Constitutional Law Commons^™

Education Rights And The New Due Process, Areto A. Imoukhuede

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues for a human dignity-based, due process clause analysis to recognize the fundamental duty of government to provide high quality, public education. Access to public education is a fundamental duty, or positive fundamental right because education is a basic human need and a constituent part of all democratic rights.

Orginalism Talk: A Legal History, Mary Ziegler

Scholarly Publications

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 …

In Our Own Backyard: Why California Should Care About Habeas Corpus, Theresa Hsu Schriever

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

Corrections And Sentencing Reform: The Obstacle Posed By Dehumanization, J. Clark Kelso

McGeorge Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Tort Label, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Courts and commentators often label federal discrimination statutes as torts. Since the late 1980s, the courts increasingly applied tort concepts to these statutes. This Article discusses how courts placed employment discrimination law within the organizational umbrella of tort law without examining whether the two areas share enough theoretical and doctrinal affinities.

While discrimination statutes are torts in some general sense that they do not arise out of criminal law and are not solely contractual, it is far from clear that these statutes are enough like traditional torts to justify the reflexive and automatic use of tort law. Employment discrimination statutes …

The Age Of Constitutions In The Americas, M C. Mirow

Faculty Publications

The late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have been aptly called the “Age of Codifications.” The same period was also the Age of Constitutions. Although a great deal is known about the migration of prenational and transnational legal sources and ideas that led to national codes of civil and criminal law in Europe and the Americas, much less is known about similar processes on the constitutional level. Constitutional historians have been more parochial than their private law counterparts, most likely because of the relationship between constitutions and nations. In the light of independence, nations immediately needed constitutions to solidify gains and …

The Priest-Penitent Privilege Revisited: A Reply To The Statutes Of Abrogation, Jude O. Ezeanokwasa

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

There is no gainsaying the fact that the near-pandemic social ill of child sex abuse calls for urgent attention given the many dire effects of the crime. Harm to children is not suffered by them alone. The immediate family, parents, and friends also suffer with them. Moreover, society is burdened by the existence of child sex abuse as it is called on to restore the physical and mental health of these often traumatized younger members. To nip this problem in the bud, pursuing the philosophy of early detection, all fifty states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, …

After The Cheering Stopped: Decriminalization And Legalism's Limits, Wayne A. Logan

Scholarly Publications

To the great relief of many, American criminal law, long known for its harshness and expansive prohibitory reach, is now showing signs of softening. A prime example of this shift is seen in the proliferation of laws decriminalizing the personal possession of small amounts of marijuana: today, almost twenty states and dozens of localities have embraced decriminalization in some shape or form, with more laws very likely coming to fruition soon. Despite enjoying broad political support, the decriminalization movement has however failed to curb a core feature of criminalization: police authority to arrest individuals suspected of possessing marijuana. Arrests for …

In Defense Of Idea Due Process, Mark Weber

College of Law Faculty

Due Process hearing rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are under attack. A major professional group and several academic commentators charge that the hearings system advantages middle class parents, that it is expensive, that it is futile, and that it is unmanageable. Some critics would abandon individual rights to a hearing and review in favor of bureaucratic enforcement or administrative mechanisms that do not include the right to an individual hearing before a neutral decision maker. This Article defends the right to a due process hearing. It contends that some criticisms of hearing rights are simply erroneous, and …

Protecting From Endless Harm: A Roadmap For Coercion Challenges After N.F.I.B. V. Sebelius, Eric Turner

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In N.F.I.B. v. Sebelius, a plurality of the Supreme Court struck down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid (PPACA) expansion. The Court did so by holding that the doctrine “coerced” States into implementing federal policy by threatening to withhold Medicaid funding to states that did not reform their Medicaid programs. This marks the first time a program properly enacted under Congress’ Spending Power has been found to coerce the states. The Court’s coercion analysis, however, has raised more questions than it answered. The plurality’s language is vague, and commentators have struggled to analyze the holding. But what …

A Step By Step Look At Uarg V. Epa: A New Layer Of Greenhouse Gas Regulation, Kevin O. Leske

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Cruel And Invisible Punishment: Redeeming The Counter-Majoritarian Eighth Amendment, Aliza Plener Cover

Articles

No abstract provided.

