Constitutional Law Commons^™

July 20, 2008: More On The Interfaith Meeting In Spain, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, "More on the Interfaith Meeting in Spain" discusses politics, theology and the aw in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

July 15, 2008: Meeting Of Our Religions In Spain, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Meeting of Our Religions in Spain “ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

July 17, 2008: Hegel And The Wall Of Separation, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

July 6, 2008: For The Establishment Of Religion: Where Are We Now?, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “For the Establishment of Religion: Where Are We Now?“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

May 21, 2008: For The Establishment Of Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

May 8, 2008: Church-State Talk To Pittsburgh Aclu, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Church-State Talk to Pittsburgh ACLU“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

May 2, 2008: The Hatred Of Islam, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

The Hatred of Islam

The Failure Of Bowles V. Russell, Scott Dodson

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court recently decided Bowles v. Russell—perhaps that Term’s most underrated case—which characterized the time to file a civil notice of appeal as jurisdictional and therefore not subject to equitable excuses for noncompliance. In so holding, the Court overstated the supporting precedent, inflated the jurisdictional importance of statutes, and undermined an important recent movement to clarify when a rule is jurisdictional and when it is not. This did not have to be. The Court missed a golden opportunity to chart a middle course—holding the rule mandatory but nonjurisdictional—that would have been more consistent with precedent while resolving the …

February 14, 2008: New Thinking About Religion, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

New Thinking about Religion

Defending The Rule Of Law, Catherine Crier

St. Thomas Law Review

This speech was presented on March 15, 2008, at the National Conference of Law Reviews in Miami, Florida.

The Problem Of Religious Learning, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

The problem of religious learning is that religion—including the teaching about religion—must be separated from liberal public education, but that the two cannot be entirely separated if the aims of liberal public education are to be realized. It is a problem that has gone largely unexamined by courts, constitutional scholars, and other legal theorists. Though the U.S. Supreme Court has offered a few terse statements about the permissibility of teaching about religion in its Establishment Clause jurisprudence, and scholars frequently urge policies for or against such controversial subjects as Intelligent Design or graduation prayers, insufficient attention has been paid to …

"They Say I Am Not An American…": The Noncitizen National And The Law Of American Empire, Christina Duffy Ponsa-Kraus

Faculty Scholarship

The American papers sometimes contain tales about persons who have forgotten who they are, what are their names, and where they live. The Porto [sic] Ricans find themselves in the same predicament as those absent-minded people. To what nationality do they belong? What is the character of their citizenship? ... [l]f since they ceased to be Spanish citizens they have not been Americans [sic] citizens, what in the name ·of heaven have they been?

July 12, 2008: Secular Israeli Democracy, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

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

Democrats Get Religion – Just In Time, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Why Care About The Polar Bear?: Economic Analysis Of Natural Resources Law And Policy [Outline], Lisa Heinzerling

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

1 page.

"Lisa Heinzerling, Georgetown Law School" -- Agenda

The Wall Falls, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Looking Off The Ball: Constitutional Law And American Politics, Mark A. Graber

Faculty Scholarship

“Looking Off the Ball” details how and why constitutional law influences both judicial and public decision making. Treating justices as free to express their partisan commitments may seem to explain Bush v. Gore*, but not the judicial failure to intervene in the other numerous presidential elections in which the candidate favored by most members of the Supreme Court lost. Constitutional norms and standards generate legal agreements among persons who dispute the underlying merits of particular policies under constitutional attack. The norms and standards explain constitutional criticism, why only a small proportion of the political questions that occupy Americans are normally …

Introduction, Arthur S. Leonard

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Twentieth Century Approaches To Defining Religion: Clifford Geertz And The First Amendment, Barbara Barnett

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

The "Federalism Five" As Supreme Court Nominees, 1971-1991, John Q. Barrett

Faculty Publications

This article looks back at the Senate confirmation hearing testimonies of five Supreme Court nominees. Following their appointments to the Court, these justices—Chief Justice Rehnquist and Associate Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas—generally voted together in path-breaking federalism cases. They reinvigorated constitutional law limits or decreed new ones on national legislative power, supported the "sovereignty" of state governments, and thus came to be known in some circles as the Rehnquist Court's "Federalism Five." As nominees testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, these "federalism" justices did not announce, or for the most part even much hint at, what came to …

