state official's violation of federal law (which are not barred by the Eleventh Amendment under Ex parte Young) and suits seeking retrospective relief from the state (which are barred by the Eleventh Amendment, even if the officer is the defendant). Commentators and the lower courts have long had difficulty understanding and applying the distinction. Until recently, the principal effect of the Edelman line of cases has been to bar suits seeking damages and similar monetary relief from …

Judicial Exclusivity And Political Instability, Neal Devins, Louis Fisher

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Institutional Analysis And Physicians' Rights After Vacco V. Quill, Larry I. Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Judicial Supremacy And The Settlement Function, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

The Execution Of Search Warrants, H. Patrick Furman

Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Symposium On Constitutional Elitism, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.