Constitutional Law Commons^™

(E)Racing Speech In School, Francesca L. Procaccini

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Speech on race and racism in our nation’s public schools is under attack for partisan gain. The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment teaches a lot about the wisdom and legality of laws that chill such speech in the classroom. But more importantly, a First Amendment analysis of these laws reveals profound insights about the health and meaning of our free speech doctrine.

Through a First Amendment analysis of “anti-critical race theory” laws, this essay illuminates the first principles of free speech law. Specifically, it shows that the First Amendment offers little refuge to teachers or parents looking to …

"Knock-Knock" ... "Who's There?": The Fourth Amendment Dilemma Posed By Warrantless Police Encounters At Home, Meg Penrose

Faculty Scholarship

In a world where police abuses of power seem more common, where are the judges-particularly the originalist judges-who strive to protect the Founder's intentions? How is it that people living in certain states seemingly have less robust Fourth Amendment protections than others? This essay seeks to answer these questions and urges the Supreme Court to reassert its constitutional commitment to the Fourth Amendment so that all of us are, in fact, secure in our homes. The Court should accept the responsibility it has to provide uniform protection to all Americans and clarify the limits on constructive entry. If the Court …

Perbandingan Sistem Pemilihan Untuk Indonesia Yang Majemuk (Komparasi Dengan Sistem Chile Dan Amerika Serikat), Yulvia Chandra Cipta, Rosita Indrayati, Intan Permata Putri

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

General elections, including the election of president and vice president, legislative members and other regional election, are a manifestation of democracy and the basic principles of the nation in Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. Indonesia currently adheres to an open proportionality election system. As time goes by and many changes occur, the electoral system adopted by Indonesia has many shortcomings, and various problems are also faced, such as identity politics and kinship politics. Based on the many differences in electoral systems in the world, the author examines two other countries, namely Chile and the United …

Sistem Penyederhanaan Kepartaian Dalam Konstitusi Negara-Negara Presidensial Multipartai Dan Pengalaman Di Indonesia, Shinta Tri Lestari

Jurnal Konstitusi & Demokrasi

This article is to find out the arrangement of political parties in the constitution of several multi-party presidential countries which lead to simplification of the party system to be compared with the simplification of the party system in Indonesia based on experience and design based on four classifications of party simplification related to the electoral system, parliamentary thresholds, coalitions. and the dissolution of political parties. By using normative juridical research methods through secondary data, 79 countries with a presidential system of government were found, 20 of which were multi-party presidential countries whose constitution contained four classifications of party simplification systems. …

Putusan Ultra Petita Penanganan Kasus Korupsi Menurut Perspektif Hakim, Y.Sri Pudyatmoko, G. Aryadi

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

This research aims to obtain an overview of ultra petita decisions in corruption cases from a law enforcement perspective. The method used in this research is a normative legal research method, using a case approach. The research was conducted by analyzing the views of several judges regarding ultra petita decisions in corruption cases. The research results show that judges in handling corruption cases refer to regulations from the Supreme Court. In accordance with these guidelines, judges use comprehensive considerations in making decisions. According to the judge in the ultra petita decision against a convict in a corruption case, something like …

Urgensi Pendidikan Camat Selaku Ppat Sementara Dalam Mencapai Nilai Keadilan, Sulkifli Sulkifli, Naily Fadhilah

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

The position of PPAT in its implementation does not rule out the possibility of a vacancy due to the vast territorial area of Indonesia, so that a temporary PPAT is needed, in this case the sub-district head or village head. Temporary PPAT generally has the same duties and authority as PPAT. However, in practice, in carrying out their duties and authority they often make mistakes. This is because not all sub-district heads appointed as temporary PPATs have a legal education background or knowledge about PPATs. The purpose of writing this article is to understand the process of appointing a sub-district …

Ketentuan Tpks Dalam Kuhp Baru, Leony Sondang Suryani, Ahmad Ghozi

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Isu kekerasan seksual terus berkembang sebagaimana perkembangan kejahatan terkait kekerasan seksual. Hal ini dilatarbelakangi oleh semakin maraknya kasus-kasus kekerasan seksual di Indonesia. Untuk menjawab permasalahan ini, maka dibentuklah UU TPKS sebagai solusi dari maraknya kekerasan seksual di Indonesia. Dalam UU TPKS tidak hanya berfokus pada korban perempuan dari tindak pidana kekerasan seksual, tetapi mencakup juga yang disebut kelompok rentan. Namun demikian, reformasi Hukum Pidana Indonesia mengenal adanya KUHP baru yang di dalamnya dimuat prinsip-prinsip penting dalam perumusan eperti rekodifikasi terbuka, prinsip Keseimbangan, dan prinsip lain yang relevan dalam penyusunan KUHP Indonesia. KUHP juga sudah mengadopsi nilai-nilai yang ada dalam konvensi-konvensi …

