Constitutional Law Commons^™

Civil Rights And Civil Liberties: Whose “Rule Of Law”?, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Borrowing And Nonborrowing, Lee Epstein, Jack Knight

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Exactly Is Racial Diversity?, Devon W. Carbado, Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Quo Vadis: The Continuing Metamorphosis Of The Establishment Clause Toward Realistic Substantive Neutrality, Paul E. Salamanca

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

For years, the rhetoric of substantive neutrality has dominated interpretation of the Establishment Clause. Under this approach, courts and commentators purport to ask whether a public policy under scrutiny is likely to affect religious choices in an unacceptable way. In fact, so broadly has this approach been taken that both separationists and accommodationists resort to it freely, although with radically differing perceptions as to when policy becomes unacceptable. Arguably, however, adherents to this approach have paid insufficient attention to religious behavior per se. Had they paid sufficient attention to this phenomenon, they would have been forced to acknowledge that little …

Constitutional Law: The Garvee Bonds Case And Executive Power: Breakthrough Or Blip?, Andrew C. Spiropoulos

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law: The Province And Duty Of The Judicial Department: Why The Court Cannot Continue To Use Justiciability To Avoid Dealing With The Tension Between Congress And The President Regarding The War Powers, Cassandra L. Wilkinson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dignity: The New Frontier Of State Sovereignty, Scott Dodson

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law: Retarded Justice: The Supreme Court's Subjective Standards For Capital Punishment Of The Mentally Retarded, Daniel Nickel

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Obeisance To The Separation Of Powers And Protection Of Individuals' Rights And Liberties: The Honorable John C. Eldridge's Approach To Constitutional Analysis In The Court Of Appeals Of Maryland, 1974-2003, Lynne A. Battaglia

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Dormant Commerce Clause And The Hormones Problem, Donald H. Regan

Book Chapters

It is obvious that no anti-discrimination regime can stop at forbidding explicit discrimination of the relevant sort. If only explicit discrimination is forbidden, lawmakers who want to discriminate can hide their discriminatory intentions behind facially neutral classifications that are nonetheless chosen because they differentially burden the protected class. So, we must be prepared to invalidate some facially neutral laws that have "discriminatory effect" or, as American lawyers often call it, "disparate impact." On the other hand, we cannot possibly invalidate all laws which have a disparate impact on a protected class; many perfectly reasonable laws adopted for completely innocent purposes …

Stubbornness Of Pretexts, Daniel B. Yeager

Faculty Scholarship

This Article will reflect on (1) how the Whren v. United States failure to acknowledge what counts as a pretext accounts for the residual confusion as to whether or not Whren really has killed off the pretext argument in constitutional criminal procedure, and (2) the extent to which the Court in Sullivan compounded that failure, which I hope to lightly correct here by distinguishing motives from intentions and then by elaborating the role that each plays, or at least should play, in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

The Constitution Matters In Taxation, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

These articles, from a colloquy on the taxing power, are part of an ongoing-some might say endless-debate between the author and Professor Calvin Johnson about the meaning of the Direct-Tax Clauses of the Constitution and the Sixteenth Amendment. The author argues that the Direct-Tax Clauses were intended to be a significant limitation on the national taxing power, and that the Amendment ought to be interpreted accordingly-to have exempted only one category of taxes, taxes on incomes, from the apportionment rule that otherwise applies to direct taxes.

The Export Clause, Erik M. Jensen

Faculty Publications

This article examines the origins and meaning of the Export Clause in Article I, section 9 of the United States Constitution, which provides that "[n]o Tax or duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State."

Part I of the article considers the original understanding of the Export Clause, concluding that, without the Clause, the Constitution would not have been adopted. In light of the Export Clause's significance in the constitutional structure, Part II examines the Supreme Court's decisions in United States v. International Business Machines Corp., 517 U.S. 843 (1996) (IBM), and United States v. United States Shoe …

The Sound Of Silence: Thoughts Of A Sitting Judge On The Problem Of Free Speech And The Judiciary In A Democracy, Robert H. Alsdorf

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In the recent case of Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, the Supreme Court proclaimed a First Amendment right of free speech for elected judges. The majority's holding is marked by a critical omission: it reached its decision without performing an analysis of the role of either the state or the federal judiciary in the American democracy. The Court failed to acknowledge the Founders' apparent intent that state and federal courts perform the same function.

In our democratic and adversarial system, judges are to act essentially as referees, as impartial decision-makers. Judicial officers do not act in a representative capacity …

Does The Constitutional Right To Privacy Protect Forced Disclosure Of Sexual Orientation, Anne C. Hydorin

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

After the Supreme Court's holding in Bowers v. Hardwick, the Third and Fourth Circuits were split over whether Bowers impliedly extended to forced disclosure of sexual orientation and private homosexual activity. This Note argues that Bowers does not protect forced disclosure of sexual orientation and that the Constitution protects our right to "be let alone" and preserves expected matters of confidentiality from unwarranted government intrusion. In other words, certain private matters must be beyond the unfettered reach of the state. Permitting the government to force an individual to disclose his or her sexual orientation offends this privacy jurisprudence. The Note …

Foreword, Hastings Constitutional Law Quaterly

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Too-Many-Minorities And Racegoating Dynamics Of The Anti-Affirmative-Action Position: From Bakke To Grutter And Beyond, Ronald Turner

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Twenty five years ago, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the United States Supreme Court validated certain considerations and uses of race in university and college admissions decisions. Writing only for himself in one part of the Bakke Court's opinion, Justice Powell expressed his view that the attainment of a diverse student body was a constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education. A quarter century later, in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases discussed in this article, a majority of the Court endorsed Powell's view that the compelling state interest in student body diversity …

