Constitutional Law Commons^™

Today's Porn: Not A Constitutional Right; Not A Human Right, Patrick Trueman

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Examining Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission V. School District Of Philadelphia: Considering How The Supreme Court’S Waning Support Of School Desegregation Affected Desegregation Efforts Based On State Law, Steven L. Nelson, Alison C. Tyler

Seattle University Law Review

This study examines the enforcement of desegregation orders mandated under state law as a result of the Supreme Court’s handling of school desegregation cases at the federal level. The Article tracks the development of school desegregation cases starting shortly before Brown v. Board of Education and continues through the recent voluntary school desegregation case, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. The Article establishes four distinct generations of school desegregation cases at the federal level and determines that the political tides created, in large part, by the U.S. Supreme Court’s handling of federal school desegregation cases …

June 15, 2017: But If Trump Is Hitler And The Republicans Are The Nazi Party, Why Not Open Fire?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “But if Trump is Hitler and the Republicans Are the Nazi Party, Why Not Open Fire?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 12, 2017: Donald Trump Got Elected, Remember?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Donald Trump Got Elected, Remember?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

June 1, 2017: Exiting The Paris Accord, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Female Autonomy: An Analysis Of Privacy And Equality Doctrine For Reproductive Rights, Elizabeth Levi

Political Science Honors Projects

What is the constitutional basis for women’s equality? Recently, scholars have suggested that as the right to privacy has floundered against the political undoing of women's access to abortion, equal protection arguments have grown stronger. This thesis investigates the feminist utility and limits of the equality and privacy arguments. Taking liberal feminism and feminist legal theory as analytical lenses, I offer interpretations of gender discrimination, reproductive rights, and marriage equality case law. By this framework, I argue that while an equality argument is less inherently oppressive towards women than the privacy doctrine, equality doctrine has been constructed thus far to …

April 24, 2017: What Is At Stake In The Hypocrisy Of Originalism?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What is at Stake in the Hypocrisy of Originalism?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

April 14, 2017: The Judicial-Industrial Complex, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Judicial-Industrial Complex“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

April 2, 2017: Friday Op-Ed In The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Concerning Judge Gorsuch And Interpretation, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Friday Op-ed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Concerning Judge Gorsuch and Interpretation“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

A First Amendment Deference Approach For Reforming Anti-Bullying Laws, Emily Suski

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the anti-bullying laws and their response to the problem of bullying in light of both the nature of the problem itself, the interventions the laws call for, and the laws’ First Amendment implications. Bullying has many varied, negative consequences, some tragic, and is widespread. Yet, the anti-bullying laws disproportionately focus schools’ responses to bullying on school exclusion, meaning suspending, expelling or otherwise excluding students who bully from school. This is so even though social science literature has found school exclusion ineffective and sometimes counterproductive as a method for addressing bullying. What is more, because much of bullying …

Withholding Judgment: In Reading The Constitution, Judges Should Consider Their Own Morals,, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

Preventing An Air Panopticon: A Proposal For Reasonable Legal Restrictions On Aerial Surveillance, Jake Laperruque

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legislative Exhaustion, Michael Sant’Ambrogio

William & Mary Law Review

Legislative lawsuits are a recurring by-product of divided government. Yet the Supreme Court has never definitively resolved whether Congress may sue the executive branch over its execution of the law. Some scholars argue that Congress should be able to establish Article III standing when its interests are harmed by executive action or inaction just like private parties. Others, including most prominently the late Justice Antonin Scalia, argue that intergovernmental disputes do not constitute Article III “cases” or “controversies” at all. Rather, the Framers envisioned the political branches resolving their differences through nonjudicial means.

This Article proposes a different approach to …

February 26, 2017: What’S The Worst Thing President Trump Is Doing?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What’s the Worst Thing President Trump is Doing?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

February 18, 2017: What The Rule Of Law Looks Like, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “What the Rule of Law Looks Like“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

February 1, 2017: First They Banned The Muslims, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “First They Banned the Muslims“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Protean Statutory Interpretation In The Courts Of Appeals, James J. Brudney, Lawrence Baum

William & Mary Law Review

This Article is the first in-depth empirical and doctrinal analysis of differences in statutory interpretation between the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. It is also among the first to anticipate how the Supreme Court’s interpretive approach may shift with the passing of Justice Scalia.

We begin by identifying factors that may contribute to interpretive divergence between the two judicial levels, based on their different institutional structures and operational realities. In doing so, we discuss normative implications that may follow from the prospect of such interpretive divergence. We then examine how three circuit courts have used dictionaries and legislative …

January 20, 2017: Welcome, President Trump, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

January 10, 2017: The Public Trust Litigation, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Public Trust Litigation“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 5, 2017: Why Law Matters, The Presidential Transition, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Why Law Matters, the presidential transition“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

January 4, 2017: Is Secularism A Nonnegotiable Aspect Of Liberal Constitutionalism?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Is Secularism A Nonnegotiable Aspect of Liberal Constitutionalism?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Moguls And The Media 1-2-2017, David A. Logan, Roger Williams University

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Has Nihilism Politicized The Supreme Court Nomination Process?, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

The Role Of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools In The Renewal Of American Democracy, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

Is Religion A Non-Negotiable Aspect Of Liberal Constitutionalism?, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

The Strange Life Of Stanley V. Illinois: A Case Study In Parent Representation And Law Reform, Josh Gupta-Kagan

Faculty Publications

This Article helps describe the growth of parent representation through an analysis of Stanley v. Illinois—the foundational Supreme Court case that established parental fitness as the constitutional lynchpin of any child protection case. The Article begins with Stanley’s trial court litigation, which illustrates the importance of vigorous parental representation and an effort by the court to prevent Stanley from obtaining an attorney. It proceeds to analyze how family courts applied it (or not) in the years following the Supreme Court’s decision and what factors have led to a recent resurgence of Stanley’s fitness focus.

Despite Stanley’s requirement that states prove …

They Were Here First: American Indian Tribes, Race, And The Constitutional Minimum, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

In American law, Native nations (denominated in the Constitution and elsewhere as “tribes”) are sovereigns with a direct relationship with the federal government. Tribes’ governmental status situates them differently from other minority groups for many legal purposes, including equal protection analysis. Under current equal protection doctrine, classifications that further the federal government’s unique relationship with tribes and their members are subject to rationality review. Yet this deferential approach has recently been subject to criticism and is currently being challenged in the courts. Swept up in the larger drift toward colorblind or race-neutral understandings of the Constitution, advocates and commentators are …

December 20, 2016: Faithless Calls For Faithless Electors, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Faithless Calls for Faithless Electors“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

December 4, 2016: The Supreme Court And Politics, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Supreme Court and Politics“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

November 19, 2016: The Hypocrisy Of The Congressional Republican Party, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Hypocrisy of the Congressional Republican Party“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.