Constitutional Law Commons^™

State Monopolies Of A Commercial Character (Article 37 Of The Eec Treaty) And Their Importance In Connection With Portugal's Accession To The European Communities, Maria I. Jalles

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

May 25, 2015: The Future Of The Roman Catholic Church, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Future of the Roman Catholic Church“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Rethinking The Law Of Interrogations And Confessions In Canada, Fariborz Davoudi

PhD Dissertations

This thesis is a discussion about the inadequacy of the Canadian confessions rule in light of what modern forensic psychology reveals about the human mind, and the propensity of legally-sanctioned interrogation tactics to cause suspects to make false confessions. Contemporary forensic psychology research makes it clear that many of the techniques used in police interviewing and interrogation can have the effect of subverting or overbearing an individuals free-choice and can cause them to make a false confession. Yet many of these same techniques are considered acceptable according to the Canadian law of voluntariness.

This thesis examines the confessions rule and …

May 23, 2015: Finally, A Krugman Column On The Trade Pact, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Finally, a Krugman Column on the Trade Pact“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Section 1983 Cases Arising From Criminal Convictions, Gail Donoghue

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prosecution Of Excessive Force Cases: Practical Considerations, Stephen M. Ryals

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Supreme Court 2000-2001 Term: First Amendment Cases, Erwin Chemerinsky

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Issues Arising Under Section 1983, Martin A. Schwartz

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitution And Revenge Porn, John A. Humbach

Pace Law Review

While the Supreme Court has recognized a number of circumstances that justify government impingements on free expression, the Court has been extremely reluctant to permit speech restrictions that discriminate based on a message’s content, its viewpoint, or the speaker. It has nearly always refused to tolerate such discrimination unless the case falls within one of the several historically established exceptions to First Amendment protection. Because of the special place that the modern First Amendment cases accord to content discrimination (and the allied discriminations based on viewpoint and speaker), any statutes designed specifically to outlaw revenge porn as such would seem …

Tinkering With Success: College Athletes, Social Media And The First Amendment, Mary Margaret Meg Penrose

Pace Law Review

Good law does not always make good policy. This article seeks to provide a legal assessment, not a policy directive. The policy choices made by individual institutions and athletic departments should be guided by law, but absolutely left to institutional discretion. Many articles written on college student-athletes’ social media usage attempt to urge policy directives clothed in constitutional analysis.

In this author’s opinion, these articles have lost perspective – constitutional perspective. This article seeks primarily to provide a legal and constitutional assessment so that schools and their athletic departments will have ample information to then make their own policy choices.

Transformation: Turning Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act Into Something It Is Not, J. Christian Adams

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Auxiliary Protections: Why The Founders’ Bicameral Congress Depended On Senators Elected By State Legislatures, Vince Eisinger

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Five Justices Have Transformed The First Amendment’S Freedom Of Religion To Freedom From Religion, Gerald Walpin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Congressman Lee Zeldin

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

May 19, 2015: Martin Heidegger’S Humanism, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Martin Heidegger’s Humanism“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

May 18, 2015: Where Is The Democratic Party Leadership On Trade?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Where Is the Democratic Party Leadership on Trade?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

May 16, 2015: Philip Kitcher’S Life After Faith Attacks Transcendence, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Philip Kitcher’s Life After Faith Attacks Transcendence“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Clapper V. Amnesty International Usa: Balancing National Security And Individuals' Privacy, Kristen Choi

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Judicial Activism’S Effect On Judicial Elections, Nick Fernandes

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

High profile Supreme Court cases have become increasingly commonplace, particularly with the Citizens United court decision granting unprecedented rights to corporations. Many in the media have decried these as examples of increasing “judicial activism”. This trend has trickled down to the state supreme courts as justices have increasingly played a more active role in developing policy. Gay marriage has become legalized in numerous states due to this trend. While public sentiment is unlikely to affect the appointed Supreme Court, it could have a substantial impact on state judicial elections.

