Constitutional Law Commons^™

In Re Sanders And The Resurrection Of Stanley V. Illinois, Josh Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Publications

In 1972, the Supreme Court in Stanley v. Illinois declared that parents are entitled to a hearing on their fitness before the state places their children in foster care. Somewhat oddly, Stanley went on to be cited as a leading case regarding the rights of unwed fathers to object to private adoptions favored by mothers -- an issue not present in Stanley. Odder still, most states routinely violated Stanley in child welfare cases -- the context in which the Stanley rule arose. Most states apply the "one parent doctrine," which holds that finding one parent unfit justifies taking the child …

Calling Them As He Sees Them: The Disappearance Of Originalism In Justice Thomas's Opinions On Race, Joel K. Goldstein

Maryland Law Review

During his first two decades on the Court, Justice Clarence Thomas has been associated with originalism and is often viewed as its leading judicial proponent. Justice Thomas has linked originalism with the effort to limit judicial discretion and to promote judicial impartiality. In cases dealing with many constitutional provisions, Justice Thomas has shown his commitment to originalism by often writing solitary concurrences and dissents advocating an originalist analysis of a problem. Yet in constitutional cases dealing with race, Justice Thomas routinely abandons originalism and embraces the sort of constitutional arguments based on morality or consequentialism that he often discounts. These …

The Scope Of Precedent, Randy J. Kozel

Michigan Law Review

The scope of Supreme Court precedent is capacious. Justices of the Court commonly defer to sweeping rationales and elaborate doctrinal frameworks articulated by their predecessors. This practice infuses judicial precedent with the prescriptive power of enacted constitutional and statutory text. The lower federal courts follow suit, regularly abiding by the Supreme Court’s broad pronouncements. These phenomena cannot be explained by—and, indeed, oftentimes subvert—the classic distinction between binding holdings and dispensable dicta. This Article connects the scope of precedent with recurring and foundational debates about the proper ends of judicial interpretation. A precedent’s forward- looking effect should not depend on the …

A House Divided: When State And Lower Federal Courts Disagree On Federal Constitutional Rights, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

Despite their many differences, Americans have long been bound by a shared sense of federal constitutional commonality. As this article demonstrates, however, federal constitutional rights do in fact often differ — even within individual states — as a result of state and lower federal court concurrent authority to interpret the Constitution and the lack of any requirement that they defer to one another’s positions. The article provides the first in-depth examination of intra-state, state-federal court conflicts on federal constitutional law and the problems that they create. Focusing on criminal procedure doctrine in particular, with its unique impact on individual liberty …

Death, Desuetude, And Original Meaning, John F. Stinneford

UF Law Faculty Publications

One of the most common objections to originalism is that it cannot cope with cultural change. One of the most commonly invoked examples of this claimed weakness is the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, whose original meaning would (it is argued) authorize barbaric punishment practices like flogging and branding, and disproportionate punishments like the death penalty for relatively minor offenses. This Article shows that this objection to originalism is inapt, at least with respect to the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause. As I have shown in prior articles, the original meaning of “cruel and unusual” is “cruel and contrary to …

Judicial Review And Non-Enforcement At The Founding, Matthew J. Steilen

Journal Articles

This Article examines the relationship between judicial review and presidential non-enforcement of statutory law. Defenders of non-enforcement regularly argue that the justification for judicial review that prevailed at the time of the founding also justifies the president in declining to enforce unconstitutional laws. The argument is unsound. This Article shows that there is essentially no historical evidence, from ratification through the first decade under the Constitution, in support of a non-enforcement power. It also shows that the framers repeatedly made statements inconsistent with the supposition that the president could refuse to enforce laws he deemed unconstitutional. In contrast, during this …

Death, Desuetude, And Original Meaning, John F. Stinneford

William & Mary Law Review

One of the most common objections to originalism is that it cannot cope with cultural change. One of the most commonly invoked examples of this claimed weakness is the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, whose original meaning would (it is argued) authorize barbaric punishment practices like flogging and branding, and disproportionate punishments like the death penalty for relatively minor offenses. This Article shows that this objection to originalism is inapt, at least with respect to the Cruel and Unusual punishments Clause. As I have shown in prior articles, the original meaning of “cruel and unusual” is “cruel and contrary to …