Book Review: Rearranging The Apple Cart: Good-Faith Originalism And The Fourteenth Amendment, Daniel Coble

ConLawNOW

This essay reviews the book by Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit (2021). Ask any constitutional law professor about how judges should or do interpret the Constitution, and you will likely hear an answer that ends in “ism.” In their latest book, Professors Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick discuss an “ism” that is found in our nation’s highest court, state courts, and academia: originalism. No matter which constitutional interpretation “ism” that one follows, this book provides an intimate and historical view of what two leading originalist scholars believe is the …

Pardon Me? Why Biden Should Pull A Gerald Ford When It Comes To Trump, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Center For Constitutional Democracy Welcomes Two New Board Members, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Beginning on July 1, the Center for Constitutional Democracy will be welcoming two new members to its Advisory Board: former Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller ’82 and former CCD Senior Managing Affiliate Brady Harman ’15.

Ochoa, Big Ten Law Deans Pledge Support For Diversity Ahead Of Scotus Affirmative Action Ruling, The Indiana Lawyer

Christiana Ochoa (7/22-10/22 Acting; 11/2022-)

s the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hand down a decision that could fundamentally alter affirmative action, a group of law school deans — including Dean Christiana Ochoa of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law — has issued a statement affirming the deans’ commitment to diversity.

The group of 15 deans represent Big Ten law schools, including IU Maurer. In their statement — which IU Maurer posted to its official Facebook page — the deans say they are “joining together to affirm our commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion through legally permissible means, regardless of the outcome of …

The Law Of The Territories Of The United States In Puerto Rico, The Oldest Colony In The World, Carlos Iván Gorrín Peralta

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

The territorial law and policy of the United States changed towards the turn of the 20th century, as territorial expansion was no longer motivated by the extension of national borders, but by geopolitical, strategic and economic objectives. The new territories acquired in the Spanish American war were different from those previously annexed. The resulting constitutional doctrine of the Insular Cases differentiated the previous incorporated territories from the new unincorporated territories, which were not destined to be part of the U.S. nor to be admitted as new states. Despite purported changes in the relation with the United States in 1950-1952, Puerto …

Six Lessons From The Debt Deal. What Did We Learn?, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Balkinization Symposium On Christian G. Fritz, Monitoring American Federalism: The History Of State Legislative Resistance, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

Balkinization, the blog founded by Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment Jack Balkin (Yale Law School), hosted a symposium on Christian Fritz's book Monitoring American Federalism: The History of State Legislative Resistance (Cambridge University Press, 2023) June 14-26, 2023. Six scholars from law schools across the United States discussed the book and the symposium concluded with Professor Fritz's response to the commentators.

This Isn't A Reality Show: How Social Media Livestreams Of High-Profile Criminal Trials May Violate One's Right To A Fair Trial, Ryan Fenn

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Since the invention of television in 1927, the American legal system faced drastic changes. In 1935, the first trial was broadcast to the public in the case of Bruno Hauptmann. During the trial, “[e]laborate telegraph equipment” was installed in the courtroom, with “sound and motion picture equipment . . . plainly visible in the [courtroom] balcony.” From 1935 on, broadcasting technology has been utilized in the courtroom to convey the inner workings of certain courts to the public, which has stimulated debate over whether the use of this technology is conducive to a fair trial under the Sixth and …

Theft Of The American Dream: New York City's Third-Party Transfer Program, Joseph Mottola

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

On September 5, 2018, Paul Saunders discovered a notice on the front door of his mother’s home: it stated that the property, a Brooklyn brownstone owned by the family for over forty years, now belonged to a company called Bridge Street. His mother, seventy-four-year-old retired nurse Marlene Saunders, had been notified several months earlier that her home, valued at two million dollars, was in danger of being foreclosed because she owed New York City (the “City”) $3,792 in unpaid water charges. Her son had already paid the water bill, but when he contacted the water department, he discovered that …

Where To Place The “Nones” In The Church And State Debate? Empirical Evidence From Establishment Clause Cases In Federal Court, Gregory C. Sisk, Michael Heise

St. John's Law Review

In this third iteration of our ongoing empirical examination of religious liberty decisions in the lower federal courts, we studied all digested Establishment Clause decisions by federal circuit and district court judges from 2006 through 2015. The first clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution directs that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” That provision has generated decades of controversy regarding the appropriate role of religion in public life.

Holding key variables constant, we found that Catholic judges approved Establishment Clause claims at a 29.6% rate, compared with a 41.5% rate before non-Catholic …

Amending The Constitution Through Judicial Interpretation: A Comparative Study, Essam Saeed Obeidi Dr.