This paper will specifically be looking at judicial elections in Kentucky. …

May 13, 2015: Religion Trends In America, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

May 12, 2015: Reading Heidegger I, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

May 10, 2015: Two Odd Things About The Shootings At The Cartoon Contest Last Week, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Two Odd Things about the Shootings at the Cartoon Contest Last Week“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

A Marriage By Any Other Name: Why Civil Unions Should Receive Federal Recognition, Deborah A. Widiss, Andrew Koppelman

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

The federal government now recognizes same-sex marriages as triggering rights and responsibilities under federal law. However, it still generally refuses to recognize alternative legal statuses—civil unions and domestic partnerships—that were created by states to serve as functional marriages. Even though all the states that created such alternative statuses now permit same-sex couples to marry, this misguided policy causes ongoing harms. Some same-sex couples who entered into alternative relationships when marriage was not an option may now lack the capacity to marry. Couples who have since married may also be hurt by the federal government’s refusal to recognize civil unions or …

Autism Charter Schools: Legally Vulnerable Or Viable?, Janet R. Decker, Keshia Seitz, Bruce Kulwicki

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Perhaps due to the dramatic increase in children diagnosed with autism, a new type of charter school has emerged that is designed to specifically serve students with autism. If these autism charter schools illegally segregate students with autism from typically developing peers, they are vulnerable to legal challenges. In this Article, we identified many constitutional and statutory violations that could exist at autism charter schools; however, our review of the litigation found that autism charter schools have not been challenged for these legal violations. Instead, we found only one charter school case alleging segregation based on ability level and eight …

Summary Of Manning V. State, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 26 (May 7, 2015), Scott Lundy

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court held that it is a constitutional error when the district court fails to notify and confer with the parties when the court receives and responds to a note from the jury indicating that they are deadlocked. The Court further held such error will be reviewed for harmlessness beyond a reasonable doubt.

May 6, 2015: Iconic Picture Of Burning Silliman Hall, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “ Iconic Picture of Burning Silliman Hall“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

You Have The Right To Remain Silent, But Anything You Don’T Say May Be Used Against You: The Admissibility Of Silence As Evidence After Salinas V. Texas, Andrew M. Hapner

Florida Law Review

In Salinas v. Texas, the United States Supreme Court held that a suspect’s refusal to answer an officer’s questions during a noncustodial, pre-Miranda, criminal interrogation is admissible at trial as substantive evidence of guilt. In a plurality decision, Justice Samuel Alito emphasized that before a suspect can rely on the privilege against self-incrimination, the suspect must invoke the privilege. Consequently, because silence does not invoke the privilege, and because the petitioner failed to expressly invoke the privilege in words, the prosecutor’s use of his pre-Miranda silence during a noncustodial interrogation did not violate the Fifth Amendment. …

Guilt Without Mens Rea: How Florida’S Elimination Of Mens Rea For Drug Possession Is Constitutional, Marc B. Hernandez

Florida Law Review

The Florida Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act is almost unique among criminal drug statutes in the United States. Like all states, Florida prohibits the possession, sale, and delivery of certain controlled substances. However, a recent revision of the Florida Comprehensive Drug Act removed Florida’s burden of proving one aspect of defendants’ mens rea in drug cases. Although several cases have challenged the Florida Comprehensive Drug Act for disregarding the traditional role of mens rea in criminal law and for subjecting innocent people to prosecution, the state of Florida continues to prosecute and obtain convictions under the statute.

This …

Democracy, The Constitution, And Legal Positivism In America: Lessons From A Winding And Troubled History, Edward A. Purcell Jr.

Florida Law Review

This Article explores the political and philosophical background of the current debate between positivist “originalism” and evolutionary “living constitutionalism” and, more generally, the significance of positivist ideas for both democratic and constitutional theory. Noting the tensions between positivist and nonpositivist ideas that existed in early American constitutionalism, it focuses on the impact of John Austin’s theory of legal positivism in the United States after the Civil War and the way successive generations of Americans interpreted positivist ideas to develop their theories of democracy and constitutionalism. It argues that Austin inspired rival jurisprudential approaches that quickly, but misleadingly, became entangled with …

Lost In Compromise: Free Speech, Criminal Justice, And Attorney Pretrial Publicity, Margaret Tarkington

Florida Law Review

Prior approaches to examining attorney speech rights have failed to address pretrial publicity in a manner that protects the criminal justice system and the essential roles of the prosecutor and defense attorney therein, as discussed in Part I. Yet the access-to-justice theory, as discussed in Part II, attunes attorney speech rights to the role of the attorney in the proper and constitutional functioning of the justice system. As discussed in Part III, the very nature of the criminal justice system imposes vastly differing obligations and duties on the prosecution and defense and their respective attorney–client relationships. In Part IV, this …