A Process Failure Theory Of Statutory Interpretation, Mark Seidenfeld

William & Mary Law Review

Despite all that has been written about the choice between purposivist, intentionalist, and textualist approaches to statutory interpretation, to date the literature has not provided a justification for the common judicial practice of relying on intent-based inquiries in some cases and disavowing those approaches for textualism in others. This Article fills that void and, in doing so, lays out a new “legislative process failure” theory of statutory interpretation that has the potential to move the debate beyond a simple choice between textual and intent-based interpretation. This Article argues that Congress and the courts comprise different linguistic communities when they interpret …

Two Tests Unite To Resolve The Tension Between The First Amendment And The Right Of Publicity, Dora Georgescu

Fordham Law Review

    The right of publicity is an established legal doctrine that grants individuals the exclusive right to control the commercial use of their image. Though it has many important and laudable uses, one unfortunate consequence of the right of publicity is that it restricts artists’ abilities to portray real persons in their works. In so doing, the right of publicity directly conflicts with the First Amendment protections of an individual’s freedom of expression.

    While the U.S. Supreme Court addressed this tension in Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co., the Court did not create a clear standard for balancing the interests of …

Strange Bedfellows: The Federal Constitution, Out-Of-State Nongrantor Accumulation Trusts, And The Complete Avoidance Of State Income Taxation, Jeffrey Schoenblum

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

With the maximum rate of federal income tax at 39.6 percent, the Medicare surtax on investment income of 3.8 percent, and some state income tax rates exceeding 9 percent, taxpayers in the highest brackets have been seeking to develop strategies to lessen the tax burden. One strategy that has been receiving increased attention is the use of a highly specialized trust known as the NING, a Nevada incomplete gift nongrantor trust, which eliminates state income taxation of investment income altogether without generating additional federal income or transfer taxes. A major obstacle standing in the way of accomplishing this objective, however, …

Rights Speech, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

Freedom of expression has a complex and dynamic relationship with a number of other constitutional rights, including abortion, the right to bear arms, equal protection, the franchise, and religious liberty. This Article discusses one aspect of that relationship. It critically analyzes the regulation of "rights speech" - communications about or concerning the recognition, scope, or exercise of constitutional rights. As illustrative examples, the Article focuses on regulation of speech about abortion and the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Governments frequently manage, structure, and limit how individuals discuss constitutional rights. For example, laws and regulations compel physicians to convey information …

Speedy Trial As A Viable Challenge To Chronic Underfunding In Indigent-Defense Systems, Emily Rose

Michigan Law Review

Across the country, underresourced indigent-defense systems create delays in taking cases to trial at both the state and federal levels. Attempts to increase funding for indigent defense by bringing ineffective assistance of counsel claims have been thwarted by high procedural and substantive hurdles, and consequently these attempts have failed to bring significant change. This Note argues that, because ineffective assistance of counsel litigation is most likely a dead end for system-wide reform, indigent defenders should challenge the constitutionality of underfunding based on the Sixth Amendment guarantee of speedy trial. Existing speedy trial jurisprudence suggests that the overworking and furloughing of …

Justifying A Prudential Solution To The Williamson County Ripeness Puzzle, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Scholarship

In the much-maligned 1985 case Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, the Supreme Court articulated a rule of “ripeness” requiring most Fifth Amendment regulatory-takings claimants to seek “just compensation” in state court before attempting to litigate in federal court. Williamson County and its progeny have opened a Pandora’s box of unforeseen complications, spawning many more questions than they purported to answer. At the forefront is what kind of requirement the rule is anyway. This Article contends that reading Williamson County as grounded in the Constitution (specifically, in Article III or the Fifth Amendment) runs the …

October 31, 2014: Pennsylvania Doings, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Pennsylvania Doings“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Originalism Talk: A Legal History, Mary Ziegler

BYU Law Review

Progressives have long recognized the tremendous political appeal of originalism. For many scholars, originalism appears to have succeeded because it achieves results consistent with conservative values but promises judicial neutrality to the public. By drawing on new historical research on anti-abortion constitutionalism, this Article argues for a radically different understanding of the originalist ascendancy. Contrary to what we often think, conservative social movements at times made significant sacrifices in joining an originalist coalition. These costs were built in to what this Article calls originalism talk—the use of arguments, terms, and objectives associated with conservative originalism.