Guilty Of Homelessness: Evaluating The Criminalization Of Homelessness Through A Human Rights Framework, Cristina M. Semi

Departmental Honors Projects

Several international treaties and declarations affirm adequate housing as a fundamental human right. However, the United States, while a signatory to several of these agreements, does not recognize this right. Homelessness violates the right to housing. Moreover, homelessness often subjects individuals to additional rights violations. These additional violations often occur because governments criminalize homelessness.

Public order laws that criminalize basic life-sustaining behaviors, such as sitting, lying, and sleeping in public spaces, violate several constitutional rights when applied to unsheltered individuals experiencing homelessness. Devoid of any accommodation aside from the public streets, such individuals must necessarily perform the prohibited conduct in …

Review Of Constitutional Dynamics In Federal Systems: Sub-National Perspectives, Edited By Michael Burgess And G. Alan Tarr, James A. Gardner

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

Review Of Federal Dynamics: Continuity, Change, And The Varieties Of Federalism, Arthur Benz And Jorg Broscheck, Eds. (2013), James A. Gardner

Book Reviews

No abstract provided.

The Divergence Of Modern Jurisprudence From The Original Intent For Federalist And Tenth Amendment Limitations On The Treaty Power, Steven T. Voigt

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “That the federal treaty-making authority is constrained by the other parts of the Constitution does not sound like the stuff of law journals. It seems like common sense. After all, we would not expect someone to argue that the ability to “regulate Commerce” entitles Congress to disregard the Third Amendment and quarter soldiers in our houses. We would not expect to see an argument that the power to “establish Post Offices” enables Congress to disregard the freedom of the press in the First Amendment. So, why is the Tenth Amendment so fully disregarded with respect to treaties?”

Charm City Televised & Dehumanized: How Cctv Bail Reviews Violate Due Process, Edie Fortuna Cimino, Zina Makar, Natalie Novak

University of Baltimore Law Forum

On May 28, 2013, Torrey Johnson5 struggles to raise both his hands, handcuffed and seated shoulder-to-shoulder between two other defendants in the first row of the closed circuit television (“CCTV” or “videoconference”) bail review hearing room within the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center (“Centeral Booking”). There are two more rows of defendants behind Mr. Johnson, all in yellow jumpsuits, being watched by correctional officers. Separated by a three-foot wall, Mr. Johnson’s public defender sits out of sight from the video camera’s field of view, about ten feet away from her client. The judge quickly reads through Mr. Johnson’s rights. …

Recent Development: Motor Vehicle Admin. V. Deering: A Driver Whose License Is Suspended Under The "Implied Consent, Administrative Per Se Law" Is Not Entitled To Consult With An Attorney Before Deciding Whether To Take A Breath Test, Patrick Toohey

University of Baltimore Law Forum

The Court of Appeals of Maryland held the implied consent, administrative per se law (“administrative per se law”) does not require that a suspected drunk driver be given the opportunity to consult an attorney before deciding whether to take a breath test. Motor Vehicle Admin. v. Deering, 438 Md. 611, 637, 92 A.3d 495, 511 (2014). The court found that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution does not establish a pre-test right to counsel for a suspected drunk driver in an administrative proceeding.

Procedural Due Process: The Distinctions Between America And Abroad, Ronald Smith

Faculty Scholarship

This paper was written in an effort to highlight the guarantees of procedural due process that America provides to its own citizens, as well as those that are of international citizenship. In so doing, American Due Process Jurisprudence is compared to the minimum standards that the United Nations stipulates via the United Declaration on Human Rights. Also included is an accounting of actual due process deprivations that have been inflicted upon persons that should have been entitled to nothing less than the utmost of legal protections whilst visiting a country, and although the arresting country promised to abide by the …

The Strange Politics Of Medicaid Expansion, 47 J. Marshall L. Rev. 947 (2014), Steven Schwinn

UIC Law Review

This paper first outlines the Medicaid program, Medicaid expansion in the PPACA, and the Court’s ruling on Medicaid expansion in NFIB. It next explores the impacts of the opposition to Medicaid expansion. In particular, it details the substantial federal resources that opposing states will leave on the table, the health insurance coverage that states stand to deny to their poor citizens, and the constitutional law that opposing states left in NFIB.

