Constitutional Law Commons^™

Race And Constitutional Law Casebooks: Recognizing The Proslavery Constitution, Juan F. Perea

Michigan Law Review

Federalist No. 54 shows that part of Madison's public defense of the Constitution included the defense of some of its proslavery provisions. Madison and his reading public were well aware that aspects of the Constitution protected slavery. These aspects of the Constitution were publicly debated in the press and in state ratification conventions. Just as the Constitution's protections for slavery were debated at the time of its framing and ratification, the relationship between slavery and the Constitution remains a subject of debate. Historians continue to debate the centrality of slavery to the Constitution. The majority position among historians today appears …

Building A Nation From Thirteen States: The Constitutional Convention And Preemption, Edward J. Larson

Pepperdine Law Review

This article is adapted from a talk Professor Larson gave at Pepperdine’s symposium on federal preemption of state tort law - the problem of medical drugs and devices. Professor Larson begins with a discussion of the Constitutional Convention and James Madison’s role in the creation of the U.S. Constitution. He relates how fifteen resolutions, developed by Madison and the other Virginia delegates, became known as the Virginia Plan, and served as the foundation for the Constitution. Professor Larson continues by examining Madison’s notes of the Convention. Specifically he shares what the notes relate about the deliberations at the Convention regarding …

Making Rights, Nancy Leong

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

By adjudicating cases, courts make constitutional rights. This Article considers the conditions under which this constitutional rights-making should take place. Ideally, constitutional rights-making should occur simultaneously in multiple remedial, factual, and procedural contexts; in reality, however, rights are undesirably confined to a single context. This situation has negative consequences for the endeavor of constitutional rights-making.

As a case study in rights-making, the Article offers a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Fourth Amendment. It presents an original data set cataloging every instance of Fourth Amendment rights-making in the federal appellate courts from 2005 and 2009. That data set shows …

Sense And Severability, Tobias A. Dorsey

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Anti-Injunction Act, Congressional Inactivity, And Pre-Enforcement Challenges To § 5000a Of The Tax Code, Kevin C. Walsh

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Facial And As-Applied Challenges To The Individual Mandate Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, Edward A. Hartnett

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Forbearance, A. Christopher Bryant

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Doctrine: Five Questions That Will Determine The Aca's Constitutional Fate, Bradley W. Joondeph

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

States' Rights And State Standing, Stephen I. Vladeck

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Problem Of Policing, Rachel A. Harmon

Michigan Law Review

The legal problem of policing is how to regulate police authority to permit officers to enforce law while also protecting individual liberty and minimizing the social costs the police impose. Courts and commentators have largely treated the problem of policing as limited to preventing violations of constitutional rights and its solution as the judicial definition and enforcement of those rights. But constitutional law and courts alone are necessarily inadequate to regulate the police. Constitutional law does not protect important interests below the constitutional threshold or effectively address the distributional impacts of law enforcement activities. Nor can the judiciary adequately assess …

Liberalism And The Constitutional Canon: The 1960s And Its Aftermath, Christopher P. Matera

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Making A Mountain Out Of A Molehill? Marbury And The Construction Of The Constitutional Canon, Amanda Rinderle, Keith E. Whittington

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Canonizing Comparative Constitutionalism: Some Informal Suggestions For Our Schmooze, Sanford Levinson

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Anticanon (And Some Comparative Questions), Jamal Greene

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

The Problem With Constitutional Borrowing: Imitation Is Not Necessarily The Sincerest Form Of Flattery, Gordon Silverstein

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Grootboom At Home And Abroad: Adventures In The Construction Of A Global Constitutional Canon, Heinz Klug

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

The Enforcement Of Socioeconomic Rights And The Global Constitutional Canon, Emily Zackin

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

The Global Constitutional Canon: Some Preliminary Thoughts, Peter E. Quint

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Veils, Politics, And Constitutionalism, Jill Goldenziel

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

A Brief Research On 1936 Soviet Constitution Under Joseph Stalin, Jingyuan Qian

The Macalester Review

The mission of this paper is to examine the Soviet Union's first constitution in 1936. It attempts to analyze how the social and economic conditions presented in USSR, as well as the personality of Joseph Stalin, stimulated the need to make a constitution. It also attempts to evaluate the influence of this constitution in the contemporary Soviet Society. I would like to thank Prof. Weisensel for his kind review and precious suggestions on this research paper.