Towards A Madisonian, Interest-Group-Based, Approach To Lobbying Regulation, Anita S. Krishnakumar

Faculty Publications

Recent lobbying scandals involving Jack Abramoff and Representative Tom DeLay have created a much-needed impetus for legislative reform of the lobbying process. But the question cries out: Will Congress actually enact any of the multitude of reform proposals currently on the table, and if it does, will any of those reforms make a difference in how the lobbying process operates? History suggests that the answer is "no."

This Article examines the reasons for Congress's persistent failure to enact effective lobbying reform and posits that the primary cause is an underlying disjunct between legislators' and the public's views about the value …

Judging International Judgments, Mark L. Movsesian

Faculty Publications

What effect should rulings of international courts have in domestic courts? In the U.S., debate has centered on a series of rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the application of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). The VCCR, a multilateral treaty that the United States ratified in 1969, grants foreign nationals the right to seek the assistance of their consulates in the event that local authorities arrest them. An Optional Protocol to the VCCR gives the ICJ jurisdiction over disputes relating to the interpretation and application of the treaty. Since the late 1990s, the ICJ repeatedly …

Democracy Means That The People Make The Law, Gerald Torres

New England Journal of Public Policy

Gerald Torres delivered the Robert C. Wood lecture at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston in 2006. This is his talk.

For A New Order In The Court, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Keep These Branches Untangled, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

Protecting Posterity: Economics, Abortion, Politics, And The Law, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

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

What Is Johnny Doing In The Library - Libraries, The U.S.A. Patriot Act, And Its Amendments, Karl T. Gruben

St. Thomas Law Review

A cornerstone of democracy in the United States is the freedom to think whatever we wish to think. Actions, of course, are a different matter, but any thought that can be thought is just fine: under the First Amendment we may not be prosecuted for what we are thinking. The First Amendment guarantees several other freedoms, among them the freedoms of speech and association. To enjoy the freedom of thought to which we are constitutionally entitled we must be able freely to explore the world of ideas to cultivate thoughts and other, possibly new, ideas. Reading and communicating with others …

Recoiling From Religion, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

This is an essay reviewing Professor Marci A. Hamilton's book, GOD VS. THE GAVEL: RELIGION AND THE RULE OF LAW (Cambridge Univ. Press 2005).

Professor Marci Hamilton has written a forceful and obviously heartfelt book that should give pause to committed champions of religious free exercise. She argues convincingly that religious freedom is too often invoked to shield opprobrious and socially harmful activity, and she describes numerous examples of such abuses that make any civilized person's blood run cold. Her avowed aims are to debunk the “hazardous myth” that religion is “inherently and always good for society” and to increase …

The New Religious Prisons And Their Retributivist Commitments, Marc O. Degirolami

Faculty Publications

The rise of the religious, or "faith-based," prison at the turn of the twenty-first century bears witness to the remarkable resilience of religion in shaping the philosophy of punishment. In the last decade, prisons that incorporate religion in various ways have sprouted around the country and there are some indications, though preliminary, inconclusive, and hotly contested, that inmates who participate in religious instruction and “programming” recidivate at lower rates than those who do not. The early success of these programs (and, some say, the preferential treatment accorded to participants in them) has resulted in high demand and long waiting lists. …

Coercion And Choice Under The Establishment Clause, Cynthia V. Ward

Faculty Publications

In recent Establishment Clause cases the Supreme Court has found nondenominational, state-sponsored prayers unconstitutionally "coercive" -although attendance at the events featuring the prayer was not required by the state; religious dissenters were free to choose not to say the challenged prayers; and dissenters who so chose, or who chose not to attend the events, suffered no state-enforced sanction. Part I of this Article lays out the historical background that gave rise to the coercion test, traces the development of that test in the Court's case law, and isolates the core elements in the vision of coercion that animates the test. …