Scholars have documented the costs …

The Original Understanding Of Constitutional Legitimacy, Ilan Wurman

BYU Law Review

This Article argues that three influential schools of originalism, which we might label libertarian, progressive, and conservative, adhere to particular understandings of constitutional legitimacy, which then inform their particular constitutional hermeneutics. The Article demonstrates that as originally understood by the Founders, however, constitutional legitimacy depended on all three conceptions advocated by these schools of thought—that is, the Constitution had to protect natural rights, it had to enable self-government, and it had to be ratified by popular sovereignty. Further, the Article gives considerable treatment—remarkably for the first time in the law review literature— to James Madison’s letter in response to Thomas …

Deal Leaves Court Issues Unresolved, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Ryan V. Gonzalez And The Potential Elimination Of The Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel Post Conviction Failsafe, Kathleen Carlson

Florida Law Review

Recently, the United States Supreme Court addressed in Ryan v. Gonzales “whether the incompetence of a state prisoner requires suspension of the prisoner’s federal habeas corpus proceedings.” In a unanimous decision, the Court held that “the Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Sixth Circuits both erred in holding that district courts must stay federal habeas proceedings when petitioners are adjudged incompetent.” The decision leaves unanswered questions with regard to a petitioner’s ability to protect himself from ineffective or incompetent counsel both before and during the habeas proceeding.

No Small Feat: Who Won The Health Care Case (And Why Did So Many Law Professors Miss The Boat)?, Randy E. Barnett

Florida Law Review

In this Essay, prepared as the basis for the 2013 Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, I describe five aspects of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that are sometimes overlooked or misunderstood: (1) the Court held that imposing economic mandates on the people was unconstitutional under the Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clauses; (2) Chief Justice John Roberts’s reasoning was the holding in the case, whether viewed from a formalist or a realist perspective; (3) the Court did not uphold the constitutionality of …

When The Commerce Clause Goes International: A Proposed Legal Framework For The Foreign Commerce Clause, Naomi Harlin Goodno

Florida Law Review

The world is becoming a smaller place. Technology and the Internet have made global travel and communication easier, quicker, and more common. Novel legal issues arise every day to deal with this modern interconnected world. How does the law address these new problems?

Congress is allowed “[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” The scope of Congress’s power to regulate commerce “among the several States” (the “Interstate Commerce Clause”) has long been debated. In the modern world of global interaction, Congress’s power to regulate commerce “with foreign Nations” (the “Foreign Commerce …

Religion And The Equal Protection Clause: Why The Constitution Requires School Vouchers, Steven G. Calabresi, Abe Salander

Florida Law Review

In this Article, we argue that, as a matter of original meaning, the Fourteenth Amendment, standing alone, forbids all discrimination on the basis of religion just as it forbids all discrimination on the basis of race and gender. Our understanding of the Fourteenth Amendment is based on the research of Professor Melissa Saunders and Professor John Harrison, who have both argued that the Amendment outlawed class legislation, and on the research of Professor Steven Calabresi and Julia Rickert, who have argued that the Amendment also banned systems of caste. The historical evidence is overwhelming and persuasive. We argue that a …

State Taxation - Unitary Business/Formula Apportionment Tax Accounting Method - Application Of A Three Factor Formula To Apportion Income Of Foreign-Parent Corporations For State Tax Reporting Purposes Does Not Violate The Commerce Clausse Or The Due Process Clause Of The U.S. Constitution - Barclay's Bank Int'l, Ltd. V. Franchise Tax Bd., 10 Cal. App. 4th 1742, 14 Cal. Rptr. 2d 537 (Cal. Ct. App. 1992), Modified Reh'g Denied, 11 Cal. App. 4th 1678a (Cal. Ct. App. 1992)., Sarah B. Pierce

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Canadian Federalism, Susan Lavergne

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

October 25, 2014: In Our Dark Time, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ In Our Dark Time“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Human Rights - Haitian Refugees - Haitian Refugees Housed At Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Held To Have No Valid Constitutional Or International Law Claims To Challenge Forced Repatriation By The U.S. Government. Haitian Refugee Center V. Baker, 953 F.2d 1498 (11th Cir. 1992), Cert. Denied, 112 S.Ct. 1245 (1992)., Jason A. Golden

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

And Stay Out! The Dangers Of Using Anti-Immigrant Sentiment As A Basis For Social Policy: America Should Take Heed Of Disturbing Lessons From Great Britain's Past, Kevin C. Wilson

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Hammering Down Nails, Scott M. Lenhart

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Culture Of The New East-Central European Democracies, Rett R. Ludwikowski

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

October 22, 2014: The Panic Over Ebola, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Panic Over Ebola“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Lobue V. Christopher: Age-Old Separation Of Powers Debate Rages On As Court Rules Extradition Statute Unconstitutional, Joseph G. Silver

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.