Constitutional Law Commons^™

Disagreement And Interpretation, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

How To Do Things With The First Amendment, Pierre Schlag

Publications

No abstract provided.

Lee V. Weisman: Whither The Establishment Clause And The Lemon V. Kurtzman Three Pronged Test?, Thomas A. Schweitzer

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Lemon Lives, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article responds to an article by Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, entitled "Lemon Is Dead," in which Paulsen interprets the Supreme Court's decision in Lee v. Weisman to repudiate the Establishment Clause test of Lemon v. Kurtzman and to replace it with a test that limits the Clause to cases involving direct or indirect coercion. The article disputes Paulsen's interpretation of Weisman, and it also disputes his normative argument in support of the coercion approach. It contends that Lemon survives Weisman, and that Lemon's multi-faceted and context-specific approach, however vague, is preferable to a test that focuses exclusively on the …

Did The Slaves Author The Thirteenth Amendment? An Essay In Redemptive History, Guyora Binder

Journal Articles

American constitutional interpretation is deeply traditionalist, and privileges original intent. The difficulty with thus authorizing the past in interpreting the Thirteenth Amendment is that it purports to abolish custom and tradition as unjust. This essay argues that, given the Amendment’s denunciation of the polity that enacted it as illegitimate, its questionable formal pedigree, and the agency of the slaves in precipitating, defining, and resolving the crisis that enabled it, the slaves have a moral claim to status as its authors. It follows that the original intent guiding interpretation should be that of the slaves themselves.

Silence And The Word, Paul Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

Advocacy And Scholarship, Paul F. Campos

Publications

The apex of American legal thought is embodied in two types of writings: the federal appellate opinion and the law review article. In this Article, the author criticizes the whole enterprise of doctrinal constitutional law scholarship, using a recent U.S. Supreme Court case and a Harvard Law Review article as quintessential examples of the dominant genre. In a rhetorical tour de force, the author argues that most of modern constitutional scholarship is really advocacy in the guise of scholarship. Such an approach to legal scholarship may have some merit as a strategic move towards a political end; however, it has …

Girls Should Bring Lawsuits Everywhere . . . Nothing Will Be Corrupted: Pornography As Speech And Product, Marianne Wesson

Publications

No abstract provided.

Defendants' Brief In The School Finance Case: Mcduffy V. Robertson: An Excerpt And A Summary, Douglas H. Wilkins, Robert H. Blumenthal, Mary Connaughton

Faculty Scholarship

The wisdom of promoting public education in the Commonwealth was recognized by the earliest settlers, the framers of the Constitution, and many subsequent legislatures, officials, educators and citizens. The opinions of the Department, the Secretary of Education, the Governor and various educators, contained in the stipulation, demonstrate that a policy of supporting public education is as important today as ever.²

The implementation of this policy goal by the Legislature and municipalities involves choices that are at the heart of representative government: how much public money to raise, how best to allocate the money among education and the many other …

The Difficulty Of Amending The Constitution Of Canada, Peter W. Hogg

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The Charlottetown Accord of 1992 was a set of proposals for amendments to the Constitution of Canada. These proposals were designed to achieve a national settlement of a variety of constitutional grievances, chiefly those arising from Quebec nationalism, western regionalism, and Aboriginal deprivation. The Accord was defeated in a national referendum. In the case of Quebec, the defeat of the Charlottetown Accord, following as it did on the defeat of the Meech Lake Accord, has made the option of secession relatively more attractive, but there are sound pragmatic reasons to hope that Quebec will not make that choice. In the …

Does Canada Need A Social Charter?, Matthew Certosimo

Dalhousie Law Journal

Over the decade since the birth of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, expectations that it would impact greatly on the lives of Canadians have gone largely unfulfilled for those regarded as being the most in need of its protection. A recent decision of the Nova Scotia County Court has reminded critics that the narrow interpretation given the Charter'se quality2 and security oftheperson3 provisions, particularly with regard to social and economic rights, excludes from its purview the well-being of Canadians in economic need.

Canadian Constitutional Law And Madame Justice Bertha Wilson - Patriot, Visionary And Heretic, James Macpherson

Dalhousie Law Journal

In the remainder of this paper I will consider Justice Wilson's contribution to Canadian constitutional law. The paper has three parts. Each has a different theme, although the themes overlap in places. I have given these themes labels, each reflecting, I believe, a significant feature of Justice Wilson's constitutional thinking and writing. The labels are Justice Wilson as - Patriot, Visionary and Heretic. In the next three parts of this paper I will deal with each of these themes, with reference principally to her decisions in Charter cases but also with occasional references to her decisions in other categories of …

Quasi-Constitutional Law: Clear Statement Rules As Constitu, William N. Eskridge, Jr., Philip P. Frickey

Vanderbilt Law Review

In one of the most celebrated law review articles of all time, Karl Llewellyn argued that the traditional canons of statutory construction are not reliable guides to predicting judicial interpretations, because for every canon supporting one interpretation there is a counter-canon cutting against that interpretation. He accomplished his tour de force in large part by focusing upon the "referential" canons-rules referring the Court to an outside or preexisting source to determine statutory meaning'-and upon the "linguistic" canons-general conventions of language, grammar, and syntax. Llewellyn did not explore in any detail the "substantive" canons, the clear statement rules or presumptions of …

Abrams V. United States: Remembering The Authors Of Both Opinions, James F. Fagan Jr.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Capital Punishment And Equal Protection: Constitutional Problems, Race And The Death Penalty, Stan Robin Gregory

St. Thomas Law Review

This comment will (i) demonstrate that black defendants as well as black victims in death penalty cases, are not equally protected under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution and (ii) propose a solution to provide blacks equal protection, as contemplated by the framers of the United States Constitution, when they face execution. This comment is not intended to present the argument that a death row inmate should share the same equal protection with that of law abiding citizens. Rather, this comment stands for the proposition that as a group, all death row inmates should be equally protected regardless of race.