Public School Assignment Methods After Grutter And Gratz: The View From San Francisco, David I. Levine

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This Article first discusses the potential impact of Grutter and Gratz on student assignment plans in public elementary and secondary schools. Professor Levine concludes that public school officials who desire to use race in making student assignment decisions probably will be able to articulate a compelling governmental interest under Gruter. However, under Gratz, they will have significant difficulty in meeting the narrow tailoring prong of strict scrutiny analysis if they seek to use race as an express, mechanical means of selecting and assigning students. Because school districts will search for race-neutral assignment plans as they attempt to comply with both …

The Benign-Invidious Asymmetry In Equal Protection Analysis, R. Richard Banks

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Equality In American Law, Gerald Torres

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

From Gibbons To Lopez: Does The Commerce Clause Remain A Viable Tool For Eliminating The Vestiges Of Slavery, 4 Barry L. Rev. 71 (2003), Linda R. Crane

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Suing The Federal Government: Sovereignty, Immunity, And Judicial Independence, Vicki C. Jackson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

As I suggest below in Part I, federal sovereign immunity was a doctrine of limited effect in the early years of this republic and allowed for a number of remedies for governmental wrongdoing. Moreover, the constitutional provenance of federal "sovereign immunity" is obscure, and was a matter of genuine uncertainty in early years. Over time the doctrine developed, drawing support from some aspects of constitutional architecture as well as from unreasoning and mistaken extensions of other versions of "sovereign immunity." Among the strands of constitutional structure behind federal "sovereign immunity" are Congress' powers over appropriations and the jurisdiction of the …

Affirmative Action, Race, And The Constitution: From Bakke To Grutter, Robert A. Sedler

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Comment On The Litigation Strategy, Judicial Politics And Political Context Which Produced Grutter And Gratz, Sheryl G. Snyder

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Prologue: Brief Of Amici Curiae On Behalf Of A Committee Of Concerned Black Graduates Of Aba Accredited Law Schools: Vicky L. Beasley, Devon W. Carbado, Tasha L. Cooper, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Luke Charles Harris, Shavar Jeffries, Sidney Majalya, Wanda R. Stansbury, Jory Steele, Et Al., In Support Of Respondents, Luke Charles Harris

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

The brief of Amici Curiae on Behalf of a Committee of Concerned Black Graduates of ABA Accredited Law Schools in Grutter v. Bollinger was written so as to intervene and to assist in the refraining of the public debate surrounding minority admissions programs in institutions of higher education.

Beyond Congress: The Study Of State And Local Legislatures, Richard Briffault

Faculty Scholarship

I'd like to thank the Journal of Legislation and Public Policy for inviting me back to N.Y.U. I am particularly grateful to have the opportunity to sit between and learn from Bill Eskridge and Beth Garrett, who have once again demonstrated in their comments today why they are leaders in this field. I understand now what it must have been like to be a student in a class with Eskridge as the professor and Garrett as a fellow student – can you imagine what an experience that must have been?

I am going to focus my remarks on state and …

The General Welfare Clause And The Public Trust: An Essay In Original Understanding, Robert G. Natelson

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article examines the three traditional interpretations of the General Welfare Clause -- first, that it is a plenary grant of regulatory and spending power to Congress; second, that it is a plenary grant of spending power only; and third, that it is not a grant of power at all. The author finds severe textual problems with the first and second interpretations and his historical analysis confirms that those interpretations have little basis in original understanding. The third view, says the author, is the most textually sound.

Part II of the article addresses prior studies of the General Welfare Clause …

Two Sides Of A "Sargasso Sea": Successive Prosecution For The "Same Offence" In The United States And The United Kingdom, Lissa Griffin

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the U. S. constitutional law interpreting the concept of “same offence.” Included is a survey of the Supreme Court's attempts to interpret constitutional text in order to provide adequate protection for the underlying double jeopardy interest against vexatious reprosecutions, which have frequently produced inconsistent and illogical results. Part III of this article analyzes U.K. law relating to the concept of “same offence,” where the same narrow double jeopardy protection adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court is supplemented with a broad discretion to prevent unfair successive prosecution that constitutes an abuse of process. Part IV draws lessons from …

Supreme Court's 2002 Term Employment Law Cases: Is This Justice Scalia's Court?, Rafael Gely

Faculty Publications

In a recent article,' Erwin Chemerinsky argues that the Supreme Court's constitutional law decisions of the 2002 Term "cannot be explained by any overarching theory or underlying set of interpretative principles." Instead, he argues, "constitutional law is all about value choices made by the Justices." Professor Chemerinsky also argues that given the current composition of the Court, "it is the value choices of the middle" - Justice O'Connor and Justice Kennedy - that matter the most. Professor Chemerinsky ends his article with the assertion that "[f]or better or worse, this really is the O'Connor Court." In reviewing the cases decided …

The True Story Of Marbury V. Madison, David F. Forte

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Though normally not friends of original intent or legal tradition, today's judicial "activists" like to trace their lineage back to the (purported) original judicial activist, to the great Chief Justice who was the first to persuade the Supreme Court to strike down a law of Congress.

According to this conceit, which is now the standard interpretation enshrined in countless histories and hornbooks, Marbury v. Madison was the breakthrough that demonstrated how truly powerful the judiciary could be. In this famous case, decided 200 years ago, Marshall supposedly showed that the Constitution is an elastic document or at least could be …