مجلة جامعة الإمارات للبحوث القانونية UAEU LAW JOURNAL

The Constitution is amended in two ways: the first is official following the procedures provided for in the Constitution, and the second is an informal amendment of the Constitution without following the formal procedures provided for in the constitutional document. Among the informal methods of amending the Constitution is the judicial interpretation where the constitutional judge exploits of the generality of the constitutional texts and their ambiguity and shortcomings in order to modify their meaning while keeping the form of the word unchanged by adding new meanings or replacing the existing meaning with a new meaning , The Constitutional Judge …

Legal Security Considerations In The Provisions Of The Iraqi Constitutional Court: A Comparative Study, Nather Alqaisi Dr.

مجلة جامعة الإمارات للبحوث القانونية UAEU LAW JOURNAL

The importance of monitoring the constitutionality of laws by establishing the foundations of the principle of legality and the protection of rights and freedoms relating to individuals, and when the constitutional judiciary exercise its function in the control of the constitutionality of laws, the provisions of the unconstitutional text of the law has been applied for a period of time and arranged the rights of individuals requires that the implementation of the provision impact Retroactive to the principle of legality, but the application of this concept to launch may lead to the absence of the principle of stability of legal …

Response: The Constitution Has Never Recognized Us As Full Persons: Or To What Politics Are Our "Protections" Returning?, Marlon M. Bailey

ConLawNOW

This response engages with Marc Spindelman’s article, The New Intersectional and Anti-Racist LGBTQIA+ Politics: Some Thoughts on the Path Ahead, which offers a rethinking of critical precision about what is on the horizon for LGBTQ rights. The response calls for a reframing of the conversation by starting from the understanding that the Constitution, and by extension the law, is a political document and thus no realm of the Constitution or the law is impervious to politics. It then argues that instead of seeking recognition as full persons in the law and looking to a political document—the Constitution—for refuge from …

Taking The Gavel Away From The Executive Branch: The Indeterminate Sentencing Scheme Under S.B. 201 Is Ripe For Review And Unconstitutional, Jessica Crtalic

Cleveland State Law Review

In 2019, Senate Bill 201, also known as the Reagan Tokes Act, reintroduced an indeterminate sentencing scheme in Ohio whereby sentences are assigned in the form of a range. Under this sentencing scheme, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, through the parole board, has discretion to retain an inmate past the presumptive release date. This fails to afford the accused their guaranteed right to a jury trial, improperly places judiciary power in the hands of the executive branch, and scrutinizes the violation of due process such that the defendant is being denied a fair hearing and notice. Not only …

Abort The Court? How Abortion Jurisprudence Has Highlighted Questions Surrounding The Legitimacy Of The Supreme Court, Junia E. Paulus

Honors Projects

The Supreme Court is often viewed with awe and the justices treated with reverence. It is the highest court in the United States, tasked with interpreting the law. But is the Supreme Court the neutral arbiter of justice it purports to be? Most recently, the 2022 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the fifty-year precedent of Roe v. Wade, causing the Court to face increasing scrutiny and questions of its legitimacy. I conduct a philosophical analysis of the arguments made by the justices in the opinions on Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and …

More Than Lip Service Is Required: Excessive Fines Clause Limitations Upon Fining The Homeless, Tim Donaldson

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Public Accommodations Originalism’S Inability To Solve The Problems Of Online Content Moderation, Vincent A. Marrazzo

St. Mary's Law Journal

In response to online platforms’ increasing ability to moderate content in what often seems to be an arbitrary way, Justice Clarence Thomas recently suggested that platforms should be regulated as public accommodations such that the government could prevent platforms from banning users or removing posts from their sites. Shortly thereafter, Florida passed the Transparency in Technology Act, which purported to regulate online platforms as public accommodations and restricted their ability to ban users, tailor content through algorithmic decision-making, and engage in their own speech. Texas followed suit by passing a similar law, and Arizona debated a bill purporting to regulate …

John Roberts And Owen Roberts: Echoes Of The Switch In Time In The Chief Justice’S Jurisprudence, Luke G. Cleland

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A House Built On Sand: The Qualified Immunity Case For Keeping The Smith Doctrine, Joshua L. Johnston

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

On The Fence About Immigration And Overpopulation: "Environmentalists" Challenge Dhs Policies On Nepa Basis In Whitewater Draw Natural Resource Conservation District V. Mayorkas, Maya J. Williams

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Dobbs: A Powerful Opinion With Discrete Weaknesses, Gader Wren

Idaho Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Durham Report Shows Why We Don’T Want The Fbi Involved In Politics, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Jane Crow Constitutionalism, Evan D. Bernick

College of Law Faculty Publications

On June 24, 2022 The United States Supreme Court issued its decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; overturning Roe v. Wade, and destroying fifty years of precedent to protect the constitutional right to abortion in the United States. This overturning sets a dangerous, new precedent that reinforces the State’s control of reproduction, and criminalizes a woman’s right to choose, with very few exceptions. In states like Mississippi, Black women are already experiencing the highest rates of maternal mortality, incarceration, and poverty.

This article posits that Dobbs operates to maintain a racialized and gendered underclass, and names this phenomenon …