The Fourteenth Amendment: Original Intent And Modern Possibility, Donald E. Lively

St. Thomas Law Review

This essay is derived in part from the author's book THE CONSTITUTION AND RACE (1992). Copyright 1992 by Donald E. Lively.

Back To The Future: Original Intent As A Means For Vitalizing The Fourteenth Amendment In The Context Of Race, Raneta J. Lawson

St. Thomas Law Review

Donald E. Lively's book The Constitution and Race exposes in a methodological way the historical origin of the conflict between symbolism and substance in the context of race. Lively chronicles two centuries of constitutional jurisprudence pertaining to race from the initial deferral of race-based issues at the nation's founding to the modem day catering to majoritarian interests that continues to subordinate racial concerns. Throughout this jurisprudential retrospective, Lively demonstrates how race-based considerations have permeated nearly every aspect of society and yet such considerations remain significantly unattended because of national policies that ultimately indulge competing priorities. Lively argues that a recognition …

Realigning Maternal/Fetal Interests In The Battle Against Substance Abuse, Jeanette Lewis

St. Thomas Law Review

America's "War on Drugs" has given rise to political and legal debate concerning the critical health problems presented by maternal drug abuse during pregnancy. The "War," largely characterized by criminal sanctions as opposed to preventative measures, indicates the social attitude and legal response to this crisis. Researchers estimate that 375,000 newborns may be harmed by maternal substance abuse in the United States each year. Furthermore, one in every ten babies born in urban areas has been exposed to cocaine in the womb. Given the epidemic proportions of America's drug problem and its agenda against drug use, it is surprising that …

Transcending Conventional Supremacy: A Reconstruction Of The Supremacy Clause, S. Candice Hoke

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Perhaps because the predominant strands of contemporary Supremacy Clause jurisprudence originate in two of the most venerable cases in the Court's history, the Court and academics alike have sidestepped some of their problematic pronouncements. In Part I, this Article questions the legacy of McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden, finding their Supremacy Clause principles unacceptably nationalistic and hence unfaithful to the balance of the Constitution. While their centralizing tendencies may have been understandable during the nation's infancy, their raison d'être has evaporated; the pendulum of state versus national regulatory power on matters other than individual liberties has swung too …

American Constitutional Conventions: The Judicially Unenforceable Rules That Combine With Judicial Doctrine And Public Opinion To Regulate Political Behavior, James G. Wilson

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The concept of nonjusticiability, reflected primarily through the “political question” and the “standing” doctrines, fails to give the Supreme Court (and the rest of us) adequate guidance on how to resolve many constitutional disputes, such as impeachment procedures and standards, congressional expulsions, the scope of federal court jurisdiction, and the use of force abroad. These two doctrines put the Supreme Court on the horns of a false dichotomy. The Court tends to withdraw completely from an issue and from enforcing a textual passage, such as the Republican Guarantee Clause, whenever it makes a determination of nonjusticiability. Conversely, once the Court …

Liberals And Balancing, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Against Constitutional Theory, Paul Campos

Publications

No abstract provided.

Unfocused Governmental Interests, Robert F. Nagel

Publications

No abstract provided.

Is There A Natural Law Right To Privacy?, Ralph F. Gaebler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Does The United States Need An Establishment Clause?: God Loveth Adverbs, Daniel O. Conkle

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Scepticism, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Interpretive constitutional debate over the last few decades has centered on two apparently linked questions: whether the Constitution can be given a determinate meaning, and whether the institution of judicial review can be justified within the basic assumptions of liberalism. Two groups of scholars have generated answers to these questions. The "constitutional faithful" argue that meaning can indeed be determinately affixed to constitutional clauses, by reference to the plain meaning of the document, the original intent of the drafters, evolving political and moral norms of the community, or the best political or moral philosophical theory available and that, because of …

Lost Innocence And The Moral Foundation Of Law, Kate Nace Day

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Hungarian Legal Reform For The Private Sector, Cheryl W. Gray, Rebecca J. Hanson, Michael A. Heller

Faculty Scholarship

Hungary is in the midst of a fundamental transformation toward a market economy. Although Hungary has long been in the forefront of efforts to reform socialism itself, after 1989 the goals of reform moved from market socialism toward capitalism, as the old Communist regime lost power and the idea of widespread private ownership gained acceptance. The legal framework – the "rules of the game – is now being geared toward encouraging, protecting, and rewarding entrepreneurs in the private sector.

This Article describes the evolving legal framework in Hungary in several areas: constitutional, real property, intellectual property, company, foreign investment, contract, …

Equity And Hierarchy: Reflections On The Harris Execution, Steven G. Calabresi, Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

The legal controversy surrounding the execution of Robert Alton Harris is only one in a series of cases over the past few months testing the proper relationship between the Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts. Controversy over inferior federal court grants or denials of injunctions concerning Haitian refugees1 and the French abortion pill2 have starkly raised, as does the Harris case3, profound questions concerning Supreme Court review of inferior court rulings on issues involving equitable relief. The Harris case did not display the American legal system at its finest. None of the participants in the process distinguished themselves-not the …

Operation Rescue: Was The Justice Dept. Right To Intervene In Wichita?, Gary S. Lawson, Celeste Lacy Davis, Eve W. Paul

Faculty Scholarship

Discussion of Operation Rescue attempt to shut down abortion clinic in Wichita, KS in August 1991, and ensuing decision of U.S. District Judge Patrick Kelly, as well as intervention of Justice Department. A debate-style article with "pro" side written by Gary Lawson and "con" side written by C.L. Davis & E.W. Paul.