Constitutional Law Commons^™

Deciding In The Heat Of The Constitutional Moment Constitutional Meaning And Change In The Quebec Secession Reference, Jonathon W. Penney

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Quebec Secession Reference addressed divisive issues with far-reaching implications for the Canadian constitutional order. Recently, commentators have called for a less traditional and more systematic approach to understanding the decision, and its place in the broader scheme of Canadian constitutionalism. Accordingly, this paper challenges the predominant narrative concerning the Quebec Secession Reference, which is largely judge-centred and shows little regard for the important historical, political, and popular forces so crucial to understanding the decision. The challenge is mounted through the work of Yale constitutional scholar Bruce Ackerman and his theory of constitutional moments. This paper uses Ackerman's criteria of …

Lessons From Small Cases: Reflections On Dodson V. Arkansas Activities Association, Polly J. Price

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Richard Sheppard Arnold: A Distinguished Jurist, A Loyal Colleague And A Good Friend, Gerald W. Heaney

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—The Fourth Amendment Challenge To Dna Sampling Of Arrestees Pursuant To The Justice For All Act Of 2004: A Proposed Modification To The Traditional Fourth Amendment Test Of Reasonableness, Kimberly A. Polanco

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Ten Commandments Return To School And Legal Controversy Follows Them, Leora Harpaz

Faculty Scholarship

The United States Supreme Court confronted the issue of a classroom display of the Ten Commandments almost 25 years ago in the case of Stone v. Graham. In that case, the Court struck down a Kentucky statute that required the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. In a per curiam opinion, the Court summarily reversed a decision of the Supreme Court of Kentucky and concluded that the statute violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause because it had no secular purpose. The outcomes of recent judicial decisions considering the constitutionality of the display of the Ten Commandments …

Political Bargaining And Judicial Intervention In Constitutional And Antitrust Federalism, Jim A. Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Federal judicial deference to state and local regulation is at the center of contentious debates regarding the implementation of competition policy. This Article invokes a political process bargaining framework to develop a principled approach for addressing the appropriate level of judicial intervention under the dormant commerce clause and state action immunity from antitrust enforcement. Using illustrations from network industries, it is argued that, at core, these two independent doctrines share a common concern with political (not only market) failure by focusing on the incentives faced by powerful stakeholders in state and local lawmaking. More important, they share the common purpose …

The Coherentism Of Democracy And Distrust, Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Limited Path Dependency Of Precedent, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparing Human Rights In Two Ethiopian Constitutions: The Emperor's And The "Republic's"-Cucullus Non Facit Monachum, Minasse Haile

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article compares Ethiopia's Constitutions from 1931, 1955, and 1995, arguing that the earlier constitutions under Emperor Haile Selassie provided a stronger foundation for human rights and democracy compared to the 1995 Constitution under the TPLF. It suggests that traditional autocracies may evolve into democracies, whereas modern elected autocracies often perpetuate power. The TPLF's Constitution, despite its progressive rhetoric, fails to ensure free elections, enforce human rights, and uphold international law, leading to a totalitarian state with unchecked executive power.

Reflections On The Teaching Of Constitutional Law, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Unconstitutionality Of "Hold Until Cleared": Reexamining Material Witness Detentions In The Wake Of The September 11th Dragnet, Ricardo J. Bascuas

Vanderbilt Law Review

On March 11, 2004, terrorists affiliated with the Al Qaida networkl detonated bombs on four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, killing 191 people and injuring 2,000 others. Hours later, the Spanish National Police (SNP) recovered a fingerprint from a bag of detonators found in a stolen van parked at a station from which three of the bombed trains departed. The SNP requested assistance from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify the owner of the print. FBI experts concluded that the print belonged to Brandon Mayfield, a U.S. citizen living in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, and the …

The Right To Marry, Cass R. Sunstein

Cardozo Law Review

The Supreme Court has said that there is a constitutional "right to marry"; but what can this possibly mean? People do not have a right to marry their dog, their aunt, June 29, a rose petal, or a sunny day. This essay attempts to make some progress in understanding both the content and the scope of the right to marry. With respect to content, it concludes that people have no more and no less than this: a right of access to whatever expressive and material benefits the state now provides for the institution of marriage. It follows that the right …

Jacobson V Massachusetts: It's Not Your Great-Great-Grandfather's Public Health Law, Wendy K. Mariner, George J. Annas, Leonard H. Glantz

Faculty Scholarship

Jacobson v Massachusetts, a 1905 US Supreme Court decision, raised questions about the power of state government to protect the public’s health and the Constitution’s protection of personal liberty. We examined conceptions about state power and personal liberty in Jacobson and later cases that expanded, superseded, or even ignored those ideas.