Where Are We At? The Illinois Constitution After Forty-Five Years, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1 (2014), Ann Lousin

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Escape From Freedom: Why “Limited Lockstep” Betrays Our System Of Federalism, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 325 (2014), Timothy P. O'Neill

UIC Law Review

The Illinois Supreme Court has ironically chosen to make the Illinois Constitution completely insignificant in several areas of constitutional law. It has accomplished this through “the limited lockstep doctrine.” This approach is used to interpret cognate provisions of the U.S. and Illinois Constitutions.

Is Welching On Public Pension Promises An Option For Illinois? An Analysis Of Article Xiii, Section 5 Of Illinois Constitution, 48 J. Marshall L. Rev. 167 (2014), Eric Madiar

UIC Law Review

This Article reviews not only the Pension Clause’s language and origins, but also the constitutional convention debates discussing it, and relevant court decisions construing the provision. The Article also evaluates the arguments made by legal commentators on behalf of particular stakeholders about whether the Clause allows the legislature to cut the pension benefits of current public employees and retirees as well as other related issues. The Article concludes that the General Assembly cannot unilaterally cut the pension benefits of current employees or retirees as a means to reduce the State’s existing pension liabilities based on the Clause’s plain language, the …

Morning-After Decisions: Legal Mobilization Against Emergency Contraception In Chile, Fernando Muñoz León

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In Chile, the Criminal Code bans all forms of abortion. Furthermore, the Constitution—drafted and enacted by the Military Junta led by General Augusto Pinochet—was inspired by a conservative version of Catholic natural law championed by prominent Chilean constitutional law scholars. This Article traces the emergence, development, and ultimately the defeat of a persistent legal mobilization driven by natural law-inspired litigants, politicians, and scholars against levonorgestrel-based emergency contraception, also known as the morning-after pill. In their decade-long efforts at legal mobilization, these natural law litigants used every tool of the Chilean legal system to challenge the legality and the constitutionality of …

A Whole Text Reading Of The War Powers Clauses: Why The Constitution’S Text Obviates Esoteric War Powers Debates And Encourages Policy Flexibility And Democratic Accountability, Antonio F. Perez

Scholarly Articles

This paper is a lightly-footnoted and modestly expanded version of my presentation at the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy Symposium’s panel on Executive War Powers, Syria, and President Obama’s “Red Line”—Did President Obama Have the Power to Use Force in Syria without Congressional Approval? While criticizing the President’s policy decision, this paper argues that the President would have been well within his authority to use force. Relying r on a whole text reading of the relevant constitutional provisions, it argues that the President’s authority to use force is virtually plenary, while Congress’s authority is limited to governing the …

Universities As Constitutional Lawmakers, Adam J. Macleod

Scholarly Articles

In the stories told by opinion makers and many law professors, American constitutional law is concerned with two things—individual rights and the powers of government—and it is settled by the Court, which was established by Article III of our national Constitution. In those now-familiar tales, the United States Supreme Court creates constitutional law when heroic individuals assert their fundamental rights against an overreaching state and when Congress, state legislatures, and executive agencies are called upon to justify their expert enactments to an overreaching judiciary. To settle these constitutional disputes the Court looks either to the text of the written Constitution …

"So Help Me?": Religious Expression And Artifacts In The Oath Of Office And The Courtroom Oath, Frederick B. Jonassen

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Right To Vote Under State Constitutions, Michael T. Morley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Rise Of The Machines: Machine-Generated Data And The Confrontation Clause, Brian Sites

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Primer On Hobby Lobby: For-Profit Corporate Entities' Challenge To The Hhs Mandate, Free Exercise Rights, Rfra's Scope, And The Nondelegation Doctrine, Terri R. Day, Leticia M. Diaz, Danielle Weatherby

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.