The End Of "One Hand": The Egyptian Constitutional Declaration And The Rift Between The "People" And The Supreme Council Of The Armed Forces, Kristen A. Stilt

Faculty Working Papers

By some point in the fall of 2011, Egyptians in large numbers no longer viewed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) as the guardian of the revolution and even considered it the revolution's antagonist. "The army and the people are one" was a common slogan in the early days following Mubarak's ouster on February 11, 2011, but the situation had changed dramatically by the landmark date of October 9, when the military used violence against its own citizens, killing approximately twenty-five Christians at a protest outside Maspero, the headquarters of the Egyptian state television. Violence against protestors continued …

Subtraction By Addition?: The Thirteenth And Fourteenth Amendments, Mark A. Graber

Faculty Scholarship

The celebration of the Thirteenth Amendment in many Essays prepared for this Symposium may be premature. That the Thirteenth Amendment arguably protects a different and, perhaps, wider array of rights than the Fourteenth Amendment may be less important than the less controversial claim that the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified after the Thirteenth Amendment. If the Fourteenth Amendment covers similar ground as the Thirteenth Amendment, but protects a narrower set of rights than the Thirteenth Amendment, then the proper inference may be that the Fourteenth Amendment repealed or modified crucial rights originally protected by the Thirteenth Amendment. The broad interpretation of …

United States V. Klein, Then And Now, Gordon G. Young

Faculty Scholarship

United States v. Klein, decided during Reconstruction, was the first Supreme Court case to invalidate a statutory restriction on federal courts’ jurisdiction. It is the only one to do so by finding a violation of Article III of the Constitution. Klein has been cited in thirty-three United States Supreme Court opinions, and roughly five hundred times each by lower federal courts and law journal articles. Recent commentators have read Klein both too broadly and narrowly. Its central holding is that Congress may not grant federal courts jurisdiction to decide a set of cases on the merits while depriving them …

Florida's First Constitution, M C. Mirow

Faculty Books

The central square of St. Augustine, Florida, the Plaza de la Constitución, is not named for the United States Constitution. Instead, its name comes from Florida’s first constitution, the Spanish Constitution of Cádiz of 1812. Daily political life in Florida’s Spanish colonial cities was governed by this document, and cities like St. Augustine ordered their activities around the requirements, rights, and duties expressed in this constitution. The Constitution of Cádiz was the first truly transatlantic constitution because it applied to the entire Spanish empire, of which St. Augustine and Pensacola were just a part. It was drafted by representatives from …

Categories, Tiers Of Review, And The Roiling Sea Of Free Speech Doctrine And Principle: A Methodological Critique Of United States V. Alvarez, Rodney A. Smolla

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Constitutional Forbearance, A. Christopher Bryant

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This essay begins by developing the concept of constitutional forbearance and exploring the role it plays in the craft of good judging. This first Part also illustrates what is meant by constitutional forbearance by recovering a forgotten but illustrative example from a century ago. Part II then argues that the need for forbearance has at present become unusually acute. Finally, in Part III this essay identifies some of the qualities of the Obama care cases that make them such singular opportunities for the exercise of this much needed judicial virtue and answers some anticipated objections to thinking about the cases …

Judicial Engagement, Written Constitutions, And The Value Of Preservation: The Case Of Individual Rights, Elizabeth Price Foley

Faculty Publications

When judges alter a written constitution because its original meaning is no longer convenient, useful or modern, they engage in judicial activism. They are actively seeking to modify the written social compact to suit their own, or their perception of society’s, current preferences. Judicial activism is a usurpation of the proper judicial role, and it undermines the proper role of We the People. Only the People may amend the written constitution when a sufficiently large number (i.e., a supermajority) believes strongly enough that a formal, written modification of the social charter is necessary. Judicial engagement refers to the need for …

Foia And The First Amendment: Representative Democracy And The People's Elusive "Right To Know", Barry Sullivan

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constructing The Other: U.S. Muslims, Anti-Sharia Law, And The Constitutional Consequences Of Volatile Intercultural Rhetoric, Carlo A. Pedrioli

Faculty Scholarship

Recently, legislators have proposed, discussed, and passed various laws that aimed to limit the use of foreign law, international law, and Sharia (a branch of Islamic law) in state court systems. Because it became law, one proposed state constitutional amendment that rhetorically linked Sharia to foreign and international law is of particular note. In the 2010 midterm elections, Oklahoma passed State Question 755 (SQ 755), a constitutional amendment that aimed to place restrictions on the use of foreign law, international law, and Sharia in Oklahoma courts. Laws like Oklahoma’s State Question 755 are problematic for a variety of reasons. One …

The Future Interpretation Of The Constitution As A Result Of The Re-Election Of President Barack Obama, Wilson Huhn

Akron Law Faculty Publications

On November 6, 2012, Barack Obama was reelected President of the United States. What effect will this have on the future interpretation of the Constitution? This article identifies 19 areas of constitutional law that would likely change if one more liberal justice is appointed to the Supreme Court.