Public health and constitutional law have evolved to better protect both health and human rights. States’ sovereign power to make laws of all kinds has not changed in the past century. What has changed is the Court’s recognition of the importance of individual liberty and how it limits …

Cleaning Up The Eighth Amendment Mess, Tom Stacy

ExpressO

This article criticizes the Court’s interpretation of the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause and proposes its own understanding. The Court’s jurisprudence is plagued by deep inconsistencies concerning the text, the Court’s own role, and a constitutional requirement of proportionate punishment.

In search of ways to redress these fundamental shortcomings, the article explores three alternative interpretations: 1) A textualist approach; 2) Justice Scalia’s understanding that the Clause forbids only punishments unacceptable for all offenses; and 3) a majoritarian approach that would consistently define cruel and unusual punishment in terms of legislative judgments and penal custom. As evidenced by the …

The Hydraulics And Politics Of Party Regulation, Michael S. Kang

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

New Light On The Decision Of 1789, Sai Prakash

ExpressO

In the Constitution’s earliest days, members of the House engaged in one of the nation’s most momentous constitutional debates. While deliberating on the Department of Foreign Affairs bill, representatives considered the mechanisms for removing executive officers. The final Act conveyed no removal authority but discussed what would happen when the president removed the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. The traditional view of the Decision, voiced by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and William Howard Taft, is that because the Act conveyed no removal authority and laid out what would happen when the president removed, the Act presumed that the president had a …

A Right To No Meaningful Review: The Aftermath Of Shalala V. Illinois Council On Long Term Care, Inc., Ruqaiijah Ayanna Yearby

ExpressO

A RIGHT TO NO MEANINGFUL REVIEW: THE AFTERMATH OF SHALALA v. ILLINOIS COUNCIL ON LONG TERM CARE, INC. Ruqaiijah A. Yearby

The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment has been perverted in the federal administrative system. Federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), regularly deprive individuals of liberty and property with little to no review. In its regulation of the health care industry through the Medicare program, HHS often turns a blind eye to procedural Due Process protections, such as providing individuals an opportunity to challenge the deprivation of property at a hearing, …

The Disability Integration Presumption: Thirty Years Later, Ruth Colker

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Working Paper Series

The fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision has spurred a lively debate about the merits of “integration.” This article brings that debate to a new context – the integration presumption under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). The IDEA has contained an “integration presumption” for more than thirty years under which school districts should presumptively educate disabled children with children who are not disabled in a fully inclusive educational environment. This article traces the history of this presumption and argues that it was borrowed from the racial civil rights movement without any empirical justification. In …

Is Tiger Woods’S Swing Really A Work Of Art? Defining The Line Between The Right Of Publicity And The First Amendment, Michael R. Suppappola

ExpressO

My Comment, “Is Tiger Woods’s Swing Really a Work of Art? Defining the Line Between the Right of Publicity and the First Amendment,” focuses on the controversial “right of publicity,” a legal doctrine which is now recognized in the majority of states either at common law or by statute. The right of publicity allows athletes and celebrities to exclude others from using an entertainer’s likeness or image absent express permission. Although advocates claim that the right is needed to allow celebrities to profit from their own labor and goodwill, my Comment outlines how the right of publicity endangers traditional First …

The Dual Model Of Balancing: A Model For The Proper Scope Of Balancing In Constitutional Law, Iddo Porat

ExpressO

One of the most pressing problems of current constitutional law in the aftermath of September 11 is how to balance constitutional rights and national security interests. No one however seems to pause and ask should we balance individual rights and national security interests and if so when. One of the reasons for this is the widespread acceptance of what I shall term in this Article, the balancing consciousness: the view that every problem can and should be solved through balancing conflicting considerations. This Article demonstrates that the balancing consciousness is misleading. Not every problem can and should be solved through …

Reflections On Diversity, William M. Tabb

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Law Teacher As Peacemaker: National Security In The Classroom, Stephen Dycus

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Teaching National Security Law, Michael J. Glennon

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Teaching Constitutional Law Stories, Thomas Ross

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action And The Decline Of Intellectual Culture, Charles W. Collier

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Other Students: Teaching The "War On Terror" To Nonlawyers, Juliette N. Kayyem

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Michael D. Ramsey

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Teaching Civil Procedure Stories, Nancy S. Marder

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

The Irrational Supreme Court, Michael I. Meyerson

ExpressO

Abstract: The Irrational Supreme Court

The pejorative “irrational” is used to describe many defects in legal reasoning, but is generally not meant to be understood as a literal lack of rational thinking. Similarly, the “rational basis test” is not meant to determine whether a legislature is “not endowed with reason or understanding,” but rather if it has acted with some hidden, invidious motive. Incredibly, though, the Supreme Court has frequently issued truly “irrational opinions,” simply due to the fundamental nature of group decision-making.

Much has been written about Nobel Prize winner Kenneth Arrow’s “Impossibility Theorem,” which proved that, when faced …

Book Review: Forensic Linguistics, Dru Stevenson

ExpressO

Review of John Gibbons' text "Forensic Linguistics"